Basically my winter front is a old road sign cut up to fit the opening in the grill. (Thank you! Kelly Hinkley - "The Metal Shop" Riggins, Idaho) I've seen several other ideas including, stainless steel, plexiglass, lexan, and several other materials. But the principal is simple. Keep the cold air from blowing across the radiator and engine. This will aid in engine warm up times and fuel mileage.

Remember the cold air will extend the warm up times hence this will cause more fuel to be consumed till the engine is completely warmed up. (Roughly 160-190°F) I've seen about 5-10 miles before I got full engine temperature without the winter front. Now with the winter front its less than 3 miles to get full engine temperature.

Excessive cold air for air intake will actually degrade performance. So with the winter front in place it will trap more warm air under the hood for engine use. Compression engines (diesel) require compression of air to make heat to fire the fuel. When the air get cold enough it will start to degrade the performance and fuel economy.

As for overheating... Not likely. As long as the fan is in place with the winter front the fan will engage to help cool the engine down if the temperature was to rise from extra load or steep grade.

Updated - November 24, 2006

I'm seeing people that are putting a piece of cardboard in front of the coolers and radiators or putting it between the radiator and the coolers. Most people put a good size hole in the middle and insert it... This is WRONG! DON'T DO IT!

Why is cardboard inserted wrong??? Well when you put a piece of cardboard against radiator or coolers your block air flow completely all the time. Then when you cut a hole in the middle of the cardboard your blowing cold air on the fan clutch keeping it unlocked always... If the fan clutch did lock it couldn't cool the engine down you got cardboard block the flow of air. Remember also there is a lot of air pushing against this and will plug the face of the radiator/coolers with what ever material you use! The only air flow is going to be at the center where the hole is at... So now you got a overheat problem possibly with both coolant and exhaust temperatures.

So why is the winter front CORRECT?? Because the winter front block the cold in coming air but it leave a gap between the grill and the coolers. So now if the fan should happen to lock it can pull full flow of air through it to cool not only the radiator but the intercooler too!

When your done I want to see PICS of it! :thumbsup

Damn now i actually got something to do a good job for LOL I will take some though!

Thin plastic sheet material stock is much easier to machine and form to the correct shape, plus it is not nearly as abrasive to the chrome on the grill.

Hmm, well I got a plasma cutter and grinder with a flapper wheel.. I think I can round it over enough on the edges to keep the grill from getting scuffed up too bad, plus I still want to hide those bolts... not sure how to do that with plastic. My grill isn't the greatest anyways though so I am not that worried about it.

Well here a pic of mine again...

Well when you put it THAT way the bolts look neat LOL I am still gonna try hiding them, the more time i can waste the better. I have nothing else to do.BTW, do you have any clues about exhaust brakes? Like a cheap way to do it for just warming up the engine?

Well when you put it THAT way the bolts look neat LOL I am still gonna try hiding them, the more time i can waste the better. I have nothing else to do. BTW, do you have any clues about exhaust brakes? Like a cheap way to do it for just warming up the engine?

Ummmm... Yeah I do... I can warm up my truck in under 10 minutes can you? http://mopar.mopar1973man.com/cummins/2ndgen24v/high-idle/high-idle.htm Check out the videos... >

You 24 valvers are cheaters! ;) I have a thing that makes it high idle, kind of a seperate throttle cable with a knob i pull out on a little and it works perfect but no, mine doesnt get anywhere in 10 minutes. Mine wont even heat up much driving for 10 min! It is not a thermostat issue, trust me. I dont know if it just runs too efficiently or what LOL I don't know what else to do. Besides making a winter front.. It was 12f today when it took forever to finally open the thermostat. I have heat pretty good but I still had it on full blast for my 1.5 hour drive to keep me nice and hot. I think the winter front will fix a lot of that but I still wish there was a quick way to heat up the beast. I probably waste as much fuel idling for 10 min as i do driving to work... if that tells you anything about how far I have to drive, too far to walk but not far enough to get it warmed up at all. Exhaust brake seems like the only thing to do, does an intake brake do the same thing?

Plugging in about 2 to 3 hours before start up and idling with the exhaust brake set works pretty good but I like Mike's 3 cylinder warm up switch. I just don't have the heart to cut into the wire harness like that. Murphy is always close by and like to wreak havoc. :D

Plugging in about 2 to 3 hours before start up and idling with the exhaust brake set works pretty good but I like Mike's 3 cylinder warm up switch. I just don't have the heart to cut into the wire harness like that. Murphy is always close by and like to wreak havoc. :D

Hey Live Oak there is ZERO cutting of wires everything plugs in...

As a matter of fact I'm building to kit as we speak I got to head out to Radio Shack and pick up the other parts I've ordered... I got some switches and resistors sitting up at McCall, Idaho...

