hood scoop/ scoops?

[Jaysam]

Hey guys, im looking for some opinions and some advise on a cosmetic issue. I have a '74 satellite with, IMO, has huge flat factory hood. The car is mostly stock w/318 and im not dead set on changing it but am thinking of a possible change with the hood. Sorry for saying this but i never really cared for the look of the buldges on the RR hoods but i would like something that would be a subtle change and look like it should have been factory. Again, IMO, i always liked the look of the scoops on the Demons and Dusters but may not look good or fit well on the Satty. Also dont think a cowl induction would look good on this style of car. Hope i dont get beat up to bad for this but im just curious to see what others think and if there are any pics out there so i can get a visual that would be great.
Thanks, Jason

Or maybe thinking of even paint later down the road may help the look.
If these pics of my car show up, dont worry im changing the tires, and also if anybody can help me on telling me what is the name of the color of my car, im sure its a factory color but i not sure how to read my fender tag( yes im a newbie) and im in the process of having my garage built so my car is still in storage and the building is locked up so i cant get to it yet.

 

[charger360]

thats a tough one, i can't think of a scoop that i feel would look right on that hood on that car!

 

[Jaysam]

Yea i know what you mean. I have some plans for the car. I love the factory ralley's and the ones on this car are mint, trim rings, center caps and all, but there only 14's. I cant decide to sell them and get 15's or go with some 15in steel rims with the dog dish style hub caps. I really dont care for the vinyl top, wheel well trim, side molding, or emblems. Im really into the clean look with no badges or items to trap dirt and moisture and cause rust. I like it to be just plain and simple with some attitude.

 

[Bruzilla]

I've always thought the hood on the 73-74 road runners were one of their best features because they were the only cars that had a hood like that. The dual scoop (real or simulated) hoods that other cars had tended to look pretty generic by the mid-70s because Mopar, Ford, and GM all used them at one time or another. Same deal with things like go-wing spoilers and hood-mounted tachs. There are lots of aftermarket scoops you can buy and mount to the hood, but the challenge I think you'll find is most of them are made for smaller Pony cars (Mustangs, Camaros, E-bodies) and A-body-type compacts and they tend to look a bit small on mid-size and full body cars. Whatever scoop you choose, I suggest you make it functional. Auto makers can get away with cosmetic scoops and intakes, but one sure way to get a poser label slapped on you by other drivers is to put some non-functional scoops on the hood of your own car.

My favorite hood was the one on my other black 73 road runner. It was a stock 73 RR hood, but I pulled the inserts out of the intake areas, then cut the rears of the areas out using a dremil tool, which made the openings functional. Then I took some heavy black steel screen material and attached it to the rear of the openings using JB weld so the intakes wouldn't allow road debris and leaves in. Last thing I did was mount two orange lamps just inside the intakes, and when I was racing at night I would click those on and you would see this orange light coming out of the intakes and splashing down the hood. It was a pretty cool effect.

I'm with you on the vinyl top and side molding going away. I initially didn't put the wheel well trim back on my 74 after I had it repainted black, but I found the black body, shadows inside the wheel wells, and black tires just made the car look blocky from the side so I put the trim back on and like it better that way. If the car were painted a lighter color I would have left them off, but the car didn't look right without them in a darker color.

 

[Jaysam]

Bruzilla, I totally agree 100% about fake scoops and being totally lame. Thats a sweet idea about what you did with the lights in the openings of your hood. Im not totally against the idea of the RR hoods, its just that i've been to a few local places where they have weekend "shows" or cruises and have never seen one up close in person to see the actuall hood. Maybe the pics i see just dont do them justice. Like i said im just toying with the idea of breaking up the big flat surface of nothing up front. Im not trying to make a RR clone or tribute, again just something clean with attitude. Im just thinking way ahead down the road, im not jumping into anything that i'll regret because even though now it may look real plain and blah, the last thing i wanna do is make it look cheezy. So far im wating for my garage to get finished so i can put in the 489 8 3/4 rear i bought,and for the rear i bought a yukon power lock and 390 gears from randys ring and pinion. I know the 390's maybe a bit tall cause i have a 3 speed manual trans but again i was thinking further down the road if i put in a 4 speed. Thanks for your input. Jason

 

[WP29440SE]

I like it to be just plain and simple with some attitude.

you are already there.

people are always so fast to screw up nice factory cars with lame aftermarket add-ons , body color bumpers , giant rims and tires and everything else. it looks great just the way it is, I would be damn proud of it and leave it alone

just to add, if it were mine, I would find me a road runner hood and have it color matched and painted. but that would as far as I went. I think the 73-4 RR power bulge hoods are one of the baddest in the land. I know I couldn't bring myself to put anything else on it

 

[Jaysam]

Thanks super77 i appreciate that. I also get that often, that why im afraid to do anything to the exterior that i cant reverse or replace.

 

[WP29440SE]

Thanks super77 i appreciate that. I also get that often, that why im afraid to do anything to the exterior that i cant reverse or replace.

I lied , I would also put some 15" rallyes or steel wheels with RWL tires LOL , stash the 14's away . either way , its a great looking car , but I can understand wanting to do a few subtle changes that are 100% reversible.

