Vents in Front Fenderwell for More Cooling?

[RodKnock]

A couple of suggestions have been made to me about changes to my Kirkham.

One is cutting out a square hole in the front fenderwells and installing breathable vent covers over the holes. The theory is that the tires will "throw" air into the engine compartment. I'm told some comp and S/C cars had them installed and some not.

Assuming your sidepipe holes aren't rolled, then adding some additional metal around the hole on the inside of the hole to strengthen it. I'm told here that this additional metal will prevent stress fatigue or maybe cracks or something along those lines.

Any thoughts from Kirkham owners out there? Thank you.

[xlr8or]

Morgan added some vents behind the front tires to provide fresh air to the brake masters and headers.

[RedCSX1]

I did these last summer. As you can see my goal was to direct the air onto the headers.

[RodKnock]

Yes, I think so, but it's hard to tell for me if they're in the same place as suggested to me.

[Jamo]

They are...only place folks put them (at least that general area). I haven't added them...I want to see how dirty Morg's pipes get if he ever drives in the rain.

Rolling the metal or adding some wire for the header exit hole can't hurt, but after several years, there hasn't been any cracking without either on mine (nor have I heard of others having such a problem).

Doing a nice rolling job can be tough given the angle cut towards the rear of each side...I've seen some bad ones, and then folks end up cutting the metal more to get rid of the rolls and you end up with overly large holes. Practice on some sheet arruminum!

[patrickt]

ERA cars use extra shielding over the primaries along with a meshed vent in the wheel house. The vents themselves look like this:



In this shot you can see the heat shielding that goes over the primaries and partially over the vent:



And from below it looks something like this:

[Ronbo]

Use header wrap on the tubes inside the body or ceramic coat. Made a huge difference on my old vette.

Fiberglass is the worst about holding in engine heat so at least your not dealing with that. (at least as far as the body)

Don't know how bad the effect is (cooling the pipes) but hotter pipes are claimed to flow better.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Ronbo

Use header wrap on the tubes inside the body or ceramic coat.

Before you think about wrapping your headers, do a search on the subject (cracks, voided warranties, etc.). Coating them is much better, but you have to pull them off to do that, which is a nuisance. I was originally going to have my primaries ceramic coated black but was told that the only color that really held up was silver. So silver it was....

[RodKnock]

Morgan, why did you install the vents? Was your car overheating? The suggestion was made to me to do it before the engine and trans are installed, since it's easier, but I haven't got a clue if the car actually needs additional venting. I would hate to cut up the car for no reason at all.

[RedCSX1]

Really did not consider it cutting up the car. I found it easy to do while everything was installed in the car. It's at best a couple of hour job. Got the stainless at a local machine shop who has been very helpful during the build. car was not running hot, never has. The pipes are cermachrome which helps a lot. Really lthe goal was ways to keep the feet cooler! Recently installed the foot box ventilation.