I know nothing about hood scooops, as this question will show, but... How do you keep rain, snow, birds, superman out of your engine bay while running and while parked?
Generally speaking, if you have a scoop, your air filter will get much dirtier, much faster... When it comes to rain, it depends alot on placement of inlet, size of inlet, and where your filter is in relation to inlet. You filter will get at least damp in heavy rain, though I have had partially wet filters before too. Never totally wet, or water in the engine mind you! My Z28 took in air from the radiator air dam. It had a low intake ram air setup (not stock), and I only got a wet filter once, from a massive downpour and going through very deep water at the same time. I couldn't see the standing water it was raining so hard. It didn't hurt anything, but out of an abundance of caution, I checked my filter and it was 75% soaked. My 75 Mav has a Dodge Demon scoop. Dual inlet, 5" high. The air filter, top half of the filter, was sealed to the hood. No where for dirt/water to go but in the filter from the scoop. In the worst rain, it would get somewhere between damp and wet on the forward portion. Never the rear, never any indication of water getting into engine. This was when the car was daily driven too. Many years, no issues. I would worry more about the expense of going through air filter elements much faster. It is amazing how much faster they get dirty when they have a free flow of outside air! My Mav filter would get black on the foward part, and I would spin it 180* and let the back half get dirty... Then get a new one. For my Z28, aftermarket companies took the air dam ram air one step further and put a snorkel down there below the front of the car. Like a vacuum cleaner sucking the road clean! Even those were 'fairly' safe from water ingestion. However I do know of a couple that did hydrolock from driving though unexpected deep water like I did. If I had a snorkel on mine, I'd have lost an engine that day. Short of a tube running to the road, I don't see much worry. Folks have run open air intakes since this hobby began, and problems are rare.
Never had a problem, cept with getting the air filter dirtier like above. I do have a fitted cover for my snorkel scoop, but seldom ever used it. Seems like rain never got in while driving or sitting. Dan
Never had a problem except the time on the PA turnpike when there was this 20' long piece of clear plastic that was blowing around. I tried to miss it but it went right over the intake scoop on my 86 SVO. Should have seen the people looking at me as I was trying to get out of the left lane and to the shoulder to get it out of there. I think half of it was piled on top the intercooler when I finally got stopped. - Matt
Your best bet when useing a scoop is to have some sort of drain in the air filter housing and a baffle in the front of the air filter to force the water around the filter to the drain.(in a perfect world anyhow) with space constraints and functionality its allways a compromise.Good luck.
Ohhh I have been thinking about this, as I wanna get a Summit street scoop (with the butterflies) and have been told to never drive in the rain once I get it.
My mom had this car in the mid 70's. I'm not sure if that's the actual car she had, but she had the real pace car (the car still exists and has been restored). The car was impossible to drive in the rain due to the scoops on the front of the hood. It would drown out constantly. By 1979, daily driving it in Indianapolis, rust was starting to take hold of the car and she went and traded it in on a '78 Corvette, which also has since been totally restored and is a common sight at car shows around here.
Lessons from Buick and Cadillac. I've had two Buick GS's with functional ram air... (a 455 and a 350) although the ducts are sealed to the hood and drop 90degrees into the front of the air pan... it's more of a "fresh air" system than a ram air system, but they definitely worked. The bottom half of the ducts were angled and had vanes and holes to drain water... probably created air turbulence but I never got a wet filter although filters got quite dirty (I used to rotate them as well...) and every fall I had to clean out leaves and debris and occasionally a dead bee from inside the air pan. Ah... I remember you could hear the 455 "who-o-o-op" when I stomped on it and it started sucking gobs of air... and gas... but the 350 seemed to run very smooth on cold damp nights after I replaced the sponges to mate the hood to the intake. I've been planning an intake system for my V-8 Comet - anyone ever seen an old Cadillac air pain where the scoops run into the BACK of the air pan and pressure forces air foreward? (It looks like something from an old Flash Gordon movie). That - with a drain channel - would alleviate rain, leaves, and insects. Grilles might keep out the birds. If a superhero gets sucked into your engine just stomp on it and hope the cape and leotards don't gum up your valves. What's the viscosity of Superman's hair grease?
My first Comet (white one below ...) had a 69 Mach 1 repop scoop. Given the tropical style rains that we get here in Fl, it got the distributor wet three times that first summer. Water would work its way across the hood, and even though I had sealed the air cleaner to the hood, it would still blow past that and get the ignition wet enough that it would not run until dried out. I changed it over to a short snorkel scoop, as was popular at that time (early 80s ), and true to it's name, the problem never plagued me again, even in the worst rain here. When I put the scoop on the Comet I have now, I bent some U-shaped aluminum around the opening, and riveted it in place. I also caulked it. It is less than a half inch tall. Any water running across the surface of the hood has to go around it. This air cleaner has never been sealed to the hood like the other one, just open to below, and yet, I have never had a soaked ignition in this car. It has been driven in the worst weather, too. I always thought it would be trick to seal the air cleaner to the cowl, NASCAR-style. That is a very high-pressure area at the base of the windshield.
CaptainComet makes a good point that I never thought about until now... If you have a scoop that takes its air straight off the surface of the hood, it will have a huge surface collecting water and rolling it straight into the scoop. With a snorkel, like the Demon scoop I used, the air comes straight from 'the air', no flowing over a wet surface. Kinda made sense to me in a flash there while reading his post. Of course the snorkel should be sealed to the hood, otherwise you will have water flowing on top of the hood, yet under the snorkel where it meets the hood. Mine was nicely sealed with a body 'caulking' (best I can describe) to the hood. Something to think about.
No problems. Just avoid those induction kits that locate it to too low. Had many cars here with hydraulic lock. Usually costs an engine. Love those cool air intakes. Make us lots of money after heavy rains. If its outside get a good car cover. My cover keeps it dry and breathes very well. Unless its a typhoon a bit of water wont hurt the motor. Mine is sealed to the hood but has a drain tube in the breather bottom.
i had a 68 mustang fastback with a 390 and three holley 2v carbs. i put the cobrajet scoop on the hood. this was a daily driver car so it saw rain snow or whatever. i kept my engine spotless so almost every day you would see me under the hood when i got home from work. polished aluminum doesnt like salt and moister. i had a piece of seat foam i cut and kept in the car. when ever it started to rain id stop and stck it in the scoop. yes it did act like a spoonge but it kept my filter dry and pretty clean. you could find some closed cell foam that doesnt absorb water and cut it to fit your scoop. it does help. also, K&N and others make a pre filter that you just slip over your air cleaner. keeps your filter clean. just pull the pre filter off and wash it. and remove it when showing off your engine. kinda like a hair net for your car!
