WhiteExpress
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2011
- Posts
- 18,187
- Reaction score
- 3,284
- Location
- Midland, TX
- Ram Year
- 2004
- Engine
- 5.7 Hemi
Well, as the temperatures plummet and my bordem increases, things happen.
I've always played around with the though of a 'grill block' to help with my brick like aerodynamics.
And with it getting colder, I figured, Hey, the truck should heat up faster too.
So, I bought a piece of chloroplast (plastic cardboard) which seems to be the chosen material for such creations.
Made a quick template from cardboard and transferred it over to the chloroplast.
Marked some places to zip tie it from the back side and drilled out holes.
Zip tied it on and re-installed the grill.
I know around town I'll have 0 issues, I'll be actively monitoring the coolant temps to see if it's getting to warm etc.
My thoughts, with that clutch fan, it'll put more than enough air through it indefinitely.
Here's the pictures:
In the beginning, one dirty grill:

Templates made, and transfered to Chloroplast:

A few holes and zip ties later, should be alright at highway speeds...

Semi-close up of the upper block:

And a close up of the zip ties, they fit near perfectly in the factory mesh insert:

And installed back on the truck. The top is fully blocked, and the bottom I left open the width of the radiator (covering reservoirs won't hurt a damned thing):

I'm quite happy with how it came out.
Will it offer any huge benefits, hard telling...
Was I bored and this took up my afternoon... Indeed!
I think unless you were looking at it, you'd never have a clue what's going on either.
I've always played around with the though of a 'grill block' to help with my brick like aerodynamics.
And with it getting colder, I figured, Hey, the truck should heat up faster too.
So, I bought a piece of chloroplast (plastic cardboard) which seems to be the chosen material for such creations.
Made a quick template from cardboard and transferred it over to the chloroplast.
Marked some places to zip tie it from the back side and drilled out holes.
Zip tied it on and re-installed the grill.
I know around town I'll have 0 issues, I'll be actively monitoring the coolant temps to see if it's getting to warm etc.
My thoughts, with that clutch fan, it'll put more than enough air through it indefinitely.
Here's the pictures:
In the beginning, one dirty grill:

Templates made, and transfered to Chloroplast:

A few holes and zip ties later, should be alright at highway speeds...

Semi-close up of the upper block:

And a close up of the zip ties, they fit near perfectly in the factory mesh insert:

And installed back on the truck. The top is fully blocked, and the bottom I left open the width of the radiator (covering reservoirs won't hurt a damned thing):

I'm quite happy with how it came out.
Will it offer any huge benefits, hard telling...
Was I bored and this took up my afternoon... Indeed!

I think unless you were looking at it, you'd never have a clue what's going on either.
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