quote:The paint on the hood was bubbling from the heat build up & I had to insulate the internal hood area surrounding the vents.
Paint bubbling from only radiator heat? Really?
quote:So, next thing, (along with other body work) is a larger radiator GT40 style hood vent.
If you like the GT40 style hood treatment that’s reason enough to incorporate it but I don’t think it’s necessary for adequate cooling. If you are going to build an air dam/splitter and want to eliminate all under car air flow to the extent possible, this could be another reason. It will take more effort and modification than you might think to do it properly though. I believe Gary W (Comp2) has some pictures available on his work in this area. I’ve never had any cooling problems of any kind and I have 427 CI stroker in the low/mid 500HP range. Summer temps here are routinely mid 90sF. I do have the Ron Davis radiator Pantera Performance sells and it has twin suckers/pullers with plenum, and I believe the plenum is key. It has stainless transfer tubes but other than this is the ordinary Pantera cooling configuration with pressure and overflow tank. Ordinary Windsor (aftermarket block) cooling circuit and tstat.
Like all things cooling is a system and the parts of the system must work well together so ina ddition to the coolant flow considerations addressed in this thread, I think the best of all worlds at the point in the system wher the heat is rejected to the environment, with the standard Pantera radiator air flow scheme, is a well designed plenum with puller fans, and flaps on the shroud area that open at high speed but close at low speed to allow the plenum to work properly. I’ve never needed the extra capacity at speed so I dont have the flaps/trap door scheme. Maybe if I was open road racing at sustained speed it would be different. I think Johnny Woods posted a picture of how he had fashioned a plenum scheme as I describe above. You might search and a look.
Best,
K