[Tatalis]

Can someone explain the performance benefits with these hoods? Or live hoods in general? I have almost no knowledge of exterior upgrades and recently got into the "car scene". Seem to me the hood scoop would take in the air at a pressurized rate and send it straight through a "air duct" to the oem air box. (Sounds good). The catch i am seeing is that the duct is sitting right next to your engine and the duct would be hot in this case so you would be putting in hot air. Right? Now i don't see it hurting performance to much if at all but I really don't see how it is better? Just need someone with more knowledge of how they work and the kind of performance output I need to expect and how they are achieved.
- I might have missed something huge or I could be totally wrong completely just was the first thing that i thought of.
- I realize this could be in the wrong section but I am mostly wanting the performance side of it.
- I am aware of the benefit of it looking 10x better and giving it a great look

 

[Ddaddy]

Can someone explain the performance benefits with these hoods? Or live hoods in general? I have almost no knowledge of exterior upgrades and recently got into the "car scene". Seem to me the hood scoop would take in the air at a pressurized rate and send it straight through a "air duct" to the oem air box. (Sounds good). The catch i am seeing is that the duct is sitting right next to your engine and the duct would be hot in this case so you would be putting in hot air. Right? Now i don't see it hurting performance to much if at all but I really don't see how it is better? Just need someone with more knowledge of how they work and the kind of performance output I need to expect and how they are achieved.
- I might have missed something huge or I could be totally wrong completely just was the first thing that i thought of.
- I realize this could be in the wrong section but I am mostly wanting the performance side of it.
- I am aware of the benefit of it looking 10x better and giving it a great look

The '06-'10 SRT hood was designed to bring outside air into the engine bay and "wash" it over the heads and exhaust manifolds. The 2012+ SRT hoods were designed to extract heat from under the hood. Neither was designed to bring cool air into the intake system nor any sort of Ram Air effect (which really doesn't exist below 100 mph anyway).

Neither of these hood designs is required however since the 300 SRT and the early Jeep SRT didn't have them (although the later Jeep SRT did have heat extraction venting).

Aftermarket hoods that connect the scoop to the airbox are simply a modified CAI designed to bring in ambient outside air into the intake. The same can be achieved with a good fender pull CAI like the LMI.

 

[Tatalis]

So there are performance gain from it? It would benefit in the same amount as a good cold air intake? It would just happen to cost more. Correct?

 

[Ddaddy]

So there are performance gain from it? It would benefit in the same amount as a good cold air intake? It would just happen to cost more. Correct?

There is a supposedly a small gain from the heat extraction/washing effect of the SRT hoods but it isn't much. The 2012+ Super Bees didn't have a scoop and it didn't show any less performance than the SRT heat extraction hood cars had.

The gains from getting good ambient air into the intake while minimizing turbulence are real (but still not huge). An LMI true CAI is about as good as it gets.

The simple answer is buy the hood because you like the looks and buy a true CAI because it does a little something for performance. All CAIs will add some nice sound if that's all you want but some are poorly designed and will lose performance...so be aware.

 

[Shots]

FWIW, I had a hood that worked like that 06-10 hood on my '07 Ram (different design though). The temperature never showed any different with the stock hood, or the vented hood. With the intake plumbed for "ram air" it didn't feel any different either. Sure it sounded cool like Ddaddy noted, but there is little to no effect on performance that I noticed. Though to be fair that was on a truck, not a car, and it wasn't a stock hood either.

I have to agree that they're primarily a cosmetic item. They may have a minimal performance benefit but not enough to offset the cost of them.

 

[SuperTrooper169]

Agree with all of the above. The "ram air" hoods sound enticing of course, but unless you're doing 100mph you're not going to see any real performance gains from them. Buy the one you like strictly for the looks.