[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.

[Jon A]

I am returning to the theory that the temperature sender is too close to the exhaust...

I don't know, for the exhaust to heat up the sensor enough for it to give false readings it would have to be damn near touching it. From this picture: http://community.webshots.com/s/image9/9/3...09mLtiIC_ph.jpg I don't see any exhaust anywhere near the sensor. The sensor is in the pan, submerged in oil. If the exhaust is heating it up, I'd say it's heating up the oil in the pan and the sensor's reading is accurate.

I'm sticking with the theory that you need to dump that RV Tranny Cooler thing and put in a stacked plate oil cooler, one designed to cool the engine oil on racecars, one that's many times more efficient. This is a theory that can be tested. You're measuring the oil at its hottest point. It looks like your guage is electric, if you install a sender to give you after cooler temps with a switch you can see exactly how much or how little the cooler is doing.