FD Vented hood INFO for a DD
 

Sometime this year (most likely during summer) I plan to change out my oem hood for a vented hood to help with cooling the car.
Ive seen many vented hoods for the FD and they all seem nice, however my FD is my DD, so it WILL be driven in the rain (sadface...)

Does anybody know of some vented hoods that have protection so I can drive in any weather from a light drizzle to a downpour?

Still in the research phase (like I said, not planning on buying one for a few more months) so no rush on responses!


Thanks!

Andrew

I've driven my FD with the Shine FEED replica hood in torrential downpours with no issues. Great hood, great product from Shine.

I'm on the same boat as OP.

Did you get the carbon fiber or H-FRP? Also how is the hood under high speeds? Any flexing/hood pins necessary?

I have the FRP version and it is light as balls. I strongly suggest pins. Mine scared the crap out of me wobbling the first time I took it above 70. Please note it NEVER went anywhere but it stopped when I put on pins.

I'm running the scoot hood + modified rain gutters with plumbing so all the water is drained below the car. I've driven it in the rain already and it's not an issue. The vents for air out of the engine bay (gutters), and vents for air through the hood are offset so there is little chance water could actually get in there.

i have a scoote. i driven in the rain.. no problems just my engine bay gets very dirty........... i also have rain guards but never use them... when i leave it outside or wash the car i throw a towel under the hood

Regardless if your engine gets rained on or not its worth it, my car runs so much cooler with the vented hood. To be honest I am more concerned with rain when my car is parked rather than running, water will just settle on a cool engine.

I've had a Scoot CF hood on my RX-7 (which is my DD also) for about 2 years. It is always parked outside and I drive it in all weather conditions. Never had a problem with water except that it makes my engine bay extremely dirty really quickly.

And your hood is??????

Anyone running the Siebon CF hoods?

^ I have a seibon CF (its painted) hood. What about it?

I also have a Seibon painted like Montego.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...1_627955_n.jpg

In the past 3 years I've autoxed my FD in the pouring rain several times with no issues.

Well, no issues from the rain getting in the engine bay anyway.

Hood is VIS Mazdaspeed replica.

I want something that will protect the motor while it keeps cool. We all know what happens when you apply cold water to a hot surface. I rather not have any cracks to my motor lol..

Stock Mazda hood here with custom vents it into it above the radiator and alternator area. No problems over the past 4 years.

I love the mazdaspeed hood however I heard that doesn't include rain gaurds. True?

The Seibon's look good. How do you like the fit and finish?

chances of that happening with rain.. 0

my previous and current fd have had that same hood posted above (Seibon scoot rep) ive drivin in downpours, SNOW, hail, you name it. Never had a problem except oxidization if it sat in the driveway for a while.

But now i have a garage :)

daily drove my last fd also no problems.. Dont worry too much

Apparently not. You asked for advice...multiple members have posted offering their experience with vented hoods and rain. I've NEVER once heard of someone "cracking" their engine because of rain through a vented hood. I do know one member with a 3-rotor, due to the placement of the alternator, experienced a short.

That being said, when someone says they have Auto-X'd their car in rain multiple times and experienced no issues...I'd suggest that your chances of experiencing anything other than a dirty engine bay are infinitesimal! =)

Just get a hood with rain guards or make your own rain guards. I had a vented hood on my FD which was a DD for over 4 years with no issue.

also running the shine auto FEED CF hood, drove in heavy heavy heavy thunderstorm with no problem, also sat in heavy heavy rain with no problem

Seibon is known for their good fitment. The only issue that I have is the larger than average gap between the hood and the bumper. And yes it's caused by the hood not the bumper as I had the stock bumper for a while there. But honestly I don't mind it at all but it is something to note.

https://www.rx7club.com/picture.php?...ictureid=27420

https://www.rx7club.com/picture.php?...ictureid=27369

https://www.rx7club.com/picture.php?...ictureid=29332

https://www.rx7club.com/picture.php?...ictureid=28909


Another thing to notice on the seibon scoot style hood is that the vents are less agressive that the other manufacturers. On a street car like mine I actually prefer it as it is a more subtle look.

hey david,

any pics of your hood? i'd like to see it. sorta like the supra in F&F style?

