[muddeprived]

This is a write-up on installing hood vents on your xj.

These are the vents i chose:

 

[muddeprived]

We started off by removing the hood. I wasn't gonna be reaching over and cutting uneven lines so i took it off. Then we use masking tape to tape over the area to be cut to minimize the paint damage.

Out came the cutting wheel, sparks went flying, and i ended up with a big hole:

Dang cut off wheel cracked so i switched to another used disc cuz that's all i had:

Now i got two holes:

Here's some vids of me cutting:


7" cut off wheel...didn't work so well:



Fixing the 7 incher's mistakes:

 

[muddeprived]

After the cutting was done, i asked my gf to put the vents in, hoping they fit right and i didn't have to cry for overcutting. They fit perfect:

After that it was painting up the cuts so my hood isn't a big chunk of rust tomorrow:

At last, the little baby stainless steel screws were inserted into the freshly drilled holes:

All Done:

I used silicone sealant on the inner side of the vent lip to seal it up. Didn't really need it but used it anyways. I almost installed one vent in backwards but luckily caught myself before installing it. :brickwall:

My girl and i put the hood back on and went out to eat somewhere. I stopped at a stop sign and was staring at a bumper of a car in front of me and for a second it felt like i was hallucinating or something because my vision became blurry and wavy but then realized it was the heat wave coming out of the vents. I guess they work :thumbsup:

 

[muddeprived]

More pictures:

 

[Belto]

dude I want to do this so bad,, but im soo afraid to shop my hood and mess it up...

nice write up btw

 

[muddeprived]

Thanks. Have no fear. Measure 16 times, cut once. It's not really difficult to do. I admit I was very nervous doing it and took me a good amount of time to make the first cut. I measured a million times to be sure. I thought that if i messed it up, i can just get some Lebaron vents and cover up the mistake easily. That made it easier

 

[lornix]

Those are nice looking vents. I did mine this year too. What a difference in operating temperature on those long, slow, crawls.

 

[muddeprived]

Those are nice looking vents. I did mine this year too. What a difference in operating temperature on those long, slow, crawls.

They help? I haven't had any trail time to actually test them out. I can see heat waves coming out at stop lights though. I can't wait till winter, that should be interesting to see.

 

[lornix]

Yeah they definitely help! I don't know how much they do at higher speeds, but on the crawls and putting around in traffic I have noticed a major lengthening of the time it takes to hit that nasty 210* mark on the heat gauge. I had major overheating problems before I did it. At the same time I did the manual e-fan mod so when it does climb above 200* I hit the switch and within 30-40 seconds the temp comes back down.

 

[AustinXJ]

I've had my Hood vents sitting on my shelf for over a year now...I guess I should get off my ass one of these days.

Nice Job!

 

[Kyle]

Excellent article and videos:cheers:

 

[muddeprived]

Thanks. :thumbsup:

 

[xjkevin]

those look great, ive got lebarons and im not sure i like the look, still havnt installed them yet.

 

[Belto]

those look great, ive got lebarons and im not sure i like the look, still havnt installed them yet.

I really like the lebarons look,, you cant go wrong with those,, but if you ever decide to go with other.. give me a PM I might want your lebarons...

 

[muddeprived]

I really like the lebarons look,, you cant go wrong with those,, but if you ever decide to go with other.. give me a PM I might want your lebarons...

I agree. Those were what i was originally gonna use but couldn't come up with a set. I ended up finding these vents for $9 each and decided why not. I was skeptical at first but just went ahead with it before my paranoid thinking got to me.

Do the lebarons, and a write-up

 

[okcjeeper]

yeah more writeups...thats on my list of todo's but darn jeep keeps dipping into the darn wallet..

 

[BlueXJ]

Mudd how do they handle the rain and (where you live) snow? Are they gonna leak on anything vital? Coil packs?

 

[muddeprived]

Mudd how do they handle the rain and (where you live) snow? Are they gonna leak on anything vital? Coil packs?

We had alot of rain, and too many storms lately. jeep fired right up everytime and had no issues with rain since i did the mod. The passenger side vent drips down the side of the engine block and the driver's side vent drips down right on top of the injectors.

The only issue i've had with it is the darn screws. They are SS screws from Home Depot but they turn brown after a week or two. I replaced four of them so far.

 

[Belto]

We had alot of rain, and too many storms lately. jeep fired right up everytime and had no issues with rain since i did the mod. The passenger side vent drips down the side of the engine block and the driver's side vent drips down right on top of the injectors.

The only issue i've had with it is the darn screws. They are SS screws from Home Depot but they turn brown after a week or two. I replaced four of them so far.

paint them black

 

[muddeprived]

paint them black

You expect me to take out all 16 bolts and spray paint them black? Do you know how much work that is? That's like 30 minutes of my life. I dunno if i can do that......but probably will.