The extreme AreoCRX-HF project

[Johnny Mullet]

[ebacherville]

LOL yeah the snow blower has almost the same HP as the car.. actually if i do a motor swap it would be a diesel, running veggie oil

[chrislk1986]

That looks pretty good. You could totally pull off the "Darkwing Duck" look...

Insted of raising the hood in the back, can you just pull the cowl out? I had my cowl off for a few days while I was replacing the foam surround and a hole that somehow formed and noticed that it ran much cooler because with the cowl out.

You could make a cheapo cover for the fan opening out of cardboard and fiberglass and just glue some mesh in place of the cowl to keep pine needles and leaves out. I'm not sure if the Crx's cowl seals at the back of the hood like the Civic though.

Or do like they did on the Simpson's and make "speed holes" in the hood.

[ebacherville]

Originally Posted by chrislk1986

That looks pretty good. You could totally pull off the "Darkwing Duck" look...

Insted of raising the hood in the back, can you just pull the cowl out? I had my cowl off for a few days while I was replacing the foam surround and a hole that somehow formed and noticed that it ran much cooler because with the cowl out.

You could make a cheapo cover for the fan opening out of cardboard and fiberglass and just glue some mesh in place of the cowl to keep pine needles and leaves out. I'm not sure if the Crx's cowl seals at the back of the hood like the Civic though.

Or do like they did on the Simpson's and make "speed holes" in the hood.

The cowl on the CRX is not open like most cars, I was looking at it and there is a seal at the rear of the hood and the cowl is pretty much sealed up.. there are two small holes where it looks there would be no air getting to under the hood .. I think they pull the air in from some other location on the CRX? the cowl isn't like most cars.. nothing can enter around the wiper area.. I think raising the rear of the hood will fix my small heating issue and push air over the wipers too.. also i noticed i should block the opening on the side of the radiator as any air being pushed into the front of the car isnt forced to hit the radiator at this point.. the radiator only takes up half the space between the head lights and there is a big hole going into the engine compartment that if sealed should direct more air by the radiator..

[TheDon]

how much does the new nose weigh?

[ttoyoda]

To fix your cooling problem:

If the underside of the new nose is open now, then you might try a front spoiler just at the line original front bumper. If you can get hold of worn out racing slicks or dragster slicks, you can cut out the "tread" area out and end up with a nice piece of stiff rubber the width of the original tire x the circumference of the tire long. Make the spoiler almost touch the ground, it will grind away where it is too close. The spoiler will make air go up under the nose more. If that is not enough:

Pardon the breathtaking craptacity of the attached gimpshop.

You might consider Either cutting out the black area, or putting scoop underneath as shown in the red line. Which ever is easier or looks better, but not both unless you enjoy the extra work. In either case I would suggest completely sealing up the underside of the nose if you have not already done so, a panel which ends at the lowest point under the original front of the car. This way all air let in by the red scoop or black hole must go thru the radiator.

The black area hole is probably at a stagnation point at the nose of the car. The scoop might stick down about an inch or less. You will have to stiffen and reinforce the scoop since the air forces on it might be significant. The lower surface of the scoop would also be the lower surface of the panel that seals up under the nose. If you get okay cooling with the black hole, then you might consider making an internal duct (rectangular cross section is ok) from the hole which expands to fit the radiator size exactly, and is sealed to the radiator to prevent leakage. The duct will improve efficiency of the radiator, so it will help in you are marginal on the black hole size. If you want it to look cool, make a nice 2" radius around the edge of the black hole as it transitions to the duct. (this is the hardest part of the job)

Good luck!

[trikkonceptz]

Pardon my ignorance in the aerodynamics game but would a speaker box port work for cooling? They come in varying dimensions and you can attach ducting to the end to direct it into the radiator. I wouldn't think 2 1-1/2 or 2" holes in the front would be that detrimental. Plus they are smooth so it may be a good compromise.

[i_am_socket]

If you need the license plate mount as you said, I'd stick with the under-scoop ducted to the rad (a bit smaller than shown though), unless you can put ports on either side of the plate.

[ttoyoda]

Hi trikkonceptz

The only ignorant questions are the ones that are not asked.

If you can get away with only using one speaker port it would be ideal.
If you need a bigger area than that, I would suggest a single bigger hole.. I suspect that the hole counts as a reduction of your frontal area as well

For the bigger hole, If you can cut the speaker port into 4 segments along its axis then you could use those segments for the corners of a rectangular port, Or cut it into 2 segments and make an obround port and have an easy job radiusing the straight sides of the rectangle or obround.

About the duct, I want to be clear that the duct should expand evenly and continuously from the small port area to the larger radiator area. I do not suggest you use spiral wrap ductwork hose or dryer hose and just point it at the radiator (well, unless you try it and it is good enough ). You will get the best efficiency out of your radiator if you can get uniform air velocity across the entire frontal face of the radiator. Fast airflow on a small area of the radiator and slower flow on the rest will give you less efficiency. If you were to make a duct out of sheet cardboard and duct tape to start you can find out what port area you need. The long nose will let you make a long duct, which will help get the air spread out.

Also, I assume the exhaust manifold and/or cat are on the front of the engine just behind the radiator? These items reach a significant temperature, and thus "radiate" heat at the back side of the radiator (the radiator paradoxically gets rid of most of its heat thru forced convection ). If you can install one or two or 3 layers of sheetmetal, spaced apart from each other (so air can get in between) and from the exhaust manifold/cat 1/2 inch or so, you can block the radiative heat transfer from getting to the radiator. Ideally, no part of the radiator face can "see" any part of the exhaust manifold or cat converter. Pretend the surfaces of the exhaust manifold and cat are giving off light, you want the radiator to stay in the dark, but of course you need to let air get out the back of the radiator.

[ebacherville]

actualy the radiator is on the transy side of the motor so ther eis no exhaust behind it.. And im not to far of of the air flow needed to pull this off, Im thinking raising the rear of the hood 1/2 max to create a draft through the engine bay will solve the issue.

Also if you look at the side profile there is a small air spoiler that hangs below the rest of the nose piece this will be extended a inch or so and that will drive more air into the radiator..

However I whant to avoid putting holes in the front of my nose as much as possible as its doing a great job getting air around the car.. I went out last night to get a idea of frontal area... by using bug splats and there was about the area of the license plate that was bug splatted , the rest was free of bugs, that means its separating the air quite well.

I have no true understanding of aerodynamics besides what my eye think looks good.. and real world tests like bug splatters and any added aerodynamics over the stock boxy front end is a improvement.