Making a Carbon Hood and/or vent inserts

[G2]

I poked around but didn't seen anything that appealed to me.

Best I can tell there's maybe one company that makes a carbon hood, but NO vents. The RS6 hood has limited "good" options for installing a vent or cowling, w/o cutting the support braces.

For me that would be the only reason to replace the hood. To get rid of heat. Last summer I opened the hood everyday to vent heat out. It sometimes took 2-3 hours to reasonably cool down (used a IR temp gun to monitor temps).

The heat soak causes very high IAT temps and makes the engine lag until driven for a few minutes. Prolonged heat eventually cooks plastic parts and embrittles wiring. The heat soak also overheats the fuel. The fuel rails are quite large. The list goes on....

I have good manufacturing and business contacts that could come together to make a pro-grade carbon hood (or other parts).

What would you pay for a nice hood or vent inserts? I'm also thinking front fenders to allow bigger wheels...

General thoughts?

[ttboost]

I think this was done here or tried before? At least the vents..maybe not the full carbon hood. Do a search here for "hood vents"...don't recall if anything ever materialized then...

[bmlee007]

I remember a thread about trying to get Vorsteiner to make a vented carbon hood for us, but don't recall if it ever went past the wishful thinking phase.

[Brav]

I remember a thread about trying to get Vorsteiner to make a vented carbon hood for us, but don't recall if it ever went past the wishful thinking phase.

I am still working on the idea. I basically would have to front the costs and initial order of 5-10 hoods. Re-working the deal now actually. Stay tuned..

[bmlee007]

I am still working on the idea. I basically would have to front the costs and initial order of 5-10 hoods. Re-working the deal now actually. Stay tuned..

I would definitely be interested. Do you have any preliminary images or price estimates?

[ttboost]

Do you have any preliminary images or price estimates?

It will look like a RS6 hood with vents..and it won't be cheap...:lovl:

[nene]

Thread subscribed. Looking to see what comes of this.

[Ms_RS6]

Thread subscribed. Looking to see what comes of this.

same here.....

[lswing]

bakes in Canada had the custom hood vents right? Somebody else has the car now I believe, forget owners name...even getting a used hood to cut on is spendy, would be nice in the summer though! What about water pouring in all winter?

[G2]

bakes in Canada had the custom hood vents right? Somebody else has the car now I believe, forget owners name...even getting a used hood to cut on is spendy, would be nice in the summer though! What about water pouring in all winter?

Water entry is one of main issues to tackle. That's the issue I have with most vented hoods. Maybe vent drain tubes can funnel water onto the intercoolers? :hihi:

[dwarfboy]

I think this might be what you should be shooting for:

http://www.rs6.com/showthread.php/17474-Hood-Vent-Template-and-instructions?highlight=headshot+hood+vent

[JSRS6]

Headshot is the previous owner of the car Bakes now owns. He fabbed the hood, among other things on that masterpiece.

[formula1man]

I too am interested in a CF hood. Fenders would be cool I just am un costs. I looked at an S8 CF hood and it was $8k.

[G2]

I think this might be what you should be shooting for:

http://www.rs6.com/showthread.php/17474-Hood-Vent-Template-and-instructions?highlight=headshot+hood+vent

I saw that one (hence, the first statement of my post). I couldn't bring myself to chop it up quite like that.....but maybe it's better than letting the engine cook to death.

[Stephencl]

I wanted to bring this thread back to life. Any progress on a carbon hood? Anyone?

[DHall1]

I have the vent templates.

[Stephencl]

We should do this now...we can use the templates and have them formed directly into the hoods. They could be done cheaper if we are not worried about the weave...

[Other_Erik]

Speaking from a bit of experience in getting rid of heat under a hood, I _believe_ that your best bet for return on investment will be:

1) Exhaust wrap - start at the front of the rear cats, wrap all the way up to the headers
2) Turbo blanket - keep that snail nice and toasty, dump the heat out the exhaust
3) If you have the under-engine plastic shield, check out the vent mod (more fresh air + angle aluminum to keep debris out)
and so on...