Well I got one made, waiting on my dad to bring me some more bolts from town, its not a perfect fit but I think it will do the job. Wish it were a little straighter too but the damn welding warped it a little. I painted it glossy black, which showed even more imperfections 8| But I got a brush guard on the front and I think the black will look pretty neat with a silver truck and the chrome grill edges. Paint is drying on the one, havent done anything but outlined where the bolts need to be welded on, on the others which I have to cut the bolt heads off cause the weld bead and the bolt head makes it too big to fit inside the honeycomb crap but I think a if I cut that head off it and weld around the smaller 5/16 bolt it will fit just fine. Wish I had a lathe here to do it though LOL I will surely have them all done late tonight though so I will have some pics sometime tomorrow.

Cool... I love to see other peoples ideas so I can learn other ways of doing it...Like on mine I used stainless steel bolt with ny-locs so no one can try to unbolt it or have it rattle loose and fall out... :thumbsup

Well I got one made, waiting on my dad to bring me some more bolts from town, its not a perfect fit but I think it will do the job. Wish it were a little straighter too but the damn welding warped it a little. I painted it glossy black, which showed even more imperfections 8| But I got a brush guard on the front and I think the black will look pretty neat with a silver truck and the chrome grill edges. Paint is drying on the one, havent done anything but outlined where the bolts need to be welded on, on the others which I have to cut the bolt heads off cause the weld bead and the bolt head makes it too big to fit inside the honeycomb crap but I think a if I cut that head off it and weld around the smaller 5/16 bolt it will fit just fine. Wish I had a lathe here to do it though LOL I will surely have them all done late tonight though so I will have some pics sometime tomorrow.

I bet black crinkle finish paint would look sharp and cover up the imperfections.

Hmm, that may do the trick. It is starting to look good though with the more coats I add, couple more maybe, I finished them all up and painted them, so I guess I will see how they turned out in the morning. That first one will surely be dried by tomorrow morning so I can bolt it on and start admiring it B) I did 3 coats on the viewing side and 1 coat on the back, I still have to do the back coat on the other 3 so those will have to wait till monday morning to put on, but then I will be driving my 1.5 hours back so I will get to test it!!! I just hope i didnt set my bar too high on what I am expecting look and performancewise LOL

OK, I finally got the wife to take a pict of my home made thin plastic cold fronts... now on their second season. I like the blacked out look.

I used 1/4-20 SS bolts, except for one that I dropped & lost. Next year, I'm going to replace the pan head bolts with phillips, oval heads & finishing washers (all SS)... then I can use a screw gun to run it up on the SS nylocks & fender washers. The flexible plastic requires 2 bolts per pannel.

Very nice :thumbsup You guys got me worried on using glossy instead of dull paint though :confused: But I guess one coat of dull will fix it if I dont like it. I think it may be dry enough to put on the truck though!

Do you want me to buy you a beer now or later Mopar1973Man? Thing had heat within just 2 miles and I only let it idle for 2 minutes or so. I cant believe that worked that well. It is in the 30's now but I dont think it will be much different in the single digits, not this 20mile to heat BS!! I took my fan off in the summer because I got tired of listening to the high revving sound it makes when I take off in the morning since the fan clutch is too cold to let the fan spin very freely. Only time I put it on is when I am going to pull a trailer. The only problem with it off was that the a/c would start getting hot when you stopped.. 5mph+ I didnt notice ANYTHING different than with having the fan on. In the winter i didnt think the fan helped matters at ALL since it would pull the heat from the radiator and blow all the heat off the engine.. Anyways, thanks for the idea on that winter front, i definately owe you one :party:Oh and I WILL get pics tomorrow, you can count on it! :thumbsup

Well if you anywhere near Idaho you'll have to stop in and we'll head down to the local pub and have a few brews! :thumbsup I'm glad it worked for ya... Now I got another one I just posted as of tonight... This BOMB can be done on your truck since you got a 12V... http://mopar.mopar1973man.com/cummins/2ndgen24v/high-idle/high-idle2.htm

Well isnt that just the neatest thing, got something to do next weekend I guess LOL I have a throttle cable knob thing on it now but the thing changes RPM so badly when the truck is cold and warming up that I will pull it out till its at 1000rpm, and go inside, and come back to a truck going at 1500rpm! So a warmed up truck with that "set" solenoid will work perfect! Idaho, hmm, well I have always wanted to go to Glacier NP so that gives me a better reason to go that just a beer :D That will be pretty far in the future though, I am in college... Going to be a generator tech, although I am not sure about when they are going to teach the diesel stuff or if we even work on that part of the generator, all it is, is you take the industrial electricity course to work in a factory or something and then take one semester after that is all done for the generators.. So either they can teach us the diesel side that quick, or I am only going to be working on the generator head and all that crap. Hope I get to mess with some of those cummins V16's i see on youtube :drool We shall see, I got another year to go :smart

Here is what crude looks like..