Front bumper/hood issues with Samberg intake/radiator shroud

[Demon]

Future ref, you can cut a shitload of the bracing out of the hood and it's still pretty sturdy. A good 2ft diameter section is gone on ours to clear the Fast 102

[justinsamberg]

I'm not quite following you guys with the front bumper cover issue? Could it be because the front edge of the top plate is making contact with the bumper and pushing it forward? I'm doing a car for a forum member and he decided he wanted one of those shine auto front ends. It's about a 3/8" fatter were the edge revels the hood so I did have to remove the same amount of material off the front edge of the rad top plate just to get it to bolt on.

[RX7what]

Yeah its not just pressing the bumper out but also down. I have taken around a quarter inch off the front spaced it up with a couple washers and it still hits.

[carl0s]

I'm not quite following you guys with the front bumper cover issue? Could it be because the front edge of the top plate is making contact with the bumper and pushing it forward? I'm doing a car for a forum member and he decided he wanted one of those shine auto front ends. It's about a 3/8" fatter were the edge revels the hood so I did have to remove the same amount of material off the front edge of the rad top plate just to get it to bolt on.

Your top plate pushes down on this part:

[justinsamberg]

That doesn't make sense to me. If anything the gap should get smaller not larger!

[justinsamberg]

Never mind. After looking at that first picture of Justin kwongs car I can see how it could do that. Not a big deal to change. We just have to machine our dies to make those extruded boss's about 3/8" deeper then what they are now.

Does the top plate still bolt up to the radiator with out any binding? I might have to change the height of it as well.

[carl0s]

Never mind. After looking at that first picture of Justin kwongs car I can see how it could do that. Not a big deal to change. We just have to machine our dies to make those extruded boss's about 3/8" deeper then what they are now.

Does the top plate still bolt up to the radiator with out any binding? I might have to change the height of it as well.

Yeah it seems to just fine.
I think extruding those boss' a bit more would be perfect. BTW surely you mean about 9.5 mm ?

[BlinD]

Approx ammount to cut from the straight coupler:


Lower clearance using the method below:


I still need to finish cutting the circle dimple out of the hood and space out the plate and everything "should" be good 

Boostcrzy and I figured out how to get Justin's setup to work on an LS6.

The straight coupler needs to be cut about 1/4" and you need to attach one section at a time, starting with the elbow.

- Elbow to intake, steep angle
- Elbow to MAF
- MAF to TB by folding the straight coupler in half, squeezing it through and attaching it (Push down while clamping)
- MAF to TB (Push down while clamping)

This allows the hood to close but the 'circle' part of the hood still leaves an indent on the elbow, so I will just trim off that part.

Even though the hood now closes without issue, I do have the gap between the hood and bumper that others are seeing. I think I will try out the spacers method that carl0s used.

I will have pics up soon.

[Bob H]

Never mind. After looking at that first picture of Justin kwongs car I can see how it could do that. Not a big deal to change. We just have to machine our dies to make those extruded boss's about 3/8" deeper then what they are now.

Does the top plate still bolt up to the radiator with out any binding? I might have to change the height of it as well.

I think you'll find it tough to extrude those bosses that much more - they are already pretty deep.  You should look at a spacer if you can't get it that far.  Either a nut as we have done, or just plain tubing welded to the bottom as a spacer that won't move around/get lost. 
 I still have a gap that I can't quite get rid of - I eliminated most of it, but it may have permanently bent the bracing, so I need to massage it a bit more. The top plate doesn't quite line up with the radiator as well as it did,(a little gap).  Give one a try in your shop - you'll see. 
 I did track the car last weekend - no overheating issues with and 11 and 10" fan with no shroud.  But I didn't have the a/c condenser up front either - that will be next time.   

[BLACK_7_6.0]

sooo what size nuts you guys using? to get ride of that nasty gap? ?

[mdpalmer]

sooo what size nuts you guys using? to get ride of that nasty gap? ?

I used spare spacers I had laying around from stock FD suspension... they work great.. just need four of them. Otherwise I think you could use an M12 nut... because that's the matching bolt size for the spacer inner diameter, but DON'T QUOTE ME ON THAT. 

[thetastelingers]

sooo what size nuts you guys using? to get ride of that nasty gap? ?

I used spare spacers I had laying around from stock FD suspension... they work great.. just need four of them. Otherwise I think you could use an M12 nut... because that's the matching bolt size for the spacer inner diameter, but DON'T QUOTE ME ON THAT. 

Sounds about right.

[4packet]

Old topic, but same subject.

Has anyone had any issues with fitting the Samberg rad top cover? The angle doesn't seem right on ours and it is not parallel with the slam panel - see below.

The rad is mounted to the rails with the M6 bolt on the LHS and the M10 on the RHS. If anything the rad is leaning back slightly, but the top cover is too far forward so that it is fouling with the bonnet catch assembly and as you can see is not parallel. The horizontal lower ducting is also slightly lower at the back.

Also, should you still be able to use the Mazda bonnet prop with this kit. It looks like it wants to go striaght though the intake pipe.

Any input appreciated..... 

[ImprovedRacing]

I know this is an old topic, but I've found that you can get an extra 1/4" of hood clearance if you use silicon reducing couplers instead of the 4" hose with the reducing inserts. This is of course assuming you're using the stock 85mm MAF. So you need a 4" to 3.5" reducing 45-degree coupler for the air cleaner to MAF, and a 4" to 3.5" reducing coupler for the throttle body to MAF. Once I did this, the intake piping clears the hood no problem. It's just barely touching the hood. This also solves the bumper to hood gap issue.

Old topic, but same subject.

Has anyone had any issues with fitting the Samberg rad top cover? The angle doesn't seem right on ours and it is not parallel with the slam panel - see below.

The rad is mounted to the rails with the M6 bolt on the LHS and the M10 on the RHS. If anything the rad is leaning back slightly, but the top cover is too far forward so that it is fouling with the bonnet catch assembly and as you can see is not parallel. The horizontal lower ducting is also slightly lower at the back.

Also, should you still be able to use the Mazda bonnet prop with this kit. It looks like it wants to go striaght though the intake pipe.

Any input appreciated.....

You've probably sorted this out by now, but are you using the rubber grommets where the radiator mounts to the frame? It looks like it might be a little too high. Also, you can't use the stock hood prop, but it's a good excuse to get some nice hood dampers.

[moores.4]

Hi Guys,

I have taken a different approach and modified Justin's top radiator plate by making a new bolt on air cleaner shroud. This modification changes the angle of the air cleaner to TB making it a more progressive bend and only needing an aluminium 22 degree pipe to make it all come together. This simple mod allows the bonnet to close with no cutting, it has ample clearance and there is no rubbing another advantage is you can also use your OEM bonnet prop. Flipping the TB also helps as this lowers the height from the bonnet and as Michael mentioned use silicone couplings. These pics were only taken today after a 6 month build and yes I know my brake master is on the wrong side.