XJ trimming hood fat and adding louvers/grills

loki_racer

loki_racer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2005
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
I have a brother-in-law that had trouble lifting the hood on my XJ and suggested that I lighten it up somehow.

My first question: Does anyone see an issues with completely chopping off the support cross-members on the underneath of the hood?

Next question: Do you like the $1 louvers or $6 grills?

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hood

if you trim the braces under the hood you may run into some warping issues. i dont like either louvers/grills :gay:. my opinion, tell ur boy to grab a milk crate(to stand on) or some dumbells(to work out):bounce2:.
 
$6 grills ftw. Those look really nice. You could also look at adding some hydraulic lift shocks to it. I've been trying to think of how to get that to work on mine. As far as trimming the fat by removing the cross members I wouldn't do that. I imagine it'd make the hood noisy and unstable. The hoods really aren't that heavy in my opinion. The shocks would would be a better choice.
 
Let's see... number one: You're a dick. :flipoff2:

Number two: I like the look of the $6 grill, but think it may allow too much crap in your engine bay. So maybe the $1 option painted black?
 
REDLYNER said:
Let's see... number one: You're a dick. :flipoff2:
Number two: I like the look of the $6 grill, but think it may allow too much crap in your engine bay. So maybe the $1 option painted black?
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Oh man. I didn't know my brother-in-law was a member on here. I meant my other brother-in-law.

Seriously though, warping was the main issue I was worried about when considering chopping the braces off. I couldn't find anyone talking about having done it, so I wasn't sure if that was an issue.

The other issue is that the braces actually have crumple zones engineered in to the hood. If those are removed, do I run the risk of the hood being able to spear my through the window in a front end collision?

I have to do something to help vent heat. The hood gets so hot after driving for just a couple minutes that it will burn my hands if I try to open it. The thermostat reads 180 to around 200 on slow crawling trails, but I'm interested in helping it dump heat easier.
 
Why the holes? I did it and it was merely masking cooling issues. Once I got my cooling fixed I bought another hood so I didn't have to worry about water getting on my TPS, which burned up one of mine.
 
hadfield4wd said:
Why the holes? I did it and it was merely masking cooling issues. Once I got my cooling fixed I bought another hood so I didn't have to worry about water getting on my TPS, which burned up one of mine.
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The engine is cooling fine from what I can tell. It's more just overall heat build up that I am trying to help out. An example would be the PCM. I had to relocate it for my OBA install and it's slightly closer to the engine now. The louvers/grills would help exhaust heat that isn't resolved by the actual engine's cooling system. Same goes for the air intake, which now has to run directly across the top of the engine.
 
ideas

1st xj is clean!!!
 

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no. found them on google. just looked at a couple, maybe not so bad installed after all. but for sure dont cut the supports out.
 
Tell your brother in law to man up and stop being a girl. I'd suggest not cutting the hood because the electronic parts are very sensitive to water. I've lost two IAC's by washing the engine already.
 
I cut the bracing out of my hood when I narrowed the front end......bad idea......and 99 percent of those hood grill things look like ass. Why is it so hard for him to lift the hood?
 
;)

I'm his brother-in-law and have no issues lifting his hood. He's just joking on me because I was giving him hell about his XJ being a pig and his hood being a major part of that.

We are looking for ways to lighten up the whole jeep without dumping major cash in it for, say, a carbon hood ($700 shipped).

:gay:
 
Go to Lowes in the HVAC section. Get an air return grille. Get the one that is supposed to bolt to the wall. Paint it. Mark your hood 1/2" smaller than the grille and cut. I turned mine backwards to act more as a heat extractor instead of pushing cool air in.
Underside before I started building my truck...
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Best pic I have of the top side


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I could draw up and fabricate an aluminum hood. I'll take some measurements when you pick up the OBA bracket.
 
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