Some people have the grillcraft insert. Some say that it hinders he cooling ability but most run with out it. As long as your not going off road you should be fine.

 

If it's such a big concern would subaru not have considered it in the design? Well, I think it's safe to assume they *might have since one advantage of a top mount is that it is less prone to damage than say a front mount. It is mounted high on the hood, not many road debris make it up there. Although, there are very likely other better reasons Subaru went with a top mount.

To be honest, I've gotten little rocks and other debris through my hood, but your radiator will be many times more shredded than the intercooler. After nearly 300k miles I've only straightened my fins once. And even then it was only a few rows that needed straightening out. I think you're fine without it and an insert is definitely not a "necessity."

 

Watch out for birds... and cats...

 

An intercooler is built just like a radiator... How often are you sitting on the side of the road because a rock blasted through your radiator? 17 years driving, I've never had this happen. not saying it can't happen.. Just unlikely.

 

I had the grillcraft one installed. You can see it in my album. The reason I put it in is I actually had a couple items get sucked into the hole while on the highway. One of which was a large newspaper. It ended up on top of my intercooler and managed to cover about half of it. It was on for 4 years...never had any performance or cooling issues/changes.

 

Some aftermarket or ebay scoops feature thick mesh at the mouth of the scoop. Not so sure if its more poor scoop/splitter design or the mesh. I've also heard people say that cheap mesh junk (not referencing grillcraft) can decrease the effective airflow. im insure there's some real data floating around somewhere about this. But if you look at almost every production car today, there is no "mesh" covering any radiator/intake openings.

 

I've had grill craft one on my wrx for about 4 years. I just liked the way it looks.

 

 

I've run a grillecraft one on my bugeye for 10+ years,because I like the look,never had a single problem.

 

Not a fan of them. Search on Nasioc...it's been proven that a grill in the scoop actually blocks upwards of 30% of the air that should be going in. That's a pretty significant drop in cooling performance if you ask me. Not worth it.

For the people that haven't "noticed any problems"...how many of you have datalogged or tested that on a dyno?

 

Not on a Dyno, but I did do some logs in various temperatures throughout the year. I couldn't find anything indicating cooling changes because this was also a concern of mine. My tuner looked over them and said 'good to go'.

 

Mines been tuned with the scoop insert with hood down and fans blowing into so I'm not concerned.

 

I briefly considered a grill insert but now from reading this thread, I wont bother. thx

 

I forgot to say that I do remove it before I race in a school zone. That extra cooling effect makes me a tad bit faster and those kids have no chance.

 

I've always been far more concerned with the lower opening on the front of our cars. Nothing has manged to damage that. Yet.

The hood scoop? No worries.

 

Yeah I wanted to get the grill craft for that opening but it appeared that I had to remove the bumper to install it so I didn't get it.

 

Didn't like that as it is mounted up front. Subaru should have added something about halfway back to match the upper - where the bumper skin stops. A talented fabricator could whip up something nice.

 

excellent feedback. thanks guys that's a huge help... i think the route to take is no insert for the time being unless something drastically changes..

 

Yeah I'm in NJ where we get everything and their mother kicked up off the road and I've never had more than a bent fin or few. That's through 7 total years of Subaru ownership and three different models now.

 

No grill...facepalm

 

Not on a Dyno, but I did do some logs in various temperatures throughout the year. I couldn't find anything indicating cooling changes because this was also a concern of mine. My tuner looked over them and said 'good to go'.

What were you logging to test "cooling changes"? You would have to have pre- and post-I/C temperature sensors and do back-to-back (grill on / grill off) testing to see the effect of the cooling. Standard IAT will tell you nothing about the effect of a grill in the hood scoop, as that's measured at the MAF sensor, well before the TMIC is taken into account.

 

Haha. I did some searching and decided to take mine out. Plus now when you look in you can see the tmic...so I don't look like a mustang with a fake hood scoop.

 

Definitely get the insert, if you fear even the slightest that you may encounter any type of salt/ice combination. We had a pretty major snowstorm up here in MD and my I/C got wrecked, check in the STI main forum for pictures. Strongly suggest a Grillcraft insert! This is what can happen in one night of bad luck!

 

So HOW did that happen? Were you driving directly behind a salt truck or something???

 

Wow man that is incredible. I have like 800 miles on my car and it's already starting to look similar.

 

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about air flow. I drove around with one for years with no ill-effects. The air is not getting cut off because the holes are throughout the entire scoop on the grill. It would be different if one side was completely blocked or something or it was solid in the middle. The air will simply be more concentrated in smaller areas. I work for a wiper company (not going to say who), but we have environment chambers and air flow testers. A simple fog test will even show you any differences (extremely negligible in this case). Relax, protect your IC, and don't stress about it. If my heavy lead foot driving in 100 degree weather with 99% humidity doesn't cause any out of range heat issues for several years...I'm sure you're fine.

 

I'm sorry but you cannot say that. You don't KNOW if you had any ill-effects or not. More than likely you didn't...but you certainly weren't cooling the intake charge as efficiently as the car was designed to do. That's a fact, based on the fact that upwards of 30% of the air that is supposed to enter the scoop, is no longer getting to the intercooler.

Try blowing throw a tube of some sort with both ends open. Easy, right? Then put a piece of cloth over it (this represents a barrier in your scoop). Then try blowing. You're going to meet resistance and it's going to be more difficult to blow air through the tube. It's the same principle. You are impeding air flow, thus limiting the cooling ability.

 

Dude how the **** did u do that?? Lulz


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How the hell did that happen?? Lulz


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I agree 100% with mikie13. The only time those grills are used is on srtusa cars running on crazy gravel rally stages. By putting those grilles on you ruining the whole purpose of the hood scoop, it's like those mustangs with non-functional hood scoops. He did something crazy with his car to have that happen to the intercooler. Subaru designed them to be top mount, those grilles are messing with the functionality, if being open had any adverse affects on the car, subaru would have made them with grill inserts, I think they look crap too personally, that guy had to have done some crazy off road driving for that to happen. I've had a harsh ass winter, salt everywhere and none has gotten in my engine bay, but I clean my engine bay, maybe he doesn't, idk?


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