Previous owner sealed up many of the bonnet louvers

[twobone]

I guess its because my car is an S3 chassis with a live axle and does not have an enclosed pedal box cover. The PO had sealed up the louver covers over the pedal box and also over the coil and battery area just behind the carbs.

 

This probably contributes to heat in the foot wells, so I think i will remove some of the tape over some of those louvers and try to stay out of the rain

 

There is always something to remove/add/replace/adjust/experiment with on these cars. That's half the fun though.

[MBEARDEN]

With the weather warming up I have started noticing the heat in the footwell of my Birkin....I sealed up the holes and insulated the firewall and underseats with Thermotec heat shield..also wrapped the headers. It was an improvement, but not enough. My car has five rows of rear facing louvers on the hood...i really wonder how much under hood heat escapes though them.

I wonder if we are going the wrong way in trying it insulate from the heat when we might get more relief by trying to get the heat out from the engine compartment. My first thought was a big Pro Stock airscoop...but that would not look right. This weekend I am going to leave the hood off and see if it helps. Maybe some forward facing louvers down the sides of the hood or a forward facing boat vent to force outside air under the hood. I remember my dad having an old Chevy truck with a cable operated vent flap/ scoop just ahead of the windshield that opened for ventilation...

[slomove]

I measured the pressure differential between engine and the top of the bonnet a while ago. It was something like 0.2 psi at freeway speed (IIRC) so I guess the louvers do help but most of the hot air from radiator, block and headers must escape below, through the tunnel and to the sides.

 

Insulating and sealing helped but the real improvent was forward directed boat louvers in the bonnet side that direct a noticable fresh air flow into the footwell (via a kind of transfer box). At speed the air flow can be felt even wearing jeans and just flushes the heat out.

[MBEARDEN]

I saw the transfer box on your car and the boat louvers. Did you try the boat louvers before building the transfer boxes...the idea being flushing the engine compartment with outside air. I am going to take the hood off in the morning ...drive 10 miles to the office and see how much heat I feel in the cockpit.