I know I will get laughed at for this question but here it goes. I need a cowl repair done and I read enough about it to do it myself. My question is , someone explain to me what exactly a cowl does. Does it have anything to do with the heating? I know you can put a cowl cover on it to prevent leakage inside the car so if you can block the vent on the cowl what purpose does it serve. Can the cowl just be blocked shut without putting a repair kit in? I am a motor man myself and I can do just about anything with a motor but I am ignorant when it comes to this. Will someone PLEASE give me the 411 on the cowl purpose. You can e mail me @ curtis.howard@att.net
Well the main purpose is to allow fresh air into the passenger comparment mainly for heat. The newer cars can circulate air within the passenger compartment but older cars cant because they are ducted directly to the outside air vents. Another purpose is to channel rainwater out past the vent ducts going into the car and dumps it inside the fender and out onto the ground. You can block it all off but you would have no air for heat which if you only drive in the summer is ok. But if you do that then you should also remove your heater hoses from the heater core or it will still heat your passenger compartment a little just from radiant heat. You would want to block it off at the "cowl cover" itself though so no more water gets in. You can get cheap plastic vent covers. this would be the easiest and quickest fix. Here are some pics of mine with the cover on and then off during my repair. Hope this helps.
My pics were too big for this forum so I e-mailed you a couple.