Way way way way way down at the bottom of the list (dollars spent vs. heat removed) is a vented CF hood

Keep in mind that if you're going to vent the hood itself, you're going to have to duct any water that may come in AWAY from engine block, electrical, etc... and the highest points in the hood (best place to vent heat) are directly above the top of the engine, fuse box, and vac pump. To dump water away, you're going to have to restrict the airflow from venting, kinda counterproductive...

You'd almost be better off venting out the quarter panels - some kind of forced air (smaller, high CFM fan mounted into the inner area of the quarter panel, switched by temp sensor (say, above 130F inside the engine compartment) to blow out through venting in the quarter panels - it'd look a bit ricey, but not as bad as a vented CF hood in my opinion.

Maybe I'm too purist, but I recognize heat soak is a problem, and I don't think a vented CF hood is a very cost effective / effective way of extracting heat from the engine bay. Your opinion may differ, but that's the beautiful thing about opinions :)

O_E

[Stephencl]

Erik,

thanks for your thoughts...I live out in Leesburg and am just about to take delivery of my third beast...we will have to get together.

This topic has been discussed countless times over the last 10 years. Here are a couple of the findings:

1) vents are the best way to get the heat out. Wrap is good, ceramic jet hot would be my choice though.
2) there have been some pretty successful and thought out designs including measurements on effectiveness. Headshot, Champion Motors, and Mr. Balsen all come to mind.
3) Headshot's design called for some water channelling, which is a good idea, he also added a vent at the windshield end of the hood which was very effective.
4) MTM's design is a bit garish, but very effective, lets lots of water in, but has never caused an issue..

there are quite a few folks that have done the mods, and none of them have ever reported an issue with water. I think it really depends on vent placement.

Im not disagreeing with your other methods of cooling down the engine bay, but we have to get the heat out!

Finally, I reached out to two manufacturers last night. If we could keep these under 2k, I think it would be pretty cool.

stephen

[bmlee007]

Welcome back Stephen, glad to see you on the board again. You and O_E should round up the rest of the NoVA gang and come up to Carlisle in May.

I would be in for the Headshot design, IMO that's the best looking I've seen so far. There are plenty of people who have hacked up their hoods in the name of cooling (or looks) but his is the only one that has curb appeal as well as function. I would also add the option of a prepared hood that could be color-matched, to not have the CF showing to the masses. That would make it more factory-style and less "Fast and Furious." CF is great to look at in smaller doses, but that huge slab over the engine compartment would be too much.

[Fonzie Audi]

I have custom vents in my hood. After driving around for a bit, at a stop light you can literally see the heat pouring up out of the hood in front of you. My car has been rained on for years without any issues.

[Stephencl]

So I have an update. I spent some time with one of the manufactures for some time today...here is the summary:

1) they are a very reputable company that provides literally hundreds of carbon hoods to the industry.
2) they will purchase a hood new from audi as part of the process
3) we would go with headshots core design, except the ducts will be molded in, and we may omit the rear vent. Tbd
4) we will need 25 orders to make it run, the orders must be paid in advance
5) cost will be under 2k per hood
6) we will do a gloss coat and a prep coat finish
7) will use factory hood release, however this company requests the use of hoodpins for safety reasons.


Stephen

[ben916]

So I have an update. I spent some time with one of the manufactures for some time today...here is the summary:

1) they are a very reputable company that provides literally hundreds of carbon hoods to the industry.
2) they will purchase a hood new from audi as part of the process
3) we would go with headshots core design, except the ducts will be molded in, and we may omit the rear vent. Tbd
4) we will need 25 orders to make it run, the orders must be paid in advance
5) cost will be under 2k per hood
6) we will do a gloss coat and a prep coat finish
7) will use factory hood release, however this company requests the use of hoodpins for safety reasons.


Stephen

The rear vent is the key to the Headshot design, so much in fact that Mr. Balsen challenged Headshot to his temp readings and the "copied" the design for the MTM hoods...

