Increase Engine Bay Venting Methods?
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Instructor
Joined: Jul 2025
Posts: 121
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From: San Marcos CA
Increase Engine Bay Venting Methods?
Hello! I am looking to increase the venting in my engine bay to allow for better airflow and cooling through my c5 corvette. So far the only way I’ve seen that you can add extra venting to the car is by adding hood louvers to allow the hot engine bay air to escape via the top of the car. However, call me a wimp lol!, I don’t want to necessarily cut up my hood and add vents to it. My question is has anyone had any success with cutting the dead end side vents on the c5 corvette into the engine bay to allow for better venting?
Tech Contributor
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 19,360
Likes: 1,127
From: Dyer, IN
Hello! I am looking to increase the venting in my engine bay to allow for better airflow and cooling through my c5 corvette. So far the only way I’ve seen that you can add extra venting to the car is by adding hood louvers to allow the hot engine bay air to escape via the top of the car. However, call me a wimp lol!, I don’t want to necessarily cut up my hood and add vents to it. My question is has anyone had any success with cutting the dead end side vents on the c5 corvette into the engine bay to allow for better venting?
Pro
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 627
Likes: 330
From: San Jose CA
The 'real' way to do it; make the fender ducts functional.
https://www.electronsportusa.com/pro...5-fender-duct/
As tempting as it may be, do not just cut out your fender liners, there's 'stuff'' in there like your ECM that will get wrecked by the road debris and water.
As an addendum, if this is a street car, you absolutely do not need this or engine bay venting. The C5 is designed to run coolant temps in the 220-230F range, there's absolutely no reason to change that.
https://www.electronsportusa.com/pro...5-fender-duct/
As tempting as it may be, do not just cut out your fender liners, there's 'stuff'' in there like your ECM that will get wrecked by the road debris and water.
As an addendum, if this is a street car, you absolutely do not need this or engine bay venting. The C5 is designed to run coolant temps in the 220-230F range, there's absolutely no reason to change that.
Last edited by Lowend; Today at 11:32 AM. Reason: update links
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 921
Likes: 609
From: Navarre, Florida
My car had a Vararam CAI on it and the two fog light ports are used to feed that. However, I removed most of the components of the Vararam and all of that air is coming into my engine bay. I have a Trackspec hood vent but, even with that, my hood rapidly buldges on the freeway while at speed. So, there is absolutely such a thing as having too much air in the engine bay. I would check to see how air is entering the engine bay and if there are prudent ways to help eliminate it if that's something that is concerning you. For me, my plan is to block those two ports and do the best I can to channel the air specifically out of the hood vent using some well-placed aluminum ducting. Is it overkill for the street? You bet. But will it make me happy knowing that I'm properly controlling air through my engine bay? Yep. I'll need to get a proper front splitter at some juncture, too but, that's a conversation for another day.
Advanced
Joined: Jun 2025
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There's no "dead end". That's a fable perpetuated by them that haven't looked closely. When you reach in the side vent you can feel a plastic sheet, but that sheet is actually loose and flops around a bit (only attached on the inboard side) and has space around it for air to move. You can see that by taking the wheelwell cover section at the rear of the front wheel. It is open to the engine bay down under your brake master cylinder where the udders hang (shine a flashlight down there and then look into your side vents) , and by the computer on the passenger side. Between the two of them and taking into account that there are no large openings to the bay at the front of the car, there is plenty of room for the air in there to be sucked out of the side vents by low air pressure of the slipstream. The better plan would be to vent the fog light bezels like a Z06 to force air into the front.... it should still have no problem venting out the side vents.
Here's a link for proof: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/88qqYR8_***
Here's a link for proof: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/88qqYR8_***
Last edited by Gorn Captain; Today at 02:45 PM. Reason: add link
Pro
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 627
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From: San Jose CA
