Well, its been many years since I did the same fender cut mod on my R1, back in 94-95 but, I don't remember any ductwork on that one either. It was the very same fender lining as on my Touring now.

On the other hand, I wonder if you notice that ocassional oily substance at the exit of the side vent, behind the front wheel. I had seen it on both of my R1 and Touring. That substance MAY indicate an airflow path connected to the oil cooler. Just don't quite know where that path is.

 

forget this guy, i want to know more about these screens, what kind did you use, and how did you attach them?

 

If you take off the fender liner off you will see the oil cooler ducting running along the top. It isn't very impressive though...

 

I'm pretty sure I got that at OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware). They have screens in different opening sizes in rolls. It costs a few cents per foot. I think it is galvanized to prevent rust. Home Depot should have them too. I used those screens for my intake openings for many years.

I slid the screen between the steel fender and the plastic liner and used aluminum rivets with washers to fasten them to the plastic liner.

 

Watercool.

 

Thanks. Good to know.

Guess, it must not be all that impressive if all these times it magaged to avoid my attention. I had the fender plastics removed for various reasons a few times (last time when I fitted on my '99s spec front bumper last November) but, simply don't recall seeing it. Of course, I never looked for them either.

 

Here's a pic of the fender liner with the oil cooler 'ducting' circled. Told you it wasn't impressive.

 

My brother and I took off the weather gasket at the firewall and man what a difference! i can actually touch the hood now without a towel. it was over 100 today in austin, tx and anyway to vent heat outa an engine with that heat is good. I've got an R1 and i've never seen that ducting to the vents. i'll have to look harder.

 

Ok, now at least I know why I did not see it. I'd only removed the front half of the liner, taking the staples out.

Damn, always learn something....

Thanks

 

here is my modified wheel well liner. It was pretty easy to cut with a razor. the small hole is literally inches from the oil cooler. Can't see any reason this won't increase flow thru it. I don't have any issues keeping my engine temp under control, but with a SMIC I do have issues with heat soak. I hope the hot air from my radiator fans will find it's way thru these vents keeping heat soak down to a minimum, even at low speeds...

 

Cool, I may have to break out the rivet gun and try this too.

 

(^to keep the pic on the last page)

I used an aluminum screen with some sort of charcoal color coating on it...I had to buy a huge roll of it, so if any one wants some, PM me, and I'll send you some...for the price of shipping.

 

Nice job.

I couldn't think of a reason why the oil cooler screen would not work. It can only add to the airflow in addition to that flimsy "duct". I may very well do mine as well.

I was thinking about the previous poster's comments where they removed the rubber seal under the windshield and noticed that the hood was a lot cooler to the touch.

That makes sense. I can see that once you stop the car and shut down the engine the excess heat would escape through that opening rather well (heat rises and exits), instead of getting trapped under the hood. Still, would not work for any speed conditions. The ideal solution would be if there was a controllable "flap" near the top of the hood to release the trapped hot air when the car is being heatsoaked. (hood vents achieve that objective, if one likes their looks)

For me, I make a habit out of popping my hood and opening it as soon as I pull into my garage with the fans still running. That is to prevent the excessive heatsoak to fry everything.

 

If I've been getting on it...I do the same, shut the car down turn fans on, then the **** part...I'll start the car after five minutes to flush the block with cool coolant and shut off after I watch the temp gauge (linear) drop like a rock. I lost my first motor not long after I bought the car due to coolant seal...was expensive, and now I go overboard to protect.



NOW YOU'RE TALKING!! a controllable hinge lifter...then it drops again after X min.

 

Hmmmmmmmm...sounds like a project....

 

crispy has done something similar with the oil cooler duct.

http://www.negative-camber.org/crispyrx7/cwrcoolers.htm

 

That's a great link Bob! will definitely help me if/when I decide to tackle my oil cooler install. Now I need to source those nice carbon fiber ducts. know where I can find a pair ?

Edit: Dammit, those are for the stock bumper. Where can one find ducts for the 99 bumper and the mocal coolers?

Rich

 

but does all this create some type of turbulance in the wheel well--affecting high speed performance?

 

I was the only one that I know of that got CWR carbon fiber ducts before he totally disappeared. I mailed them out to ptrhan? I think who made some copies.

**they are the ones that fit the CWR oil coolers with the 99spec front.

 

have you read this thread axr6 has done multiple 60-160mph runs for testing purposes. He is all about MPH

 

The high speed performance was NOT effected. All my timings were with the left hand on the steering wheel, holding/operating a stopwatch, right hand shifting. Car tracked straight and without any floating. Can't say that for the other high powered sports cars that I had owned or driven (Porshes, Lamborghinies, Mustang etc)

On the same 2.1 mile road I reached a TRUE max speed of 172 MPH with this mod done (before having to back off due to a curve in the road) and the car was rock stable. (For Tyler and others familiar with this area, the road was HWY 680 between the HWY 580 interchange and Bernal road exit) The true speeds were calculated from tire diameter, RPM and gearing as I was using the 4.3 gear set and the speedometer was buried at 180+.

My whole intention to go to 160 MPH was to test for HP gains. Those gains are most obvious at those speeds where the air resistance is exponentially increasing and is huge. Also, by going to 160, it gave me a large enough time window to reliably and repeatedly compare. Once you get past 140 MPH your acceleration time (seconds) start extending.

 

You can say that again. I gained a lot of downforce from my not-so-aerodyamic older GT style spoiler. Car felt rock solid, but it took FOREVER to accelerate from 160 to 165, at which point I was coming up on the previously very far traffic at a VERY high rate, and had to back off...

 

Hmmmm.... just pass them.... that is what paved road shoulders are made for, aren't they?

Ok, just kidding... - not really. I'd done it. I used to be particularly aggressive in my driving following one of my many Austrian trips where drivers would routinely pass on two lane roads, into blind turns. The traffic in both direction just agreeably pull off to the right, allowing the passing car to barrel down the middle of the road. I used to say that if I lived in Austria, I wouldn't need to go track racing as the roads were open racetracks all the time. Upon my return doing the same routine in CA mountains, the American public was far less tolerant to those driving methods. Don't know why, our road shoulders tend to be far wider than those Austrian ones. Too much fun.

Like I posted before, I ran these tests many years ago with far less traffic and at barely daybreak when I could just run without lights. Still, ocassionally I did pass some poor souls. I suspect some of them are still on medications from the shockwaves.

As to my 172 MPH speed run, I had to back off but, from the feel of it I did not have much left. Maybe an other 1 - 2 MPH if I had an other straight mile.

 

LOL you don't know me man. Some of the locals nicknamed me "lawnmower man" cuz of a certain incident w/ an 18-wheeler that felt I was going too fast and proceeded to run me off the road... so I passed him doing 90mph IN THE GRASS lol (not on purpose...I just knew that if I touched the brakes I woulda lost traction like crazy and spun out...so I just had to push on through). Needless to say, grass was EVERYWHERE

Oh man that sounds like fun. But yea, you're in the wrong country man. Ppl can't drive worth CRAP here, and they're def. not tolerant of fast drivers. If everyone just learned to YIELD to faster traffic, the world would be a better place...

 

^haha ture^