I was looking at getting a new grille and came across one that listed one of its benefits as 10% more airflow. Would doing this result in a slight hp increase?

 

10 percent is not much at all and may not be that noticable, but every little helps right?

I just simply took off my grille and did not notice anything. I took it off simply for looks and am going to fill in the holes where the clips went. I thought about more air getting in there but like I said I didn't notice any difference.

 

There's styrofoam behind the grill. No air comes through the grill on LS1 cars. Am I missing something here?

 

im with you here...

 

i believe the air flow across the radiator/air filter... comes from underneath across the air dam.. you know.. the thing you always scrape when you park at a curb..... and the grill is purely cosmetic.. kinda like the vette... correct me if i'm wrong.. but i believe that's what is goin on....

 

Yep, look through those holes on the side of the black plastic grill, nothing but foam. I think a little bit of air can still go through there, but most comes from under the bumper

 

The Vette doesn't really have "grills" But it does have 4 openings. two long ones are cosmetic and for the foglights. The two smaller ones are brake cooling ducts.

 

All the air for the radiator comes from the air dam under the body. You should look under there time to time to make sure there is not trash (like a plastic bag) sucked up on your radiator. The holes on each side of the Z have foam, but it is behind the opening, (it is on mine anyway.) It allows cool air to be slightly pressured in front of the radiator area where the intake sucks from (non SS). Grill on or off would be basicly the same. The holes or plenty big enough for air intake to the engine, especially at high speeds. Later>>>>>>>>>

 

What about cutting out the styrofoam? Any why would they put that black grille on the car when it says CAMARO on the bumper anyway? Is it really only for front-plate states?

 

i was thinking that foam directed the air up ? , cus of its angle.. maybe

 

OK ... here's how the air flow works on the Z ... first there are two completely segregated airflow paths ... one from underneath the car, via the air dam feeds and cools the radiator. The second, through the grill feeds the airbox ...

The air comes through the grill and hits the back dam behind the grill and is forced straight up through an opening in the foam bumper. If you open you hood you will find the openings in the top of the foam, just on either side of the washer reservior. The air comes up from those holes and splashes against the hood and is directed right toward the opening in the air box.

Changing the grill really isn't going be able to improve the air flow. Taking it off all together may, not that it is going give any significant performance improvement ... but putting something on like an 18 bar billet grill could start to impede airflow.

If you want to get a significant amount of additional air to the airbox, there's really only 2 ways to do it - other than a ram air type hood. Both of which break down the segregation between the two ariflow systems and draws air from the radiator air path to feed the airbox.

The first it the !FRA, cutting a slot above the radiator in the airbox shroud. The second is removing the washer reservoir and the shroud underneath, this opens up the entire bottom in of the car in front of the air dam to force air up to the hood and into the airbox area ...

I prefer the second because provides a large access to ambient air when the car is static, keeping IAT temps down. Plus you get to eliminate the weight of the washer reservior ...