Accufab exhaust, tune, & pully warped my vents.


AZGT

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Dec 20, 2005
1,354
Scottsdale, AZ.
Might there be a Mark II scoop on the horizon?

Unfortunately, no. Thought about this, but when you are dealing with a legitmate 200MPH car with extensive air flow analysis, I would be hesitant about introducing anything that could change characteristics regarding downpressure, etc.

It would be pretty tough to do a carbon version of the original louvered vent.

My intent has been to do something in the spirit of the flat panel with the oval slots some of the original race cars had.

I have three styles in initial construction. All three will be made of aluminum, and depending on opinions, any or all could be produced.

Like Kip, one is flat with circles. Another is flat with raised louvers like seen on most of the GT40s. Both reflect the style of the original cars. The third will be essentially a replacement for the stock - CNC work.


Just as a question for members, I was wondering with the warped vents if they are occurring with cars with transaxle coolers. Mine seemed to warp about the time I put the cooler in. Just wondering since there are basically only the two side scoops for underhood cooling and if some restriction of the air flow is happening that increases the underhood temperature. My cooler fits up snug to the vent - I know the Ford item sits away. GT Guys indicated that the Ford one was designed like that to still allow air to more freely flow into the compartment. Warp guys, do you have a cooler and is it snug or away?
 

SteveA

GT Owner/B.O.D
Mark IV Lifetime
Dec 13, 2005
3,694
Sandpoint Id
Greetings Ed

The car that Millen has is a very early car. Not sure what the number was.
A very few of the early development cars had inner clamshells that were from a 2x2 twill weave carbon. The regular production cars used a unidirectional fiber carbon. I can't recall why we went that way in production. That would be one for Bill Clarke to answer. Usually the reason is to use the fibers most efficiently for a given load path. It doesn't look as cool, though... The Z06 fender is a unidirectional fiber, but it is painted.

As I recall the Stillen car was either #0015 or #0019 (05'). The CF weave on the clamshell was as cool looking as it gets.
 

SteveA

GT Owner/B.O.D
Mark IV Lifetime
Dec 13, 2005
3,694
Sandpoint Id
Unfortunately, no. Thought about this, but when you are dealing with a legitmate 200MPH car with extensive air flow analysis, I would be hesitant about introducing anything that could change characteristics regarding downpressure, etc.



I have three styles in initial construction. All three will be made of aluminum, and depending on opinions, any or all could be produced.

Like Kip, one is flat with circles. Another is flat with raised louvers like seen on most of the GT40s. Both reflect the style of the original cars. The third will be essentially a replacement for the stock - CNC work.


Just as a question for members, I was wondering with the warped vents if they are occurring with cars with transaxle coolers. Mine seemed to warp about the time I put the cooler in. Just wondering since there are basically only the two side scoops for underhood cooling and if some restriction of the air flow is happening that increases the underhood temperature. My cooler fits up snug to the vent - I know the Ford item sits away. GT Guys indicated that the Ford one was designed like that to still allow air to more freely flow into the compartment. Warp guys, do you have a cooler and is it snug or away?

I've had an X-pipe and a trans cooler from about 1500mi on and mine were fine until around 3000mi., it seemed to happen all at once. When washing the car I always closely check the vents having seen other cars warp. One washing day they were fine the next they weren't.:confused
It happened in spring, not a particularly hot time of year.:confused:confused
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
I have the Ford cooler and no problems with the upper vents. The passenger side vent has a very slight wave to it.
 

Neilda

GT Owner
Oct 19, 2005
3,559
London, UK
I have the Ford Racing Parts transaxle cooler and have not noticed any additional heat. I'm not sure the radiator runs that hot does it?

Why not stick some heat tags in the area and we could take a look...
 
Aug 25, 2006
4,436
I have watched this thread continue to get legs and at the end of the day would a set of aluminum vents or carbon fiber be nice; absolutely. Having shared this I would be sooner drawn to the aluminum because I have no other carbon fiber as such I feel that it may be a bit of a bulls-eye on my gal however for example on Bony's gal with the cool carbon fiber air inlet ducts they would tie in very nicely.

With this being said the question of the day seems to be why some and not others irrespective of the exhaust installed, whether the clamshell is opened after returning from a run, etc. warp.

I wish to offer another plausible explanation; considering that the clamshell's expansion characteristics are much different from the inserted plastic trim pieces I think that there is a possibility that the manner in which they were secured could be playing a roll. Meaning; are the nuts too tight on some or worst the insertion holes not placed in such a way that a modicum of expansion and contraction can take place as they heat and cool as such the part simply becomes stressed while heated and then bows/warps as the byproduct of the installation having less to do with the physical characteristics of the vents.

I can share that all of my vent nuts were only finger snug and a few were actually loose and I have no warped vents. Furthermore I left them this way and because of a recommendation from another did "NOT" use Locktite but rather placed a very small dap of silicon on the threads after the nut just so it/they cannot freely come off and yet they remain fully serviceable.

Takes care

Shadowman
 

AZGT

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Dec 20, 2005
1,354
Scottsdale, AZ.
I have the Ford Racing Parts transaxle cooler and have not noticed any additional heat. I'm not sure the radiator runs that hot does it?

I was thinking as more of an air flow restriction rather than added heat. Since there are the two side vents and you somewhat close up one with the cooler, I was just wondering.


I think that there is a possibility that the manner in which they were secured could be playing a roll. Meaning; are the nuts too tight on some or worst the insertion holes not placed in such a way that a modicum of expansion and contraction can take place as they heat and cool as such the part simply becomes stressed while heated and then bows/warps as the byproduct of the installation having less to do with the physical characteristics of the vents.

I can share that all of my vent nuts were only finger snug and a few were actually loose and I have no warped vents.

Wondered the same. I had mine off soon after I purchased it to do some cleaning (18 months ago), and naturally tightened them when I put them back on. When I took the vents off the other day I was surprised how loose the nuts were. Do they loosen and then warp? Maybe they need to be snug so that the entire vent is secure against the clamshell. Don't know, but we do seem to have a warp / no warp variability going, so we need to look for inconsistencies between the two gtroups.
 

fjpikul

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Jan 4, 2006
11,475
Belleville, IL
At the Rally in Detroit, at Saleen, two of the young, female body shop girls adjusted my clamshell glass sidelights. While doing this, they told me later cars had double-sided tape on the vents and would I like it on mine? I said of course since I had seen Silverbullitt's warped ones. They immediately pulled both vents off (with Silverbullitt's mouth drooling) and added the double-sided tape. You can't see the tape and I don't see any warpage on my vents despite the hot and humid St. Louis weather. No coolers, exhaust or anything else on my unmodded car with 6800 miles.
 

cobrar1339

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Feb 2, 2006
956
Diamond Bar, Ca
That is very interesting, your point on the tape and Shadowmans thoughts...humm. Is the tape somehow holding the piece flat during expansion/contraction, pulling it back into shape as it cools ?. If it is not just melting, then the shell has to expand into that area to make the wave in the vent. The pics I have seen show the vents with an upward arch. Makes sense that a squeeze may do this.

Here is a shot of the clearance between a closed clam and the muffler area. I think most folks said the vents warped at the end closest to the bumper.

That looks to be dead air in that area. I seriously doubt the trans coolers play a roll here. The top of the air box to the clam is about 3/4". The muffler area looks to be about 3".

My guess is that Shadowman and Frank are on to something here. But of course, the material composition itself is sub par and should not do this in the first place. Then again, if you fix that, do the new vents start creating a paint rub problem from expansion and contraction. Might be worth a check with a set of calipers pre- and post drive.
 

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