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!

That will work... :thumbsup What kind of metal did you use? (aluminum, steel, etc?)I like the bolt-less appearance better... I see what you mean about the weld spot... But no big deal... After they get beat up and muddy, scratched up, etc you'll forget about it rather quickly...But the main principal was delt with... You now can warm up your truck quickly and save fuel doing it... :thumbsup

Well I found a tool tray thing in our scrap trailer that looked perfect. It is either 14 or 16ga steel, probably the 16ga, it was pretty thin, the tig was screwed up so i had to weld it with the mig in just little pulses so it wouldnt get hot at all otherwise it would burn right through. It really dont look too bad unless you get right up on it and see my wonderful job of "fitting it in the grill" LOL I will figure out how to do that better one of these days. If I ever do it again I think a better way would be to punch a hole like, 3/16 for the 5/16" bolt with the head of it cut off, and weld on the opposite side that the bolt sticks out, and then grind it flat with the flapper wheel, cause it doesnt fit to well with the weld bead around the bolt, i had to grind them all down a little bit so they would fit in the honeycomb hole better. There were 2 trays so maybe I will try again and make them even better, maybe use some dull paint too. I need to figure out how to get it to fit in the grill better, I cant really do much on tracing. It serves the purpose damn well though. I couldnt be happier. :thumbsup

I like the boltless look. Slick!As I posted, mine are made of fairly thin plastic that was left over from another project... use what you have! I tried to disassemble the grill to do a tracing but quit when I cracked the first mounting foot... & that was after soaking it with penitrating oil... I'm too impatient, I did it "cut & try" without a template. I measured & worked directly with the plastic. I tried jig saws, tin snips finially HD shop sissors worked best on the thin plastic... then several trips from the bench sander to the truck. The right way would be to cut a cardboard template, trim with sissors right there, and THEN work with the finish materials. I reached around behind, traced the bird cage onto the back & punched the holes. The holes are not exactly symetric & are a bit unsightly since they do show. Functionally, all the precision fitting probably does not amount to much since the hood has other gaps... Russ

Thats it, you guys are likeing something that I didnt think turned out all too well :D Next weekend... I will make a set to be proud of! THICKER, STRAIGHTER, SLICKER, and all of this for one low payment of $9.99 LOL Give me till Sunday!

OK, we're waiting on the pictures... LOL... Seriously though, even an aproximate fit is gonna be better than cardboard stuck in the wrong place. Being an only recently converted gasser man, I never thought about intercoolers & other stuff that was blocked by the cardboard.

Russ

It was so cold out (6f), and I didnt have any wood chopped up to heat the garage. I said screw it. I changed my fuel filter, thats about the only thing I got done this weekend. Then after I got that done my brother showed up with one of those diesel heaters, the cylinder looking ones that lights up with the flip of a switch.. weather is going nuts here. It was 60f thursday..

I got one of those torpedo type heaters hanging around the barn... no building to use it in now. Last time I used it was to thaw the backhoe... Covered the JD with tarps & set it between the wheels. We used to use it at my work. The marina had a pole barn large enough to drive the Travel Lift in... we enclosed one bay with plastic & heated it when we had work to do in the winter. One hint: use clear kerosene. The fumes are much less... and you will breathe them. We should have plugged it in a thermostat but just plugged & unplugged it... as in we'd run it til we were working in overalls... then as the place cooled off we'd put sweat shirts & coats on... til someone plugged it in again. I always planned to build a shop in my barn before I got MS... Russ

We had a nice day the other day... warm sun shining on the front of the Dodge... I noticed the the cold front panels were buckling in the center. I'm thinking that the "heat" warmth expanded the plastic lengthwise (horrizontally) causing the tight fitting panels to buckle. They seem to go back when the sun goes away! I'll be buffing those edges next to see if that's better!Russ

Yeap it getting to 50*F during the day here but the aluminum panel are doing quite well. I'm still running them as a aid for MPG. I've notice once the IAT breaks over the 100*F mark the the MPG starts to rise rather quickly. Even with 50*F weather the most coolant temp rises to is about 197*F and the EGT are still in check yet...

It has been almost 70f out a couple times and I left the panels on and it still didnt get too hot. It does finally close the range of the temp I see the thermostat close and open on though, seemed like it would get down to about a 20f difference on the 70f day it was more like 10 or 5.. I am going to bump my timing to 16* thursday so we will see if I can hit 30mpg from that..

