I have seen many modded grabber hoods... Not one ever looked good to me. Not that I care about the hoods, they just look too cobbled up. "Busy" was a good word someone posted. You could always order up a fiberglass grabber hood and go for it... It's your car. I have never seen a teardrop between the scoops of a grabber hood. You can order a fiberglass hood from the factory with any scoop they carry pre-installed. They usually charge the price of the hood, scoop, and about 100 for combining them. Dave
just cowl induct it.....nice and clean and functional and then high angle of the windshield is great for a cowl induction hood. im getting the 2-3 inch cowl hood as soon as i start on the painting process
Same subject-different question- anybody ever drilled out the fake grills on the scoops and made them functional? Not cut- just drilled out between the lines to look like real expanded metal?
The performance gain you would get from making the grabber hood scoops functional is somewhere between non-existant and really really really small. I know that may upset some people, but it really is the truth. It's just simple fluid mechanics, there is very little airflow near the surface of the hood due to all the friction from the air flowing over the sheet metal. This is why you really only see the super large scoops that are raised up 6-12" off the surface of the hood on serious drag cars. If you want a performance gain, run some smooth, large diameter, straight as possible ducting up to the front of the car somewhere between the valance and the bottom of the hood lip. The optimum place to put these vents would be at a place called the stagnation point. The stagnation point differs from car to car and you would have to put a mav in a wind tunnel to figure out exactly where it is. But it's definitely in the region I described, and any point in that area is 10 times better than using the stock grabber scoops. This isn't always easy though because of space constraints, extra equipment like A/C stuff, etc.
I agree with mavman on this. The ones on my blue car are drilled but it's only because they were drilled by a previous owner. The only thing I think it acomplishes is getting my engine wet if it happens to rain on it, which it seldom sees now but it does happen.
I agree with the Pontiac comparison. They are a bit too ornamental. Stick the Grabber hood in the corner and modify a stock hood if you want to be different. I can't imagine it ever looking better than it does stock. Seth
I am just playing 'devil's advocate' here... What about the 71-73 Mach 1 hood? Those scoops are low profile, designed by NASA, (NACA back then) they are supposed to be super effecient in taking in cool air. The Grabber scoops, while not exactly the same, are very close in design. Just a thought. Dave
Any location close to the surface of the hood is not very effective. The one exception is the high pressure area on the base of the windshield, which is where the inlets are located on cowl induction. Cowl induction is much more effective than any scoops on the surface of the hood. The optimum place for air intake would be the stagnation point on the front of the car as I said in my other post. The moral of the story is that any scoops more or less level with the surface of the hood are stricly for looks and provide hardly an increase in performance at all. Additionally, the scoops on the grabber hood are so small that you wouldn't realize much performance gain even if they were in an optimal place. To picture what I'm talking about, think of a river. Right by the shore, the water isn't moving very fast. The water is hitting the shore, rocks, weeds, etc. and all of that is slowing it down. As you get out towards the center of the river where there are fewer obstructions, the water starts moving faster and faster. Basically, think of the surface of the hood as pretty much the water right next to the shore on a river. Air flow in that region is pretty much minimal from all the friction as the air moves over the hood.
A cruel moment in life for me was when I was 17. Took the scoops out of my 72 grabber and expected noticable performance gain I was really bummed. Dan