 

[Jaysam]

wow, great pic of the hood. I'm starting to come around. Thanks for your input and the great pic. Yea and i also love the rallys or the steel wheels with the dog dish caps. I love the clean tough factory muscle look. Thanks again

 

[Bruzilla]

One thing I've never seen done on a 73/74 car that might look nice is a Shaker setup. Paint the scoop in an opposing color to the body, put some nice graphics on the sides. That would break up the flatness and make a functional system that wouldn't look like anyone else's car.

 

[Jaysam]

Oh yea, that would look pretty sweet. Do you mean like what some of the Cuda's came with?

 

[Bruzilla]

Lots of cars had shakers... Cudas, Mustangs, Trans Ams, Firebirds, and I think some Torinos had them as well. Some faced forwards like the Cudas and Mustangs, and some faced backwards like the GM cars, so there's some options to work with. I wouldn't go with a Mopar shaker due to costs, but I think you should be able to re-purpose a set-up from a mustang or Trans Am for a decent price... at least less than what a 73/74 road runner hood goes for these days. Also, since there's no rules on this stuff, there's no reason you can't get creative and find an intake with a profile you like and adapt it to fit to a GM or Ford baseplate that you can get for the cheap.

I never knew you could bolt a 69 Camaro front spoiler to a 73/74 Road Runner until I tried it, so do some experimenting.

 

[Jaysam]

WOW, thanks, thats some interesting stuff.

 

[73runner]

Your car looks to be Sherwood Green.

sorry you don't like the road runner hood... I think it looks fantastic. But having said that, the trick is getting a scoop that looks good on the stock satty hood.

That stock hood has a ridge down the middle which would look bad if cut wrong or not worked into the scoop design. The road runner hood eliminates this detail in favor of a large buldge. Also, both hoods carry up the line of the headlight bulges in the fender and filler into the hood for resolution.

Taking these items into consideration, you may actually want to do two scoops that can tie all these elements together.

Here's a pair that might work for you:



These work in that they echo the headlight angle nicely.

You can paint them to match ( I would) and them move them around till they look "right".

Let us know how you do.

 

[idrivemopar]

WOW, thanks, thats some interesting stuff.

If you come around to wanting to do a bulge hood, let me know, got a 74 hood from a 318 roadrunner for sale! It's been indoors for the past 15 years!

 

[rsd859]

I love the 73/74 RR hood because they are one of a kind, and I live the idea of making them functional. But I dont think they have the right angle to really force the air in.

 

[Bruzilla]

The angle is fine. The problem is height. The flow of air below about two inches over the hood is very roiled due to turbulence caused by the design of the hood, paint, dirt, etc., so it's hard to get a good flow if the scoop is under two inches. That's why the six-pack scoops were so high. But while the 73-74 hoods won't get you much in the way of rammed air, they can provide outside air, which is just as beneficial.

The way I did it before was I cut the end panel off an old steel Navy desk, and cut it into a baseplate. Then I got some thick rubber insulation foam about 6" tall and glued it around the edge of the baseplate. Then I put the baseplate on the carb neck, put the air filter and top on, and that held the baseplate in place. I then made plates to seal off the holes to the rear of the bulge area so when I put the hood down it compressed the foam down and sealed the baseplate to the bulge, so all the air going to the engine was cool air coming through the bulge instead of hot air from the engine compartment.

I didn't notice much difference in the winter months, but in summer, in Virginia Beach, I felt it.

 

[73runner]

Hey bruzilla....Not to hikjack this thread but......

I've been toying with the idea of making the power bulge hood functional. My idea would involve removing the trim covers and cutting out the section behind the "louvers" trim. The idea would be then to put in two covers that would pivot out under low vacuum signal or via a vacuum switch similar to the pop up air grabber set up. that would get you two 7 square inch oppening to start with. From those opennings i would then mount the an air box to the hood where it would mate to the stock air cleaner base via a similar rubber foam set up to what you just described. The stock snorkel on the base I would section and blank off at a point just ahead of the carb. heated air inlet to allow for quicker warm ups in cold weather. Or leave the snorkel alone and do a cool air intake passage and duct between the battery and the radiator to the snorkel.

This set up would allow via the switch (or control of you left foot during rain storms etc) the "nostrils" to remain closed in bad weather.

The cool part would be that the covers would open when you gunned it like the flaring of nostrils on a wild animal.......

 

[Bruzilla]

I posted some info on the thread you started. The big thing to remember for you and Jaysam is if you are going to make a fresh air system, it has to be sealed to do you any good. If you have other openings where the engine can pull hot engine bay air through, the system isn't going to work right. I like the idea of the opening inlets, but the problem would be if your system is done right, your engine won't idle because the openings will be closed and no air should be getting to the carb. If your engine is getting air with the openings closed, then you're not really running a fresh air system.

Don't worry about bad weather. Think about the hood on your car when you start driving it when there's water on it. What happens to the water? Does it flow in a steady pattern? No, it slips, slides, and sprays in different ways and directions because the roiled air that's flowing along the hood is driving it and since the air isn't flowing steadily neither is the water, so even in a downpour you aren't going to be getting much water into the inlets. Also, what water that would make it to the filter will be close to aerosol form, which can actually improve your performance. I had to spend $300 back in the mid-80s to install a Holley Varijection water injection system on a 383 with a 14:1 compression ratio because injecting water into the air/fuel mix was the only way I could prevent detonation on that engine. When I drove my open hood 73 in the rain I got the same benefit for free... the downside being I never raced in the rain.

 

[rsd859]

Very interesting Bruz!