73 roadrunner hood inserts

[midnightrider1818]

i was wondering if you can take the hood inserts out of a 73 roadrunner to open the hood up to get more wind down on your engine. seems like they would of made them so you can do that. anybody have any experience with that

 

[Sputnik]

Sure you can - but wouldn't make much different performance-wise, unless you wanted to get creative and fab a ram air setup (which should have been a factory option) lotta work.

 

[Ron 73]

Yep, You can do it and maybe fab some piece in where they go, Ive never seen anyone with a set up like that, A ram air setup sounds like a good project, Id try to find a set somewhere to use to build it in case you would want it original again.. If your planning on any cutting on them.

 

[ramairthree]

I have a spare pair without the fake vent inserts and have thought about cutting them and running to a dual snorkel air cleaner.

I don't have a dual snorkel air cleaner, and would be better off selling them to buy a headliner or something.

I DO prefer functional to non functional.

 

[jessipup]

I'm thinking about possably doing that some day. Here is my plan 1st take out the whole scoop assy and then remove the grille inserts. I'll cut a nice oval hole in the backing plate behind the grille inserts then take the slotted grille pieces to a machine shop and have them remove the material between the raised bars. So the valleys will be open. I feel that this will act as a screen and keep debris from getting in and let a little cool air into the engine compartment. No I don't feel that it will give a big boost in preformance.
It will look as good as stock and work a little better than stock. I have seen a bubba pull the inserts and cut the plates and it prefectly matched his pos theme of the car..
If you decide to do it please send some pics.

thanks

 

[blackblazer717]

You can base the design on the old airgrabbber setup. Just change the air intakes to the front scoop inlets of the power budge hood

 

[scotts74birds]

I have a 74, and yes it would be cool! But is it really a good spot for an air intake? You would have to know the air-flow characteristics of the car! At speed, due to turbulence,that could actually be a "low-pressure" area! Cheby did the "Cowl-Induction" thing, and it worked! It took advantage of the high-pressure at the base of the windshield. I had a Buick GS with Ram-Air. But the Ram-Air effect was always arguable. I think that any gains made by some of the factory scoops out there, have more to do with sucking COOL air, rather than heated underhood air. But never a gain from any "Ram" effect.

 

[jessipup]

Scotts yes you are right on the money there. I saw a deal where someone did some wind tunnel or a computer simulation of the average hood scoop and the ram air effect is virtually nill due to the way the air hits the front of the car and flows over the hood. While at low speeds the air pretty closely follows the hood line at anything approaching highway speeds most of the air is 5 to 10 in above the hood line. So if a scoop was at the leading edge of the hood or higher and further back than normal, then there would be some useable ram air effect. On the other hand we can never discount the potential gains due to cooler air.

Be Cool:headbang:

 

[1Nice72]

I just bought a 2010 Challenger RT Classic. It has what is referred to as functional hood scoops. Hood design is very similar to our 73/74 hoods. After talking to the Dodge boys at the dealership, the design is actually to pull hot air out from under the hood thus lowering under hood temps slightly. As stated above it works via low pressure at the openings thus pulling air out not sucking air in. But with that said, a cooler engine bay is a happier engine bay.

Clay

 

[Bruzilla]

I did this with the last 73 I had, and the comments about the airflow that close to the hood are correct. But, from a looks perspective, it added a lot to the hood.

What I did was remove the inserts and open the area behind them using a grinder. Then I got some heavy-duty mesh screening, painted it orange, and closed off the area with it. That really looked nice, but I also mounted two amber light bulbs inside the hood just over the openings and wired them to a switch on the dash. When you turned them on at night they gave off a cool fire-looking glow from the inserts. Those lights were a real attention getter.

 

[Ralph Cali]

Has anyone put an air grabber on a 73 RR hood.

Seems like the center portion is pretty flat - just thinking an air grabber on a 73 RR would be pretty cool.

Ralph

 

[scotts74birds]

Haven't seen it, but I suppose it can be done. Most of our 73-74 RR hoods have the correct cut-outs in the hood brace to make it a bolt-on. Personally, I think the insert areas are more tailored for use as machine gun ports!!!

 

[Bruzilla]

Has anyone put an air grabber on a 73 RR hood.

Seems like the center portion is pretty flat - just thinking an air grabber on a 73 RR would be pretty cool.

Ralph

There's one on ebay right now. I can't tell if they took a 71-72 Air Grabber hood and modified it for the 73, or cut out the center of the AG hood and affixed it to a 73 Satellite hood, but it's got one.