3rd Gen Hood Louvers

FTFY

 

Louvers came in today, and it looks like I'll have time this weekend to install! Pics forthcoming on Monday.

 

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I can't find the interview for the life of me, but I remember Mike Sweers saying any openings in the hood (context was asking him why the hood scoop was non-functional) would actually change the pressure and increase temperature in the engine bay. He then prided Toyota on how they make the most light duty trucks on Earth, and how they are designed to run cooler than the average truck.

So yeah, good luck cooling things down by yourself after teams of engineers already gave it a go.

 

sub a dub dub

 

Psst...let's do some deductive reasoning here. Your statement that allowing more air to circulate / flow through the engine compartment would raise temps under the hood seems completely counter intuitive. You're gonna need to find some math or science to post to back that up amigo. Do you know why they have the OE intake draw air from outside the engine compartment ? Do you think it is only because of intake temps or is it also because of too much positive pressure under the hood ?

Next, your statement about " teams of engineers " ....ummm yeah...is this the same team of engineers that has designed a half a million flaws into the second and third gens ? An OE engineer is going to do nothing more than what is needed to keep the truck from over heating... but wait...oh yeah there are multiple reports of inexplicable over heating in third gens... boy howdy yeah those engineers they is the gods.

In summation - you're arguing that allowing more air to circulate and hot air to escape from under the hood is a bad thing...please go on

 

I was paraphrasing Mike Sweers, so you may want to place the burden of proof where it belongs (with him).

Also, try to not put too much stock in forum anecdotes when there are quite a bit more Tacoma trucks out there functioning as they were designed. Quite a few bugs have been worked out, and many more will follow. Your expectations in these early days of 3rd gen seem quite unreasonable and emotionally charged.

 

I had a wireless weather gauge somewhere that (if I can find it) I'll do some testing with. I don't expect much difference, but I could be surprised.

 

I put vents in the hood of my 1st gen 4runner. They definitely did the job of letting out heat. A byproduct I wasn't expecting was how fast
fast everything oxidized. It made it almost 30 years with everything still looking pretty decent, then after a year with the louvers, that was
gone. Was it worth it? Meh, I dunno. I wasn't having any issues to begin with, but just liked the idea about increased longevity of components
with decreased engine bay temps.

 

That's an interesting comment and I can see the validity. Perhaps some sort of removable cover that mounts under the hood would be a good solution if I start to notice rapid oxidization. Thank you!

 

4 months later, did you do it or not? lol

 

Looks like Smitty math to me.

 

Let's not forget that first and foremost, Mike Sweers job is largely as a salesman. There's a reason he's jokingly called "seatbelt Mike," he was quoted as saying the only 2nd gen carryover was the seatbelts - which is absolutely false. So I wouldn't put a lot of stock in what he said there except if it were in the context of someone ripping open the hood scoop hole thinking they were going to add some airflow.

Did smitty posess you when we weren't looking? That "inexplicable overheating" thing was largely started by one guy who had the space between his A/C Condenser and Radiator clogged with debris, we've been over that particular one before.

Otherwise I largely agree with what you are saying. OE engineers only have a given amount of time, a given amount of budget, and so on to design what they have to design, and yes they are not flawless beings.
When you change something from stock you're just playing with a different set of compromises. It could be just 100% better all around because we had more time to work on the design, but most of the time you are still making a compromise. Is this new part largely better but just more expensive, or was the OE piece designed because it kept NVH to a minimum, or was it because it extended the life of some other component, or was it because.... (you get the idea.)


ANYWAYS, I am looking forward to see how these turn out! More data is more betterer.

 

I'll compromise with ... It is definitely a "take it FWIW" type thing with Sweers. He did seem to articulate himself in a convincing manner that Toyota goes to lengths with regard to cooling and air flow. Then again, The Tacoma (being designed here) was never meant to be the desert machine that the hilux has proven itself to be. He may have been crossing the streams a bit there.

 

Yes, he was very well spoken about how they designed it to only have the needed air flow from the grill.

1/2 million flaws in the 2nd and 3rd gens, is that 250k on each? How to hell did they get any of the tons of Tacomas built on the road, let alone last this long?

 

Might as well toss a free for the taking, if your lucky you won't have to pay someone to take it.

 

Interesting, Anyone notice how got damn heavy our hoods are??

 

Sneak peak

 

It's happening.