Hood scoop install, brief how-to

[Marlin]

Here is a quick how to for a FUNCTIONAL hood scoop. I bought a pseudo carbon fiber scoop at Pepboys for about 40 dollars. I got an airsaw from Harbor Freight for 17 dollars. A roll of door edge trim, 9 dollars and thats all you need to get beyond what most already have in their garage.

Step one, remove insert, its thin fiberglass so easy to cut. Mark the outline for the scoop with a sharpie marker, don't worry it will come off with degrease/409. Drill out a center hole with a 3/8 bit or so. Then drill several holes around the perimeter of the outline so the fiberglass can be cut in small pieces.

[Marlin]

The hole doesn't have to be perfect, no one will ever see it.
Next, clean the top of the insert with a alcohol to ensure the adhesive has a good surface to stick to. Make sure you have your alignment good, you only get one chance.Next, set the insert back on the hood, and using the mounting studs as a reference, trace out the outline for the cut in the hood itself. Make sure you put something under the hood when cutting, metal shaving anywhere are bad, they will rust and get into everything. I used a magnet with a paper towel to pick up most of them and then flushed the rest. Do not push on the shavings, they will scratch your hood. Use the same procedure for cutting the hood, drill some holes and go to town with the airsaw, it took less than 5 minutes to cut out, that saw was no joke.

[Marlin]

make sure you have primer ready after you are done cutting to primer the newly exposed metal. I used rustoleum. I realize my hole is not perfect, I didn't really care, my scoop is functional to help keep the engine bay cooler. I then took some weather strip adhesive in yellow and glued door edge guard to the newly exposed surface to protect it and me. Those edges were sharp. I threw away the hood baffle, my Vx is loud anyway, so I don't care about sound deadening anything. It came out great, about 1 hour or so, less than a hundred bucks. I would put myself at a medium skill level. The rocksliders install was way harder and labor intensive compared to this project.

[kodiak]

Looks great! I was toying with the idea of doing a heat bleeding vent similar to the ones used on the Australian rally VXs. I’m trying to keep a pre runner theme going with my mods.

P.S. I really like the sliders.

[Marlin]

Thanks, I still need to cut the fronts off the sliders, they rub the tires a bit sometimes. They fit so good, but only to factory standards, so if you have to do cutting/hammering to fit bigger tires, you will have mod the sliders as well. A good job for the cutoff wheel and grinder.

Still thinkin about the stripes, I just gotta find something unique, maybe a smaller pair of red stripes?

[pbkid]

hmm...i dig the scoop...

maybe ill look into getting ahold of a 4 runner hood and seeing what happens...

[tomdietrying]

I dig it too! It's very professional looking.

Quick question......I've seen the scoops done two ways. It either points to the front of the car or it points to the rear. What the advantage of doing it one way or the other?
Peace
Tom

[Pepino]

i think i have that same hood scoop but just made out of plastic and it is facing the front of my vx of course mine is not functional

[Dumke]

I dig it too! It's very professional looking.

Quick question......I've seen the scoops done two ways. It either points to the front of the car or it points to the rear. What the advantage of doing it one way or the other?
Peace
Tom

Tom I am sure I will be correct but if I am not mistaken The forward facing scoop is to force cold air into the engine to cool it. The one that is at the rear allows hot air to exit the engine.. The advantages of either I have no idea, My guess turbo for front scoop and s/c for rear??


With a front facing scoop I would figure one would have to worry about when it rains and water getting in there.



Edit::: Almost forgot.. Not a bad job. Looking good.

[pbkid]

ya, rear facing scoop is almost always more functional...
it relieves heat from the motor, which is much more helpful than pushing in a bunch of dirt and bugs...

the only real function im aware of for a forward facing scoop is asthetics or if you have a top mount intercooler (like a subaru STI)
http://www.iwoc.co.uk/images/my2003/my03stiuk03.jpg

(ya that rediculously huge scoop on the STI actually has a purpose )

[johnnyapollo]

Let us know how that works out for you. My only thought is that your scoop is right in front of the vent intake for the cabin - I'd be interested to know how many fumes you're getting inside - I know that I'm already getting some in mine and I'm not sure if my wife would be too happy if there was any additional engine smells in there.

