Myself, being an old hotrodder, that was one of the first things I looked at doing as it initially seemed like a great idea but as I studied the design of the support structure, I noticed some very significant things and was impressed at the engineering of it all. Ultimately, for now anyway, I decided to leave it alone. Here's why; if you look at the support you'll see how it makes a great built in ductwork. It stock, does seem to have a function or purpose. You'll see 2 small squarish holes near the leading edge. If you watch as you close the hood, you can see how they line up with the gap above the radiator. I believe this is to take advantage of the high pressure air coming through the grill, then you see the 2 square holes at the back side and how they seem to be "aimed" at the coil pack and turbo area. I believe it is for cooling air to be routed to this area. But also notice the "ear" shaped cavity on the drivers side and how it goes no where. It could be functioning as a silencer but it is conspicuously placed directly above the airbox. Hmmmmmmmm. Seems I could remove the scoop insert, plug the 4 square "cooling holes" cut a hole in the "ear", cut a hole in the airbox lid to match, put a foam seal around it and have a sort of cold air or ram air induction. Maybe I will someday, but not yet. I would not want to loose the cooling air to the turbo area and would want to come up with an alternate cooling source. It gets extremely hot back there. The coil pack is doomed.

 

Yes, the "ear" was intended to feed cold air to the airbox. But from what I understand, it was discovered during testing that when the car was stopped at an idle it drew too much hot air from above the turbo, so the idea was dropped.

 

Your correct about the functionality of the scoop and it's insert, but the two holes up front are there to keep water from collecting in the hood and it's ducting, they are drain holes.

 

yeah once the plug is pulled you'll have water intrusion issues, but I'm still thinking they're more for routing air from front to back while the plug is in. Drain holes would only have to be small drilled holes. These are large and square. But you may be right, you would definitely not want water sitting in there. As far as sucking hot air from the turbo as Big Mac said, that's why you would plug all four of the square holes so your air could only go from the intake hole to the air box. It looks like a great idea really, and simple to do. But I still have problems with it like losing cooling air to the turbo/coil area, getting water in the engine and having to cut any sheetmetal. In my younger days, I would have already done this but now that I'm older I'm looking at things differently. I may want to keep the car original and reliable. Maybe if I can get another hood with the same paint cheap enough and another air box lid I could do it with no remorse. That way I could always go back. Yet, I would have zero problems with changing the cams even if I had to give mine up as cores. Weird huh? Part of this thinking comes from my desire to be stealthy. I'd be more apt to do things you can't see. I like the whole sleeper thing.

 

Plug?

Small holes would only be good for very small amounts of water, the bigger holes allow larger amounts to drain as quickly as possible, like if you were at a car wash and got water into the scoop it could drain quickly instead of the small drill size holes that would take a little time to drain. Especially if you do the hood/air box mod which could easily have disasterous results if it didn't get rid of water quick enough. I would love to think that they put that much thought into the SRT-4 as to put those holes there for more air flow, but it would have been far easier to simply make the scoop bigger or open the insert more like I did.

 

Plug=Insert.

I would have to say that since according to another post the engine was sucking too much hot air and with your concerns about water intrusion (valid) That the engineering was not completed. For any properly designed cold air system to work, it has to address those two issues specifically. It has to be sealed completely from under hood air except when preheated warm up air as in the winter time is desired, (usually done by way of a vacuum controlled door) of some sort and it has to have proper baffling to seperate water from air automatically and/or be driver controlled to be able to control when the outside air door is opened. I would say by looking at this hood the idea was started but never completed and the need for cooling air to the turbo&coil was of greater concern to the factory for reliability.
If I was to take advantage of what work was already done, I would try to come up with some baffling and/or a way to control the use from inside the car. You could always make it a weekend thing that just easily removes the insert and throw it in the trunk when you want to race and have it stay in the rest of the time, but I would probably try to make it more automated. That's just me. I would also try to come up with another way to get cooling air to the back of the engine I think that is very important. Again, this is just me. Also these are reasons why I have left it alone for now. I live in Michigan and the weather is always to be contended with plus our car is a daily driver.

 

I would guess the hot engine air and hot air from the turbo would be trapped under the hood and the fire wall. I recall seeing an artists rendition of a proposed aftermarket hood design with many louvers cut on top of the hood near the back. The louvers looked like they rose up with the openings facing backwards, so as the air stream passed over the tops of the louvers, it would cause a ventury and suck the trapped heat from around the turbo and firewall. If they were tastefully cut into the hood, it would be functional and may not look half bad. The stealth factor would go way down, though.

 

I like that idea. That would look really sporty. I think the turbo cars they made back in the 80's had vents like that.