[jpnovak]

There have been many documented front oil cooler installs. I spent some time digging through the archives and could not find a thread that addresses the merits and deficiencies of each method.

Let's say you have a front mounted heat source in the trunk. yeah, like a big ol' oil cooler. The large volume of air comes into the front trunk area behind the heat source and is hot. That air has got to go somewhere. Let's say in this car that the aerodynamics are the same in all three installations. Same bumper, same airdam, same frontal area, etc.

There are three places this hot air can go:

1) out the bottom of the car
2) out the hood of the car
3) out the wheel well of the car.

Option 1 is the simplest from a fabrication standpoint. Several places build ducts that can easily be installed. The question is why would you want to put hot air under the car. Well, you wouldn't as it can cause unnecessary lift. Aerodynamics on the front end are important here.

Option 2 is to send the hot air up through the hood. There are advantages here. you can exhaust into a low pressure area aiding the air flow. The hot air is expanding and can (maybe?!) provide slight down-force. Downsides of a hood installation are water intrusion and funny looks when driving down the street. Not so much of a problem at speed on a track.

Option 3 the hot air mostly goes out through the wheel well but some underneath. plumbing could be complicated as you have suspension bits here and depending on brake ducts could put hot air into the ducts. Yes, the factory oil cooler installation is in the front wheel well so this area could already be full of hot air.

The question is: If there are no class limitations where would you install the vent? Which is the best in terms of aerodynamics and keeping good airflow? and more importantly why?