[KeithO]

There are two black inserts at the front of my Firehawk hood. I looked under the hood and saw that three plastic "bolts" and nuts hold this on. It appears that the piece that comes out is the black part and a part that is body color.

It appears that I remove this, the airflow could be improved across the front of the motor.

Has anyone removed this for tracking/road racing? Is there any reason that I wouldn't want to remove this? More underhood cooling = good. Especially with my car.

[KeithO]

Both of those temps are well within the good range. Even mineral based oil can take 280 deg. F for extended periods of time. With synthetic it's a piece of cake.

Your coolant temps are extraordinarily cool for a stock radiator car if you don't get over 200 deg. F. Have you raced in temps over 70 deg. F yet though?

I haven't raced in any event where it wasn't near or colder than freezing overnight. I also haven't run anywhere where I wasn't limited on how hard I could pound the car so I was always short-shifting (almost never above 5,000rpms). If it is dry this weekend, I will be pounding the car for the first time.

If 280 deg. isn't bad, why does my gauge peg at 300? Maybe I'm just stupid since I've never had a gauge before, but my logic has been that getting near max on a temperature gauge is probably bad...