Do cowl hoods offer any REAL performace gains? I have a cowl hood, but I use it for the look. Has anyone swapped a stock hood for a cowl hood and noticed any gains, like say 1/4 mile times? Russ
2 things, the best air is at the windshield, then the weight savings from steel to glass, has to be good for something. Dan
As for weight savings, the steel Grabber hood is lighter than a fiberglass hood. Of course it doesn't have the benefit of cowel induction. The steel Grabber hood is also lighter than the standard Maverick hood. I know that has nothing to do with the original question but thought I'd mention it anyway...
I read in a magazine about this....forget what magazine it was and how much it helped......but it did show a e.t. improvement.......of course the hood company sponsors the magazine.... Now IMO, this is another argument.....front opening scoops verses cowl hoods......I am not sure which is better and I am sure, like everything else, what works for one person might not work for another.....but all I know is what Billy Glidden (my idol ) runs on his cars
1 more thing that I do remember....the performance gains were minimal....we are talking .000's of a second, from what I can remember, and I am not a big believer on those types of gains, when tested, do to the fact of the huge amounts a variables envolved...changing temps, barometric pressure, track conditions, driver error and what not.....if you want to sell me a performance product...its gonna have to do more than get me a couple thousandths.
Fiberglass hoods are heavier than Grabber hoods? :confused: .... I guess it depends on which glass hood you get. I can't imagine a stock Grabber hood being lighter than the glass hood I have (Harwood lift-off). Unless you're talking about the double-skin, hinged type fiberglass hoods, maybe?
hum.. i would agree with that one too. no way in heck does my stock hood weight more then my fiber glass one (from us bodys) never the less the carbon one. now being a weak 140 lbs that i am.. i can barley lift the stock hood but i can lift the fiberglass one no problem. now i know you said the grabber hood was lighter. so what makes the grabber hood lighter then a regular one? i never owned one but the only thing i can see it that its got holes cut out in the hood other wise aint it the same hood? is it the framing or something. even then i can't see the grabber one weight less then a fiberglass one. i'd like to know the lbs differance on the stock vs grabber. if anyone wants to know what the fiberglass one vs the stock maverick hood weights i'd be more then happy to weight one cuz i have both of them off the car now. and i got a scale to weight it on.
my memory is jugging around....and being on 3rd...have a lot of thunking time. Seem to remember Ivy Collins (I think) saying he switched to the cowl hood and picked up some performance.....might not have been Ivy and it might not have been on this MMB, but I remember something.
Yea, Id like to see some actual numbers myself. Both hoods would have to be stripped to bare metal to be fair.
I have a functional comet GT hood (dont know if they were all functional) but I would think that a front air hood vs a cowl that the front entrance would be better. Just my opinion. And I dont think there's a steel hood out there that weights less than mine. lol It has NO bracing, cut for the GT hood scoop, and hood pins in it. I can pick it up almost with one finger.. 2 bad its been bent
Probably the biggest advantage is it lets air out from under the hood. All the air that comes through the radiator, radiator support, and from under the car makes the engine compartment act like a parachute. That's why the old super stock racers used to shim the rear of their hoods open about an inch. The air flow helps overall engine cooling, too, not just the intake charge.
