FC Zach's '87 Sport

[FC Zach]

A couple weeks ago I did a little test drive to see if the cooling duct made much (if any) difference to IAT. At DGRR we recorded a little over 120 and with this hole added I noticed a drop of 25 degrees! It's not the best comparison since I don't remember what the ambient temp was in NC as compared to home. That, and I drove on the interstate compared to mountain roads in NC so I'm not certain about it all just yet but regardless there will be some improvement.


I prepped the aluminum sheet, doing as much as I possibly could by drawing a line with my cardboard stencil and cutting it. I didn't have any friends with a metal break so Friday I was able to get this to a fabricator to bend/trim and cut a 3.5" hole for me.


Once bent I was able to get it in the bay where I filed away extra material till I was happy with the fitment. To help prevent scratches I added tape till I was finished since I installed and removed this many many times!


I made some small 90 degree mounting tabs that I riveted in place. The three holes that I made the tabs for are factory holes. Only one of the three holes was threaded so for the other two I added 5mm RivNuts.

and as for this:

Originally Posted by TitaniumTT

When you're done with the sheet metal work what you can do is take some silicone vac line and slit it open and apply to the surface that's going to be nexto to the paint... protection and all

I looked around at the local Advance and told the guy what I was wanting to do and he handed me a pack of clear trim guard with adhesive made for door edges. I hadn't thought of this and was going to go the vac hose route but this seemed too brilliant to pass up and worked quite well since the embedded adhesive kept it in place. . . well except for the one spot where the rubber band is but once the shield is secured in place it's not an issue.


RivNuts and stainless button heads installed.


Next I cut and drilled holes for mounting a top plate.


Since aluminum absorbs heat so well I knew I needed to give this heat shield a fighting chance and I did that by adding this stuff.


My stopping point for the day. . I ran out of rivnuts so I'll finish when I'm back home from work. Once this is finished I'll mock up an intake tube and I'll finally get to do some more testing.