I wanted to add a hood insulating blanket to my Escort since it has so much trouble maintaining normal operating temperature in cold weather. Rather than making one I decided to remove the hood blanket from my Firebird and put it in the Escort. I don't feel I really need it in the Firebird since it is rarely driven in cold weather and it gets pretty heat soaked when it's warm out. The surprising thing is how well it fits. It is a little bit wider than the Escort's hood but it still fits between the edges of the engine bay. Here's a pic:
I didn't think to get a before picture. The two rectangular openings were for the hood struts on the Firebird. You can also see the holes where the fasteners went on the Firebird. The blanket appears to be made of fiberglass about 1/4" thick with a black paper-like layer on either side.
Here's the now bare hood of the donor car:
It was a pretty quick and easy swap since it was held in by regular plastic automotive fasteners.
The only thing I had to do to remove it from the Firebird besides prying the fasteners out was unbolt the hood struts one at a time since they pass through the blanket. To install it on the Escort I held it up to the bottom of the hood, felt for where it lined up with the ribs on the bottom of the hood, then poked some new holes in the blanket and drilled holes for the fasteners in the ribs.
I'll have to wait a few days for colder weather to return to really tell if it makes a noticeable difference, today was warmer than it has been of late. Once I have a better sense of how effective it is I will report back. I didn't really notice a significant reduction in engine noise, however I took the Firebird for a spin and it seems like the sound of air being sucked into the intake on hard acceleration is a little bit louder, so it looks like this will be a win-win.
