Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods Cheap mods...my $.02

Well...I put in my drop-in AFE at the same time, so between the 2...yes. You know how when you put on the AC and it dogs? With the AFE/cone mod...no longer dogs. I'd say the combo was worth 5 hp.

Go ahead...flame me..."can't feel 5hp..."

Another benefit...is no moosing or AF droning. Sounds great at 6000rpm too!

So...5hp...$50...Thanks Micah (pxracing@aol.com)

Good call, PA. My hoodliner mysteriously disappeared one day...

i've done basically all you can do to intake except buy an aftermarket CAI (mine is close enough) but what is this about the hood seal around the cabin air filter? never heard anything about this, can you explain more and is it the same on zetec?

The rubber seal that runs along the entire length of the firewall. Seals the hood when its shut. You can remove it, but Bnoon recommended that you leave a little strip in front of the cabin air intake to prevent engine fumes from being sucked in. Allows heat to escape out the back of the engine bay. Seemed to make sense to me...been 10,000 miles and no adverse effects. Works on any car...4/6.

Except that that area is a high-pressure area. So by removing the seal, you are

a) letting air flow into the back of the engine bay
b) increasing pressure behind the radiator, which will reduce airflow across the radiator, and
c) actually creating more turbulence in there, and reducing overall airflow.

Removing the hoodliner is a good idea, because it frees up the front-to-back flow through the engine bay, but Mr. Haines himself cautioned against removing either the front or rear hood seals.

I don't know the flow characteristics of the car...so I can't comment on that. My SVT has 85,000 on the stock WP, and she nevers reads hot...even stuck in traffic in GR! I think if you think about air coming up thru the engine bay, and exiting out of the back of the hood...maybe good?

I really didn't do the mod for any high-speed gains, but rather to let the engine bay heat have a place to go when in slow or stopped traffic, which is where the dreaded heat soak hurts the most.

Well, I'm no aero engineer, either, but there was a long discussion about removing the hoodliner, and Terry chimed in with pretty much what I parroted, above.

You may be exactly right for the driving you speak of, and Terry may be talking about a theoretical constant upon which the hood seals were based.

I also have experience with air-cooled VWs, and I know that some humble-looking pieces of tin served critical cooling functions in that motor, so when an engineer says "Oh don't remove that..." I listen.