heat

[gandhi_2006]

So as everyone knows the 3800's make a lot of heat. My question is what can a person do to remove some of that heat from under the hood? Is it possible to raise the windshield end of the hood up with spacers or something, to have the heat "vent" out towards the windshield?

[Ringo64]

Hood vents

[gandhi_2006]

I was thinking that but how hard are they to put on (never done it)

[Killiger2009]

Better radiator/trans cooler.....or potential air duct

[Frosty]

Hood vents

In all seriousness, Buick used their famous portholes to extract heat from the engine compartment. Three holes in each fender for a six cylinder and 4 holes for a V8. That started in the 50s with the Skylarks, Roadmasters, and Specials. Buick resurrected that practice with the Lucerne.

A larger capacity or larger core radiator (say 4 core) should help cooling. Have you checked your radiator fluid is up to snuff too? If its old or crappy, its not doing you or your engine any favors.

[Ringo64]

In all seriousness, Buick used their famous portholes to extract heat from the engine compartment. Three holes in each fender for a six cylinder and 4 holes for a V8. That started in the 50s with the Skylarks, Roadmasters, and Specials. Buick resurrected that practice with the Lucerne.

Unfortunately, now they're just design on Buick's and serve no functional purpose

[Frosty]

According to the guys in the Buick forum, the port holes on the Lucerne were real. I can't comment on the Buick's produced currently since I haven't driven any of them, I suspect you may be right though.

http://buickforums.com/forums/threads/3354-Port-Holes-Vents-on-Lucerne

[gandhi_2006]

I did some checking on the web and they are just for looks, i want to do a coolant switch soon, its got dex in it (not from me) flush it out and clean it. Its not so much the engine is getting super hot its normal temp, just under the hood, i was thinking vents, but i don't want to cut on the body that much. Also i know that there needs to be a certain amount of pressure for the radiator to function properly.

[Young gun]

With nothing done to your car and nothing going wrong with it either? I would just change the coolant as you are supposed to change it like every 5 years or 60k something and call it that.

[gandhi_2006]

Yeah I'm just not used to it, ive only had 3100's they obviously never got that hot.

[Frosty]

Question - is your car suppose to have an air dam or air deflector that forces air from under the car across the radiator? If so, is it there? Is it damaged?

[gandhi_2006]

There is and no damage, it just seems warmer to me because ive always had smaller v6's. I know it normal just trying to find different ideas on moving the heat out of there, car runs great and so does cooling system.