[bmlee007]

The rear vent is the key to the Headshot design, so much in fact that Mr. Balsen challenged Headshot to his temp readings and the "copied" the design for the MTM hoods...

I would imagine the rear vent works in a similar fashion as the Sportec cooling mod for the undertray, creating a venturi as air passes over it to pull out the heat, while the front vents would help lower overall temps by channeling out some of the air passing through the radiator.

[DHall1]

Rear vent is a must

Must have it.

[s8prtotype]

I'm very picky, and the wife will probably kill me... but depending on how it looks i'll (most likely) be in on this *gulps*

[Dmb408]

Stephen, don't want to be a naysayer, but we are never going to get to 25...I think. I am just as close as s8 is, my wife will kill me, but you can call me one foot in for now.

[Stephencl]

Stephen, don't want to be a naysayer, but we are never going to get to 25...I think. I am just as close as s8 is, my wife will kill me, but you can call me one foot in for now.

With you and S8 we are at 5 maybe six. I think we can get there. Dont forget the a6 4.2 crowd and the s6 avant crowd over at audizine....

i will post a new group buy thread after i get initial design specs.

stephen

[bakes]

As you all know, I purchased Headshot's car. I can take any pictures you may want of the hood and vents if needed. I've put my hand over the vents to see if I could feel warm air escaping after driving the car and felt some (but not a lot) of warm air rising. Perhaps the vents come into play more when the car is moving. Headshot also did the undertray mod as well. As he noted, the drainage system headshot used has slightly worn some marks onto the silver air intake lines but even after washing the car i've lifted the hood and found no water anywhere it shouldn't be. The car has run solid through heavy rain and my cold winters without any issues (knocks on wood).

Let me know,
Greg

[DHall1]

Yes,

Please start a new thread with lots of hood pictures.


As you all know, I purchased Headshot's car. I can take any pictures you may want of the hood and vents if needed. I've put my hand over the vents to see if I could feel warm air escaping after driving the car and felt some (but not a lot) of warm air rising. Perhaps the vents come into play more when the car is moving. Headshot also did the undertray mod as well. As he noted, the drainage system headshot used has slightly worn some marks onto the silver air intake lines but even after washing the car i've lifted the hood and found no water anywhere it shouldn't be. The car has run solid through heavy rain and my cold winters without any issues (knocks on wood).

Let me know,
Greg

[CBeau]

I would probably be in. Why not?

If some level of comfort can be reached that it will be high quality and fitment not needing modification of any mounting points such that stock hood could be readily replaced.

I spent some time working for professional motorsports outfits - not as a tech or engineer or anything cool like that but legal and finance - and I saw many carbon pieces made soup to nuts from clay to enclave bag bake and the quality def. varied a lot lot. Actually some of the guys I worked with used to work for Champion with RS6s and some/most of the time for race cars the pieces didn't need to be street car perfect. Other aftermarket big mass production carbon co.s like Vorsteiner and Seibon etc. some of it is descent and some of it is junk.

So with that stipulation add me to the 25 count.

[CBeau]

... or is that "autoclave"... I forget. I just know they used to go back the "pre-preg" stuff vacuum bags in special oven in at secured military facility in MD = Aberdeen Proving Grounds. How they got access to do that I have no idea... I never asked. Prob. one of those "if I told you I'd have to kill you type of deals lol. Some of the engineers had defense contracting backgrounds and contacts = probably how.
They used to use there shaker rig for chassis testing too, I never saw it but apparently the rig they had there was used to chassis-shake test hummers and mega huge military transport vehicles etc. Pretty cool stuff.

[lswing]

Why not just cut into a factory hood that fits perfect? They can be found, not sure on the price for a new one. Weight saving would be nice for the carbon, but hood pins are fairly rice if you ask me. Also figure you've got about $500 to paint the hood. I do know the Mugello Blue color if done right matches perfect. I had a shop do my bumper when off the car, and we put it back on for a great match with no panel blending. Just a few cents...