GenRight hood louver install

[John Canfield]

The hood louver impetus came about after seeing my under hood temperatures get to 120-135 degrees while running trails in hot weather - I wanted to keep the engine compartment as cool as possible.  Also when it's time to air up the tires after running trails, I don't feel the need to raise the hood (the engine is running to produce more power for the electric air compressor) to keep the heat down.

Keeping the under hood temps down  also means your engine is taking in air that's a little cooler, cooler air is more dense than hot air and will product just a tiny bit more power.

The hood louver install was pretty simple, you use GenRight's instruction sheet to locate the optimum place to make your cuts, then make your cuts.

My Rubicon had no under-hood insulation when I bought it, if yours does, you can yank it out if you are doing the louver install.

Use 2" wide blue tape to mark your cut lines on.  There is a hood brace that runs down the center of the hood that you don't want to slice when making your cuts for the forward center vent, so use a small diameter drill bit to drill up from the inside of the hood to mark the left/right sides of the brace so you won't cut into them.  I found a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a cut-off wheel worked great to make the cuts.

I had some fiberglass insulation which made a great fireproof blanket to lay across the engine compartment while I was using the cut-off wheel.  There are a bunch of sparks being thrown, so be sure and protect the compartment.

The kit included black aluminum pop rivets which worked quite well for mounting the louvers to the hood.

[John Canfield]

And here's the last two pictures.  So, how does it work, you ask?  We haven't been back to Palo Duro canyon where we were running trails in 95 degree temps with the AC on full blast, but from what I can tell so far our under hood temps have been lowered 10-15 degrees.

[max49]

Good job John; but you are gutsy cutting holes in your brand new Rubicon hood.
 Have you considered putting a 180* thermostat in.  My Wrangler always runs at 200* according to the gauge and I guess I'm old school and feel cooler is better, but I have'nt changed it, but I did in the MH.

[John Canfield]

No problems with cutting up the hood (or anything else on the Jeep for that matter, it's a play car.)

The stock thermostat is 210 degrees and that's what the engine is designed to run at; going to a lower temp thermostat is not recommended based on what I've read.

At any rate, the under hood temperature has nothing to do with coolant temps.  I did have an overheat problem at the Palo Duro Jamboree event, I saw the coolant temp spike up to 230*+ on the idiot analog temp gauge [see the FYI note below.]  Running the engine at 2,000 rpm brought it right down.  I was concerned though and I replaced the radiator with a two row aluminum model and replaced the fan clutch.  When I pulled the old radiator I found some lower areas were completely blocked with leaves and dirt.  Hopefully we are now good to go in hot weather with the AC on full blast.  So far, so good.


(As an FYI, the coolant temp gauge is NOT reading the actual coolant temperature, the gauge is driven by the Powertrain Control Module, the PCM.  The gauge will not indicate the usual and normal temperature variances.  To get an actual coolant temp reading, I installed a ScanGauge II.)

[hes4all]

John, I am a firm believer that a cool engine is a happy engine. I put on a AEV high line hood that has the vents built in on top.
Plus my Gentrite fenders have side vents.

I too replaced my radiator with a aluminum two core but I also put on a electric fan. With the fan my tempts has never gone over 200 on the idiot gauge. Plus I can turn if off when going through water. And I do believe that I have a little more power going down the highway because I could feel the stock fan pull me down when it locked up going down the highway.

I became a rep a while back for a company that makes true cold air intake for Jeeps. Here is a picture of mine. Works nice and takes air off of the windshield cowling. Had it for about a year now and no problems plus more power.

Here are some pictures for you. Thanks

[hes4all]

The stock thermostat is 210 degrees and that's what the engine is designed to run at; going to a lower temp thermostat is not recommended based on what I've read.

Agree, you do not want to change the stock thermostat. It will make your computer run the motor at a rich setting. You would have to program the computer to do this and I do believe that there are programmers that allow you to do it.

[John Canfield]

I wanted the AEV Highline hood but they stopped making them for the TJ/LJ  .  I have the GenRight tube fenders in aluminum and love 'em!

I did a lot of research about electric fans and frankly I don't know what to think about their reliability, so I'm sticking with the OEM fan/shroud for now.

I installed Mac's Cold Air Intake a few months ago - here's a link to that product.

[SargeW]

Nice work John! Shoot, I have a hard enough time keeping the Pusher from blowing the "Rubicon" decals off the hood of the Jeep!  I should just get it painted on.  But that's a project for down the road.

[John Canfield]

Thanks Marty!  I guess the new engines run a hotter exhaust than the old ones.

[SargeW]

Yeah, this motor will routinely run up to 210 degrees without too much trouble.  It hovers in the 195 range. 

[hes4all]

Just looked at the AEV web site and they still show the hoods for $749.00

I would like to see a picture of the intake from Mac. I didn't see  a pcture of it on there web site. I would also like to know the price? The one I have is made by Spectre Performance, they have dyno sheets available on the web site. I am in the process of building my Jeep and I like to look at all the products before I buy anything. Thanks.
 

[John Canfield]

Terry - I'll put up my MCAI install as soon as possible.

[hes4all]

Great, thank you.