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James & Perry Mack photos
Photo 1 – Lay the hood louvers out in a few different positions. They will work best directly over the engine compartment but will work anywhere. We laid them out in a number of locations and took snap shots of each so we could compare them quickly on the camera’s screen.
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James & Perry Mack photos
Photo 2 – Following the instructions - wet towels went over the windshield, inside the engine compartment, the cut area was masked off and the fire extinguisher was at the ready. Not too many things irritate your spouse more than burning your house down.
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James & Perry Mack photos
Photo 3 – After drilling ½” holes into the corners (that’s commitment), use a skill saw or angle grinder to cut through the hood. Wet towels prevent the hot metal from scoring and pitting the windshield.
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James & Perry Mack photos
Photo 4 – Carefully deburr the edges with your angle grinder or a file. If you don’t own an angle grinder this is a great excuse to buy one and a cheap one will do the trick.
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James & Perry Mack photos
Photo 5 – Spray the cut metal edges with black anti-rust paint, then remove the masking tape and paper.
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James & Perry Mack photos
Photo 6 – Rivet or screw the louvers in place and you’re done. Total job time was 2.5 hours
Story & Photos by James & Perry Mack
Hot days, big engines, slow crawls or long hauls under load are a sure fire recipe for over-heated engines and repair bills that will blow your top off farther than an exploding rad cap. Keeping your engine cool can include extra fans, tranny and oil coolers and bigger radiators but probably the most cost effective method is the addition of hood louvers. Just let the hot air out so cooler air can flow in and over the engine.
We ordered in a set of RunCool Heat Escape OuterCooler Hood Louvers for our project 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 with a 5.7L Hemi engine. While I’m used to cutting out bad metal and replacing it with new, cutting into a perfectly good hood seemed perfectly sinful.
This is an easy driveway mod but the words ‘fire extinguisher’ appear roughly a dozen times throughout the instructions so it’s best to pay attention (and not let your significant other read them if you’re accident prone).
Refreshingly, the instructions are detailed, easy to understand, slightly humorous and written by someone whose first language is English. As a result there’s no need for a cut by cut ‘How to’ here and you can download the instructions from the Run Cool website - www.hoodlouvers.com (especially handy in the event you ‘misplace’ them while shopping at Rona…).
After looking at a couple of placement options, we decided on a final location – and it is final once the blade cuts the metal. The kit comes with stainless pop rivets but we opted instead for stainless self-tapping hex head screws for a more rugged look. We’re also planning to repaint the truck so this will allow easy removal and re-installation.