-- John

[Riff Raff]

Still thinkin about the stripes, I just gotta find something unique, maybe a smaller pair of red stripes?

MARLIN--- Excellent job!!! I'm amazed that you've done all of these mod's in your driveway, as your garage is currently used for storage. Your neighbors must think you're totally obsessed and just shake their heads in disbelief when they see you constantly working on your VX.

I like the idea of the rear-facing hood scoop to remove excess heat from the engine bay without ramming rain & dirt as with a front-facing hood scoop. I also liked the "mesh screen" (in your photo gallery) that prevents debris from possibly falling down the hood scoop opening. JOHNNYAPPOLO made a good point regarding if "engine fumes" might find their way into the cabin interior via the fresh air vent near the windshield???

Regarding "striping" of the Rocksliders (I presume)--- How about some Black 3M "reflective" semi-trailer tape along the side edge of the Rocksliders??? During the day, it would look stealthy Black; but at night, the Black 3M "reflective" tape would light-up when headlights shine on your VX from the side (way cool). Go to: www.ReflectivelyYours.com , and check-out their cool "refective" products for possible ideas/applications!!!

[Ldub]

make sure you have primer ready after you are done cutting to primer the newly exposed metal. I used rustoleum. I realize my hole is not perfect, I didn't really care, my scoop is functional to help keep the engine bay cooler. I then took some weather strip adhesive in yellow and glued door edge guard to the newly exposed surface to protect it and me. Those edges were sharp. I threw away the hood baffle, my Vx is loud anyway, so I don't care about sound deadening anything. It came out great, about 1 hour or so, less than a hundred bucks. I would put myself at a medium skill level. The rocksliders install was way harder and labor intensive compared to this project.

Nice...that's how I did mine. (almost EXACTLY, that scares me a little...)

The only difference being, I fabbed up a diverter plate on the bottom side of the hood to channel any incoming water, from rain or snow melt, to the front of the engine, where it can drip down near the timing belt cover.
I made it out of a piece of aluminium diamond plate. (12" x 24" properly trimmed & bent) It can easily be removed (4 sheet metal screws) for running around in the heat of the Utah desert...

Let me know if you want pics...& SPEAKING of pics, please post multiple images VERTICALLY, not horizontally. (look in the options menu of the top bar)
The first time I looked at this thread, I didn't even see the pics that were off screen to the right...

[Marlin]

Nice...that's how I did mine. (almost EXACTLY, that scares me a little...)

The only difference being, I fabbed up a diverter plate on the bottom side of the hood to channel any incoming water, from rain or snow melt, to the front of the engine, where it can drip down near the timing belt cover.
I made it out of a piece of aluminium diamond plate. (12" x 24" properly trimmed & bent) It can easily be removed (4 sheet metal screws) for running around in the heat of the Utah desert...

Let me know if you want pics...& SPEAKING of pics, please post multiple images VERTICALLY, not horizontally. (look in the options menu of the top bar)
The first time I looked at this thread, I didn't even see the pics that were off screen to the right...

Thats a good idea...I never thought of directing the runoff. I will do that and would appreciate a few pics. Why didn't I think of that? Would be even better to do it like the hood insert runoff and run a hose off of it to outside the hood? I would have to think of that one a bit though.
As far as alignment, I didn't know there was a difference, they show fine on my screen? I will check that out though.

[Ldub]

I'll see if I can find some pics, if not, I'll take a few when the weather warms up a bit.
As far as running hoses etc...I like to keep things as simple as possible...the drain hoses under the hood insert plug up so often that I don't bother any more, just prop the hood open after a wash until it's dry.

Viewing horizontally posted pics is most likely a problem on my end...some of us old guys are still using 15" "steam powered" monitors & such...