I will post some pics up soon. :)

^awesome^

Sweet thread, answered a bunch of questions I had too. I was also thinking about the concerns of having water in the engine bay, if you're driving it doesn't seem like it'll be a huge deal (although I'd still opt for rain gutters and what not). This thread regarding cleaning the engine bay put my concerns to rest: https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/safe-flush-engine-bay-water-battery-taken-out-862894/

As requested. pics of the modified stock hood. The hood retains its stock brace pieces.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1333804817

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1333804817

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1333804817

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1333804817

No water issues and every now and then I hose down and clean the engine bay.

your car looks sweet like always david. i think i need to get off my but and install my vmount and dp instead of worrying about a hood....daylights a burnin'!!!

Thanks for all the help guys. Making this thread cleared up a lot of the concerns and answered all the questions I had.
Now its time to find a hood that I like

Thanks!

Andrew

Agreed X2, thanks

I with the stock hood mod

I have a RE-A N9 replica hood with no rain gutters at all and drive it in any weather conditions

other than water spots that need to be cleaned frequenlty I never had any problems at all

^^ i agree with the water spots. I have a Shine CF FEED hood. no problem with heavy rain or car wash, but sometimes I get water spots splashed onto my polished UIM.

as long as the water doesn't get on the electrical plugs, it's fine. My only concern is the air flow under the hood. so IMO having air coming from the nose and exit out the rear of the hood like the FEED design seems to make the most sense to me

except that the rear of the hood is a high pressure area and it was proven with wool tufts that the feed design only lets air out of the frontmost vent while the rearmost sucks the air back in...

I am in the process of modifying a stock hood. I am droping a cut out section from an EVO 5 into a spare FD hood that I have. Been working on it for the past 3 weeks. So far I have cut out the vent section from the EVO hood, cut out the appropriate area of the FD hood, and had someone weld it in for me. Both hoods are made of aluminum. The hood is presently at a body shop to have it professionaly bondoed/filled. I will post some pictures soon.

I just got a Seibon KS for $400 cash. The body shop had to drill the mounting points on the hinges to make it line up with the fenders. It was about 3/4" overlap on the passenger fender without the drilling; this is probably why I got it at such a discount. As mentioned further back in the thread, there is a larger gap to the bumper than there is with the OEM hood.

It made a huge difference in under hood temps, especially after I let the car idle for a few minutes before I shut it off. I am not seeing any shake or vibration at highway speeds (80MPH) or over bumps. I am not using hood pins.

Have not yet washed the car. I am hesitant about this, as one of the large front vents is over the battery, and the 2 smaller rear ones are over the ABS and the cruise control.

Was trying to make templates of the vents out of corrigated plastic to insert in the vents. This worked for the larger front vents, but not the little ones.

I made a underhood platform on which I can stack utility cloths that will seal off the rear vents. Probably put plastic on the engine and duct tape the vents too.

Anyone else have a Seibon KS?

If anyone could post some pics of the drainage gutters they have on their hood, i would be very interested to see how this works.

Thanks

I think you are worrying too much about it. Though I don't have a KS hood, mine is still vented with a nice slant to let water in during hand washing. All I do is put a towel across my engine bay and not directly spray water into the vent. Yeah the water soaks through a little bit but that's it.

Here are some pics of my project.
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/3...ectioncuto.jpg
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/986...entsection.jpg
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8899/testfit.jpg
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/635...ddlecutout.jpg
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/4635/dscf0001km.jpg

^ That look pretty good, can't wait to see the finished product.

Finished the project
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/5204/dscf0095wr.jpg
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/4270/dscf0099c.jpg

This hood is much lighter than the stock one. Will be installing hood pins shortly.

ive ran my seibon TS hood for over a year now as a DD. (been twin and single in that time if it matters)

no problems no matter what the weather. :)

picture in sig \/ \/ \/

white hood cut out from what car, evo 7-9.

Wrecked EVO 5

I really like the look of Davids modded hood. The more subtle the better.

Ronin Mazdaspeed hood experience:
 

I'm in SoCal, and ran one of our Ronin(formerly atihun) Mazdaspeed hoods for over 5 years on my last daily driver FD. Brismo runs one of our FC hoods on his daily driver FC. The front vents were placed at the high pressure zone of the FD as found in wind tunnel testing by Mazda. The raised portion in front of the duct increases the pressure zone to draw heat out from behind the radiator and intercooler. The hoods don't come with Rainguards, since any water entering through the vents will only drip onto the heat exchangers. But as noted by many others water getting on the engine is not a problem. That is of course as long as you are not driving into a swimming pool or other body of water ;)

FWIW We also retain as much of the OEM bracing as possible so there is little vibration at speed. I never had pins on mine, though Brismo runs some on his.