Plastic Cowl modifications?
Okay so this has been bugging me for several months now and at this point i dont care if it is a dumb topic or question. So when i first turbo'd my civic i didnt heat wrap anything in my bay, reading that heat wrapping the manifold would hold in moisture and eventually crack you manifold. I didnt heat wrap any of my wires along the fire wall wither, didnt occure to me at the time i was just ready to go fast. Well one night i was called out by a boosted em1 i did the dumb thing of racing him three times right in a row. Destroying him every time! After the carnage i went to turn around and noticed my steering wheel was really stiff and that my steering wheel light was on. I thought i would disconect the battery and it would fix the problem. To this day im still without power steering, not complainig or anything, every once and awhile it comes back on for a small amount of time kind of teasing me how easy it is to drive with it. I'll get it fixed this winter once the car is put up and i have another ride, but any ways i was wondering if anyone has ever messed with the plastic cowl to either make it to where it vents the heat or captures cold air to send it down where the turbo is?????? I dont even use that piece of metle any more that goes right under that at you can see the warm air rising out of the little holes at night... When i race i completly remove the cowl it just looks kinda dumb without it, or i would just leave it off all the time if it didnt look that bad or a gaping hole in the car.
So my question is, is there any way that the cowl can be designed to either A. drawl in cool air to keep the bay cooler? Or B. Maybe modified to vent out the heat that the manifold creates? Or am i just wasting my time with the idea cause of the way our car is designed?
