Smoke testing for FI engine bay cooling
 

When I asked my tuner about what mods would be best for coling my turbo BRZ for track duty, he said the only REAL way to tell was wind tunnel smoke testing.

I was thinking if one were to mount a smoke bomb on a dowel, maybe a foot or two in front of the grill, or had someone drive alongside the car with a smoke bomb on a pole, that we could effectively see just where the hot engine bay air actually goes.

It would be cool to know if a vented hood was as effective as removing or cutting the skidplate/under car mods.

I plan to try this myself as soon as possible.

Anyone know where to get cheap, safe smoke bombs?

This sounds awesome. hope you can get video footage!

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=How+to+make+Smoke+Bombs

The best smoke bombs are the ones you make. There are tons of recipes and they will burn longer than ones you can buy from a firework store. Also, since they are not a pyrotechnic, they are not illegal (in most places. I am not a lawyer or legal authority).

Maybe some dry ice mounted on the front tow hook.

Then couple of go pros?

Sounds like your tuner has lost his mind or doesn't know what he's talking about. Just get a beefier radiator and call it a day.

I respectfully disagree.

I already have a bigger radiator, Spal fans and shroud, along with mods to increase air coming into the engine bay.

Getting the hot air OUT of the engine bay is the difficult part.

I'm building my car for eventual track days, and just a bigger radiator is not going to cut it.

Follow a car that was seafoamed?

Awesome, those are all great mods to help with cooling. Why do you think you need more than that? You said you are building a car for track days. Is this a dedicated track car? Why do you think what you've done isn't sufficient for cooling mods? Do you have an oil cooler? I think you may be suffering from the same problem that many people do when building their "track cars". Unless you are some professional racer who plans on building a dedicated track car then you are probably massively overdoing it. Get it on the track, drive it, have fun, and see what it needs instead of throwing money at potentially non-existent problems.

I guess my point is if you think you are going to get any meaningful data out of driving a car down the road with a smoke bomb attached to a stick sitting in front of it, then by all means go for it. No need to reinvent the wheel here. Look at the others who have tracked their cars and look at what they have done. There are products already available for our platform and thinking that some shade tree mechanic "wind tunnel" testing is going to tell you anything new is just plain silly.

I've talked to people that track their cars, and they say that heat is still their biggest issue.

I'm not throwing too much money at my mods. The crash bar was $169, the holes I cut were maybe $20 (hole saw), modding the skid plate will cost nothing.
The radiator/fans/shroud are mods that are basically needed for track use.

Oil cooler is going in soon.

I'm wanting to exhaust all options before spending the money on a vented hood.

I want to see how effective ALL the different mods are. Smoke testing will at least show how effective undercar mods are compared to a vented hood.

Or a turboed Honda Civic.

Just because someone tracks their car doesn't mean they fully evaluate every possibility. Even if they are fast it doesn't mean they have the best combination for every person.

Also, diy aero testing can be very effective. Have you ever heard of someone taping short pieces of string all over their car and video taping while driving to see where the air flow is laminar or turbulent?

I just had a thought. If anyone's tested this and might be willing to add their experience/results it'd be @Element Tuning.

Making the fender vents functional heat extractors should help with the evacuation of hot air as long as you have more air pushing in through the front of the engine bay with higher power fans or additional front bumper ducting...

Testing in the rain is how we do it ;)