Early A body hood scoop options

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braptor52

braptor52

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I have a 65 dart GT that I put a LA 360 in, running ceramic coated TTI’s and I am experiencing very high under hood temps. Haven’t heard of many others having issues like this but I have had to extensively heat wrap everything (fuel lines, brake lines, wiring) to protect from the heat. I’m now considering opening up the hood to help bring fresher cooler air into the engine compartment. I’m thinking of trying to fit a set of dual hood scoops from a 1970 duster/demon/dart. What are the dimensions of the scoops themselves? Hoping they fit in the two factory indentations on each side of the hood, also what other hood scoop options are out there for an early a?
Here’s some pics of the car, Thanks

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Ya, the early As have so little under hood room there is minimal area for cooling air to pass through. And then when you fill part of that precious space with header tubes it is even worse. I have struggled with cooling a couple of times with early As even with good, large radiators and good fans it gets hot under the hood! Lack of space for air to move can be a problem.
 
There was a thread around here last week or so. Let me see if I can find it.
 
Max wedge style or super stock maybe? Nothing too tall.
 
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braptor52 said:
Awesome thank you! I did a quick search but couldn’t find any actual dimensions, was hoping to get a width measurement of the front of the “dual hood scoops” for 1970 cars
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I saw a dual scoop thread too.
 
grimreaper said:
Ya, the early As have so little under hood room there is minimal area for cooling air to pass through. And then when you fill part of that precious space with header tubes it is even worse. I have struggled with cooling a couple of times with early As even with good, large radiators and good fans it gets hot under the hood! Lack of space for air to move can be a problem.
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It’s difficult! I really wish I ran just manifolds if I had known how many issues these headers were going to create. I had to reroute my fuel supply line because the fuel was vaporizing and I was loosing fuel pressure. My intake mounted coil is even leaking oil due to how hot the under hood temps are...
 
braptor52 said:
It’s difficult! I really wish I ran just manifolds if I had known how many issues these headers were going to create. I had to reroute my fuel supply line because the fuel was vaporizing and I was loosing fuel pressure. My intake mounted coil is even leaking oil due to how hot the under hood temps are...
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Wrap them!
 
braptor52 said:
I’ve considered that, you think that would make a considerable difference?
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Oh ya. It makes them more efficient too. The heat exit's the tubes into the exhaust faster.
 
Nice 65 by the way. A 65 was my first car (Almost 50 years ago)
 
toolmanmike said:
Nice 65 by the way. A 65 was my first car (Almost 50 years ago)
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Thanks it’s been a long project! Just recently got it running and driving. Haven’t been on the forum in a while (got distracted by an old dodge crewcab truck) but I’ll get some updated pictures coming soon!
 
There is very little room to wrap tti headers in an early a body. Nearly impossible since the torsion bars pass through them. I had very little room with 340 t-bars.
 
My only concern with a big bad hood scoop is the early abody has such a small radiator opening. So if you open the hood up I believe you will scavenge air from the radiator and create a pocket of dead air around the radiator. I could be wrong . How about a large hole cut behind the grill in the radiator support and allow fresh air to blow into the compartment while driving? Also you can put computer type small electric fans (12-24vdc I believe) in the holes if idling for a while. Just to move some air.

Only other option is cut open inner fenders for more air OR smaller engine and manifolds....okay- that’s just silly. Sorry lol!
 
Syleng1 said:
My only concern with a big bad hood scoop is the early abody has such a small radiator opening. So if you open the hood up I believe you will scavenge air from the radiator and create a pocket of dead air around the radiator. I could be wrong . How about a large hole cut behind the grill in the radiator support and allow fresh air to blow into the compartment while driving? Also you can put computer type small electric fans (12-24vdc I believe) in the holes if idling for a while. Just to move some air.

Only other option is cut open inner fenders for more air OR smaller engine and manifolds....okay- that’s just silly. Sorry lol!
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That is a good point, I don’t know how much it would affect the radiator but I definitely do not want to hurt it’s performance. I like the idea of opening up the core support some to allow more air into the engine compartment, there’s actually a fair amount of room on each side of the rad that would allow for some extra airflow if cut out
 
I had a 64 Barracuda with a 1/2 filled 340 block and an extra capacity oil pan. I had fenderwell headers so lots of underhood heat. I cut the core support and mounted a wide aluminum radiator but the issue was really not enough space for air to get out of the engine compartment. I ended up using a hole saw to put some holes in the inner fender to let air out. I dont remeber how many holes I ended up with behind the shock absorber area and under the fenderwell headers but it looked like swiss cheese before I got enough air out to keep things from roasting under the hood. I also removed the plastic plugs up in the cowl area. The guy who bought the car from me didn't like the look of the holes so he cut the area out and welded in sheet metal. He quickly found out why those holes were there and his new metal work got even larger holes!
 
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