C4 Tech/Performance L98 Corvette and LT1 Corvette Technical Info, Internal Engine, External Engine

Under hood turbulence

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Old Jun 25, 2023 | 02:01 PM
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Default Under hood turbulence

I thought I would share something I found out very recently by accident about turbulence under the hood.
The radiator shroud is a very important aero component! Do not put holes in it or do what I did in the early days of owning my GS.
My story:
Back in 1999 or 2000, I went ahead and installed a cold air kit that I bought from Mid America Corvette. It was basically an air box that inverted the air cleaner 180 degrees. You had to cut out the radiator shroud to match the shape of the air cleaner lid which is essentially a rectangular shape cutout (thankfully I kept my original shroud and cut up a spare to use).
Unknowingly this modification caused high speed instability.
I found this out recently when for a different reason I decided to reinstall my original radiator shroud (the replacement is somewhat of a PIA to do).
My car is planted at speed again, the car feels like it is being sucked down to the ground at high speeds which is how I remember it when I first bought the GS.
I would not have thought the cutout would have made so much of a difference but it certainly does.




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Old Jun 25, 2023 | 08:08 PM
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Definitely interesting....
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Old Jun 26, 2023 | 12:06 AM
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Super cool to hear someone confirm with first hand experience the aero effect of the radiator shroud. I have thought about cutting mine to feed air to the intake but decided not to after a little digging in the forum pulled up old threads with people saying that the aero effect of the radiator shroud is important.

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