YACT: What do cowls do?

[Syringer]

I see a lot of these in Mustang/Camaro hoods..but what exactly is the purpose of them?

 

[ElFenix]

its what the english call the hood...

 

[Angrymarshmello]

When driving, it forces air into the airbox to give slightly better performance. Otherwise you'd be drawing in the heated air inside the engine compartment. The cooler the air the better (to an extent)

 

[Zim Hosein]

Grabs cooler air to aid in combustion

 

[amnesiac]

Cowl? Is that some sort of genetic freak, a cow-owl hybrid?

mooo-hoooo!!!!

 

[Brutuskend]

You mean hood scoops?

They point forward, cowl induction points to the rear.

Though they both allow cool air to be drawn into the engine.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

The cowl scoops do one or more of 4 things:
1: give more clearance in the engine bay
2: allow heat to escape out of the engine bay
3: allow cool air from the high pressure area caused by the hood and windshield to go into the engine's intake (more efficient than a forward facing scoops, this is what NASCAR and TransAm cars do)
4: look cool

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
The cowl scoops do one or more of 4 things:
1: give more clearance in the engine bay
2: allow heat to escape out of the engine bay
3: allow cool air from the high pressure area caused by the hood and windshield to go into the engine's intake (more efficient than a forward facing scoops, this is what NASCAR and TransAm cars do)
4: look cool

Finally a winner


See the black part of the hood, it's 3"'s higher then the rest of the hood, allowing for his Sportsman block to fit under the hood, it would NOT have fit with the stock hood

 

[Dhawk]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
its what the english call the hood...

Actually, in England I believe they call a hood a bonnet.

 

[Marshallj]

Originally posted by: Syringer
I see a lot of these in Mustang/Camaro hoods..but what exactly is the purpose of them?

While some other posters pointed out the original intended uses of cowl hoods, the reality is that most cars with cowls do not draw the air from there, and the cowl is simply for looks. Most of the time the hood doesn't even have a hole in it, the cowl is doing nothing.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Dhawk

Originally posted by: ElFenix
its what the english call the hood...

Actually, in England I believe they call a hood a bonnet.

oh, that too

 

[Zugzwang152]

a cowl is what batman wears!

 

[Balthazar]

As mentioned before, a cowl lets you fight crime with relative anonymity....

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: Marshallj

Originally posted by: Syringer
I see a lot of these in Mustang/Camaro hoods..but what exactly is the purpose of them?

While some other posters pointed out the original intended uses of cowl hoods, the reality is that most cars with cowls do not draw the air from there, and the cowl is simply for looks. Most of the time the hood doesn't even have a hole in it, the cowl is doing nothing.

actually a Cowl is not a Scoop/Ram air, look at the picture I posted, or look at some picks of the 95 or 2000 Cobra-R's THOSE are cowls.

Scoops/Ram Air is totally different, and yes those can be functional like on the WS6 or fake like on 90% of the cars out there from the factory with them. Most aftermarket Scoop/ram air hoods will have a canal to the airbox to make the scoop functional.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Technically, the "cowl" is the portion of the car to which the bottom of the windshield mates. Of course, a cowl hood would be either letting air in or out at that approximate location, which is probably how it got its name.

ZV

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: amnesiac
Cowl? Is that some sort of genetic freak, a cow-owl hybrid?

mooo-hoooo!!!!

Holy crap man!!! I read that and just busted out laughing......brought freaking tears to my eyes from laughing so hard...