Can anyone tell me why the bonnet vents on my Classic have blanking plates on the underside ? Is there any advantages/disadvantages if i removed these plates ?

 

Water mainly

 

Water getting into engine bay i know would be bit of a problem but removing these blanking plates would it improve air flow through the engine bay etc ?

 

so just what purpose do the vents actually serve if they are blanked off? i had thought of opening mine, thinking that letting heat out or cool air in would be a good move...anyone able to answer that one?

 

They do let out heat. You can see the heat haze around them when the engines hot

 

a better comprimise as I did on mine is to remove them wind a nut onto the thread, remove the foam from the plates and then put them back on. This creates a nice gap around the edge letting more heat out and some air in at speed and no water in when parked

 

The men who know on here claim that the engine bay is desiged to flow air through the grills at the front which combines with the main vent flow to draw the air over the gearbox and out the back. removing the covers apparently disrupts the flow and actually increases under bonnet temps.

That said, I've removed my driver's side one and boxed off my induction kit.

 

Additionally.

Water ingress around the the MAF area is not good. Also removing the blanking plate from the drivers side vent will cause a chimney effect and will actually draw hot air to the airbox area.

They are essentially cosmetic.

 

Agreed

 

Not if you separate the engine from the induction area. As far as I can see, I'm routing in air through the foglight hole into the boxed off area and out the vent.

I think they were originnally for rally cars when you weren't allowed to change panels from homolagated models...

 

If your air box is enclosed, great. This doesn't detract from the fact you're are drawing hot air toward the area, rather then letting cold air in which is the common conception.

P.S. I was considering routing from the foglight. I take it you've had no issues with water. This was a concern of a local tuner although I'm not convinced it'd be a problem.

J

 

Correct, they are there for homolagation purposes and should not be removed as this can create hot spots

 

I've got a HKS induction partitioned off from the engine by tin sheet - this is the only way i'd remove it. Most importantly, with no cover you can hear the induction roar and snarfle

I don't understand what harm water will do if it does get in (apart from drawing in dirt if it's road water I suppose). It'll hit the airfilter and sit there for a few seconds until the high flow of air across it evaporates it. And even if it did get further what would it do? Cool my charge?

AFAIK the snorkle is there to prevent BIG amounts of water (e.g. when you're fording a river) entering.

At the moment I've only got one foglight cover, but I was considering getting the mesh ones of ebay that are designed to let light through - hopefully they'd also let air through.

 

Getting water over electrics and MAF doesnt sound like a good idea! I remove mine in summer and replace them when the weather gets bad. I left them off a while during some bad weather - the engine got filthy.

 

Don't be a girl! Who said water and electrics don't mix?

Seriously, I would advise bagging the MAF. And if you've got an alarm siren down there you don't want it exposed to a) water and b) thieving pikies,

 

The water goes though the blanks anyway, just in a more directed manner.

Maf should be fine. Its a sealed unit. I have removed my drivers side vent blank, but run a CAK.



Bob