We've had some nice days but not over 50 highs... and into the teens some nights. Right now it's 30 and snowing. I'm gonna leave the cold fronts in for now. I'm only going to the grocery, running empty. The temp is still running dead center... I'm keeping an eye on it.The cold fronts come out in minutes when I'm ready. I can only wish for Spring!Russ

I'm glad I left mine on. Last weekend, 8 inches of snow and low 20's for highs. Got up to almost 50 on Thursday, but we had torrential rains on top of the snow melt!!!! Then this weekend, highs in the upper teens with nasty northerly winds. Had a dog event this weekend, and driving home today, about 100 miles, running about 65-70mph, with the winter front on......my EGT's were running 475-525 over level ground!!!! :smart

I'm glad I left mine on. Last weekend, 8 inches of snow and low 20's for highs. Got up to almost 50 on Thursday, but we had torrential rains on top of the snow melt!!!! Then this weekend, highs in the upper teens with nasty northerly winds. Had a dog event this weekend, and driving home today, about 100 miles, running about 65-70mph, with the winter front on......my EGT's were running 475-525 over level ground!!!! :smart

Dang... I wish... I'm in the 40-50*F bracket now and it raining here in Idaho. With the winter fronts it would push the IAT temps up to about 100*F and gain me about 1-2 MPG but my EGt here in the canyon were about 600-900*F. But now that I pulled the winter fronts my EGT are now down to 500-600*F and IAT dropped to 80*F... Now the MPG's slid down the 1-2 points and back to the lower numbers... Can't win for losing... LOL

I had the CTD out today. I don't think it ever warmed up fully. Time to put the cold front back on, after all it's that time of year again. I bought all new stainless hardware this year. Hex bolts, self locking nuts, washers. I had such a time last year, I'm hoping that I can run these in with a power driver. I'll let you know...Russ

Edited December 23, 200915 yr by flagmanruss

Maybe not the first few times but after a few winters you can almost twist it with you bare hands...

Sorry. I did not explain that because of my disability my left fingers are about worthless. So I need to be able to get the hardware started with my right hand using the left to press against the bolt from the outside. Then switch & use the left hand (gross motor skills) to just hold a wrench inside.

Sorry Russ... What I meant was the the tension on the nut will take quite a bit to twist even with the screw gun or drill but after a few seasons of working the nut on and off the nyloc will start to loosen up to the point that it won't rattle loose but you can about take it off with your fingers. (assuming myself). Once again I'd should of known better...

In the Winter months I use the Lund Screen Fronts to help limit the amount of cold air going into the engine compartment of my truck.They are not complete block offs and have small slots in them as they were actually made for running in the Summer Months.I had them given to me by my son some years ago and when they were on in the Summer the truck runs way to warm as the slots are too small to allow enough air in when its hot outside. Instead I run them all Winter long in the lower bumper area over the factory fog lights and in the bottom panels of the grill assembly.I DO NOT completely enclose the front as I have seen how much it increases the intake air temps with my gauge and do not want that much hot air being fed into the motor.The more you block off the charge air cooler the more the intake air temps rise and depending on what your doing that could be a bad idea.So for that reason I leave the top 2 grill panels open all winter long and I do not have any issues at all and it wokrs the way I want it to. I will attach a photo from the other Winter when I came in from a trip to Quebec riding snow machines and had the ice hanging all over the truck.It was -25F up there and down into the Adirondacks and even when I got home it still was cold and snow covered........Andy P.S.-As you can see the areas where the Lund Screen fronts are at still are covered in ice and the top panels are open and allowing some air into the charge air cooler.

Hammer,It seems your Lund panels cover the bottom 2 spaces (bumper & lower grill) where as ours cover the upper & lower grill and draw air through the open bumper slots. I do not see that either is significantly "better" but both variations on the same theme. Yes, it does increase the IAT, intake air temp to the engine. On a compression fired engine, warmer air in winter is a good thing, warming up the engine quicker reducing the rich warm up mode (better mpgs) & reducing the intake grid heater use.These would not be appropriate in summer, where the IAT is already warm enough & might actually cause overheating. You have yours & it works... all good!Russ

Russ....I actually have all 6 of the Lund panels and have tried all different combinations to see which worked the best and which one did not raise the intake air temps alot,thus the way you see the truck now.I also considered took into consideration what comes up off the road in the winter months and hits the truck front when I did the testing.If you would see a close up shot of the trucks panels you would get to see first hand how peppered the lower area gets from salt and cinders and all that crap can and will eventually block up a charge air cooler. I understand that you think that warm air in the winter is a good thing but any air thats too warm is not a good thing and you do need a balance of cold air to allow the truck to properly make efficent power.Yes your right, I have my ideas and they do work and have been watched with the aid of my data logger.I never remove the lower panel screens as they make little difference in the summer months and the little bit they do raise the air temps is worth the protection it provides the charge air cooler from road debris.......Andy