Poor-sha

The C7 Z06 and the C7 ZR1 both come with secondary brake cooling ducts that the owner's manual states should be installed for track use and should be removed for street use. Additionally, the C7 ZR1 comes with exhaust cooling hardware that attaches to the tunnel plate and the owner's manual also recommends removing after the track event.

What are the risks associated with leaving this equipment in place during street operation?

dparm

I feel like this was discussed once before, and the answer was "probably nothing, but those components are likely to rust or corrode over time".

Questar

The brake cooling ducts, may have been discussed, but the exhaust cooling hardware is new to the ZR1 and I can't imagine that's been "discussed" yet, given it's only just becoming "known", now that they are shipping cars and have released the 2019 Owner's Manual.

In either event it would be very helpful if we could get Tadge to give us his answer on this. If all we are looking at is some premature corrosion I'd accept that and leave them in place.

FYREANT

I have a feelig this would be hard for Tadge to answer due to liability reasons..

69427

I'll admit my ignorance here. What's the exhaust cooling hardware all about?

DoctorV8

Excellent question....looking forward to Tadge's reply!

Poor-sha

That is why I didn't ask him "is it ok to do this" and instead asked him "what are the risks to doing this".

It looks like they are designed to funnel some air in to the tunnel where the exhaust is. Here is an excerpt from the owners manual.

FYREANT

Fair enough

I’m interested to see an actual photo of the underside of the ZR1 to see what the new cooling hardware looks like. The diagram doesn’t seem to show it too well.

Ant

Questar

Got a look at the underside of my car today while doing my 500 mile oil change at the dealership. Took a couple pictures of the new Exhaust Cooling Hardware (installed).

FYREANT

Thanks for the pics! Very interesting thinking about how these would work. Almost looks like it is blocking off the breather holes which you would think would make the exhaust run hotter!

jvp

Amateur aero guy here: my guess is that the deflectors are to help get the air out of the tunnel plate as quickly as possible until it gets to the very rear of the plate. It looks like any air coming through the tunnel plate will follow the holes out from under the plate given the aero disturbance the deflectors are causing: creating a slightly lower pressure "bubble", for lack of a better word, right under those holes.

The idea here is that the air surrounding the cats and exhaust pipes will get so hot while at WOT on the track that GM probably wants that out of the tunnel plate instead of going all the way back and cooking the exterior of the mufflers.

Just a guess. As to why GM suggests removing them for street driving, I'd expect it to be a ground clearance concern. But maybe we'll find out more if this gets submitted next week.

Questar

All sounds plausible, BUT, I think you are looking at the pics backwards. The covered holes are at the FRONT... so they are blocking some of the air entering at the front of the tunnel... the two deflectors then direct air up into the next two holes... my guess is to speed up air flow at the rear of the tunnel and force air to better flow out the back end... but that's just a pure guess.

I do hope that we might eventually get a better understanding of how these alterations work... and an explanation on why GM recommends removing them for street driving. I don't think ground clearance is the issue as they have SO LITTLE impact on clearance that it just doesn't appear to be the issue... at least not to my eye.

Hoping Tadge takes this up as a questions to answer for us.

FYREANT

Derp! You called it! I was lookig at them backwards! Now it totally makes sense lol

jvp

I wasn't. :-) I was looking at them as spoilers not scoops.

Makitso

It looks like the additional tunnel hardware is to create a "Bernoulli effect", the scoops in the middle create a low pressure zone in the front of the tunnel and the block-off plates ensure that cooling air enters the front of the tunnel for max cooling effect. Based on my observation of the brake cooling system on my Z51, which puts a lot of sand inside my wheels, my guess as to why the cooling hardware is to be removed for street use is that the ZR1 would be an expensive street cleaner.

village idiot

I just installed the chinese puzzle known as the extra z06 cooling ducts. Basically, they're very susceptible to getting knocked off/broken. Not exactly a very rigidly mounted piece. It's not ike you're gonna overcool your rotors.

Operations

oldfoggy

ducts are plastic

dparm

We're not talking about the ducts in the grille or under the car, we're talking about the metal cooling rings that go on each wheel assembly, which GM says you have to remove.

jvp

We're actually not talking about those rings. We're specifically talking about the ducting that comes with the ZR1; that car doesn't come with the cooling rings.