I have a 1968 firebird 400 with original 400 hood but the hood scoops are non functional why are there hood scoops on the hood if they serve no purpose?
Widely applied idea across many brands and vehicles. They are functional on the actual Ram Air models though.
Last edited by Sleddog; 04/14/1606:27 PM.
Cant wait for summer... 68HO4004spvert Sleddog Iowa
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Yep, purely for show and not go. This is one area where Chevy had a better design. Chevy took advantage of the high pressure area at the base of the windshield in the form of cowl-induction. This is why the 2nd gen had the scoop facing the windshield. The RA hoods don't provide that much more boost due to the location of the scoops. And, this why the scoops on 69 T/A are near the leading edge of the hood where there's another high pressure area.
My experience is that the "base of the windshield" thing is a fairytale. I had mounted a scoop with the opening at the back of the hood. Also had the ram air setup sealed to the bottom side of the hood and the air cleaner sticking thru so that I was only drawing air from the outside. After I got it all together and took it out for a ride I notice a hair had gotten stuck to the paint and was hanging down into the opening. I was able to watch to see if it was sucking air in the scoop or not. I swear that hair barely moved at all. I'm not saying it's not a lower pressure area than somewhere else but I'm saying it doesn't make any difference. Only good part was I was getting cooler air from outside instead of hot under hood air. You want forced air, get it some other way.
How fast were you going and how big was the scoop? The car has to be going a high rate of speed to create the high-pressure area. And, if the cfm of the scoop is much larger than the max cfm of the carb, you wouldn't see much movement. This is why many modern cars have the intake up front behind the headlights or leading edge of the hood.
On the flip-side warm air provides better atomization and better gas mileage, if that's your goal...
