Hood Spacers Pros and Cons: Should You Install One?

You may have heard about wheel spacers increasing the car’s longevity and eye-pleasing look. The hood spacer serves you with identical properties.

It will be on the hood adding extra space. It improves the aerodynamics and airflow of the car to keep the engine cool. They claim that it boosts the car’s engine performance.

Conversely, others think that adding it will help our car. It compresses the air pressure and hurts the engine. So, what are the hood spacers pros and cons? Should you, indeed, get a raiser for the car?

In today’s discussion, we will give you a clear understanding of all these queries you have about hood spacers. If you consider adding a spacer, read it carefully. It will help you decide whether or not you need to get the car enhancer.

What Is a Hood Spacer?

A hood spacer, or hood riser, will add a large gap between the hood and this space. It is usually at the back of the car hood. As the gap increases, the trapped air can get more space to come out from the engine bay. Plus, people believe the increased gap will improve the excellent airflow.

A raiser is an added space between the hood and the engine bay. You will find it right under the windshield. Since the motor bay is made of metal and is a high-pressure zone, it works to reduce it. As a result, the metal engine bay will get relief from the high pressure.

The idea is to improve the airflow efficiency of the car engine and its surroundings. Thus, many people will install it. However, people in the online car forum community have been arguing about the benefits and disadvantages of installing it.

Some say the hood riser is an absolute necessity. On the other hand, some in the forums say it’s useless to the car as it doesn’t improve its performance. And even a handful of people say it reduces the car’s performance.

So, what’s reality? Let’s see the advantages and disadvantages of the hood spacer. It will be helpful in your decision-making with quick reactions.

Hood Spacers Pros and Cons

Car owners constantly look for ways to raise their car performance. They also wish to improve the aesthetics and look of their car, anyway. Regarding this, a hood raiser is a tempting option. But before installing it, you must know its benefits and consequences.

Top Advantages of Using Hood Spacers

A vented hood of the car works magically to boost its aerodynamics. So, the car engine compartment will get cooler air and vent out the warm air. It effectively helps the engine deliver better performance than you anticipate.

Enhances Car Aesthetics

With their new threads in online forums, discussion starter authors have unanimously agreed that the hood riser boots their car look. The small hood-raised space on the car looks dashing. Also, it has multiple vents to let the cooler air pass through them.

The space looks brilliant with the different vents’ different cooling air designs. Also, you may get the hood vents in various styles from the hardware store. The members of the forum community dedicated to cars praise the design language.

There’s an option to choose different shapes and colors for the raiser. You may choose matching colors or different shades to enhance the aesthetics of your car. If you wish to boost the style of a conventional vehicle, adding the space at the back of the hooded vent will be beneficial.

Improves Airflow

Engine compartments at the back have high-pressure flow. The hot air will try to escape through the vents to relieve the pressure. Thanks to this added space, air and heat escape become easier. The area will quickly allow the high-pressure air to go away.

It helps in the faster cooling facility. Thus, the heat dissipation facility of the engine improves. It will be helpful if you have been riding the car for an extended period.

The engine gets too hot when you ride any car or SUV for an extended period. Thus, the radiator has to put extra effort into cooling down the engine parts at different segments.

With the improved airflow, heat dissipation and management become easier for the car. Therefore, at high speed, it delivers superior efficiency.

Air-Pressure Management

Cowl also allows the engine and the hood over it to manage the high-pressure air better. The gap brings a more relaxed atmosphere, reducing the warmth underneath the hood. With underhood temps going down, the inside remains in better condition.

Since the heat dissipates faster, the temperature remains in optimal condition. It saves the car from overheating problems. It will also reduce the wear and tear of the wires inside the hood. So, you will need to spend less on maintenance.

Affordable Choice

Lastly, the advantage of the truck-raised hood is its affordability. It is gettable at around $15 to $20. Also, you can secure it quickly with bolts and screws. It doesn’t need high-end skills to mount the spacer over the existing hood. Plus, you may soon remove the spacer whenever you wish.

Disadvantages of Using Hood Spacers

Hood spacers may appear highly realistic. However, old threads and even new threads in the online forums showed the inefficiency of the spacer. One such strong argument came from Doppelgänger’s post in one of the forums. He is one of the top contributors to the Import Atlanta forum.

Doppelgänger’s Post and Analysis

Doppelgänger is among the forum’s top contributors to cars. His discussion starter showed that the car and truck were already aerodynamically optimized. At high speed, air movement will slam the front bumper. So, it will have a high-pressure zone.

Conversely, the radiator works as a low-pressure zone inside the car bay. The radiator works as a heat exchanger. It has aluminum fins. Cooler air through these fins will flow into the engine bay at high pressure. It mainly comes from underneath the car.

However, this system doesn’t work correctly with the hood spacer. It adds another high-pressure zone in the hoods. So, the radiator needs to work with the bay’s two highly pressurized air zones.

Thus, its effectiveness reduces considerably. It happens because the car bumper opening will resist the cooler air getting to the heat exchanger.

As the bumper receives pressures from two sides, it tries to find a different path for an exit with low resistance. This way, the radiator fan will have inadequate cooler air for cooling the engine. So, it suffers from heat dissipation problems.

Chris Sadowski’s Discussion

Chris Sadowski further supported the opinion of Doppelgänger. He analyzed the effectiveness of the hood spaces and found surprising answers. According to his test, using strings show that the spacer will suck air in.

It is a shocking finding since these spacers are designed to vent air out, not suck it in. Many experts agree that installing the spacer in the car hood isn’t worth it.

Should You Use Hood Spacers?

The hood spaces’ advantages and disadvantages show that they have mixed reviews. So, should you install it? Will it be useful?

Here’s the critical answer, “The enhancement will only work in idle mode of your car when the engine isn’t switched on. Then, it can intake more air directly from the environment and will cool off the engine faster.”

Regarding this, a community member ran a test. MJRN is a community member of the 8^th Civic Forum. His trial found the following correct results:

• The space could reduce engine temperatures from 156 to 95 degrees in just 20 minutes. The stock hood, without the area, required 21 minutes. So, the heat dissipation is slower with the spacer.
• When the car runs at full speed, the spacer has little effect. The experiment found that with or without the spacer, the IAT readings were at 156 degrees. Also, at different speeds, it showed identical temperatures.

As the discussion shows, you can add it to the car. It brings little results. Of course, it improves the air pressure flow. However, in terms of reducing the engine temperature, it has little effect. You will only get 1 to 3 degrees of heat reduction. So, it won’t be going to affect the supremacy.

Nonetheless, you may still use the space for two purposes:

• Bring a different dynamic and aesthetic to your automobile. The hood looks uplifted, giving the vehicle a sporty and aggressive look. If you don’t like the traditional look of your car, this spacer will provide an excellent opportunity to transform the aesthetics.
• The spacer is merely a body enhancer of the car. It adds space and improves the air intake facility only slightly. So, you may use it without high-end expectations. It won’t hurt your car and motor.

Conclusion

The hood spacers pros and cons show that it has limited efficiency. When you install it, it boosts the airflow in certain conditions.

Nonetheless, it creates a secondary high-pressure zone and negates the benefits of triggered flow. Hence, the fan’s clutch in the radiator doesn’t get anticipated boosts from the spacer. So, in heat dissipation, it has little role to play.

You, however, can use it to give the car or SUV an aggressive, stylish, and catchy look. That’s the only true advantage of using hood spacers. It won’t help in heat escape, as you anticipate.