Hood Vents - JLU/JL Rubicon functional or only decorative?

[vegasblue]

I just opened mine all the way up. I believe the hood design originated with AEV and their hood is open. So, I cut mine wide open as well as the liner. I live in Vegas and summer temps are real. Combined with aftermarket fender liners, open vents, you can feel heat dissipate out the vents. I'm not kidding myself that I created a ram air hood or gained even 1hp. May have been a coincidence, but wheeling this weekend was the first time after the vent cut and I didn't get the harrier jet cooling fan. Of course, it was 50 degree out at best. Who knows. Second Jeep I've done this too without negative effect. Venting the engine bay on the 2.0T does not seem like a bad idea. That sucker runs hot!

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[sourdough]

The Rubi hood vents are a visual sales gimick. I swapped to JT grill screen, removed the hood sound liner, the 3.6 engine cover and simply extendended the hood hinges with aluminum flat bar stock. Moving or still the back edge of the hood vents better than the factory vents every could.

Drilling a few same holes in the fake vents get less tha a 12 square inches of opening comparted to 1'"x the width of the hood. 40+ square inches. And no water intrusion concerns. Btw, I was very happy to swap my fake Rubi hood to a Sahara owner and got $500 cash also. Paid for my real Mopar CAI system.

 

[JABCAT]

To each their own, as long as it's not causing them any performance issues. However my uneducated opinion from over 10 years ago when I was into modifying sports cars. Huge debate back then whether "cool looking" fully vented hoods (completely open cut outs) decreased engine bay temperature or not. In short summary, it was determined that opening vents had marginal decrease in engine bay temperatures at idle/stop. However negative effects due to airflow disruption when cars were moving.

With regard to high horsepower sports cars, this isn’t true at all. Check out some of the most powerful & fastest cars & their hood vents. Not only do they help lower underhood temps, but they also help with the aerodynamic of the car (when done correctly).
Here’s my Callaway supercharged Z06 hood & I think Callaway knows a thing or two about building some of the fastest cars on record.

Regarding the Rubicon vents, yes they allow airflow over the engine and hot air to escape aiding in cooling. There’s also nothing to worry about having rain get into the engine bay. The vehicle is designed to drive through water, a little or a lot of rain will no nothing.

Here’s also a pic of our JKU with the vents fully open. 61k mile and no issues except lower engine temps

 

[AZ Hella]

I opened up the vents to let the heat out. Not particularly while driving but while slow moving or stopped.

I cut the vent in a way that the water will still drain as if there was no cutout, like from the factory. I drilled 3 1.75" holes in each vent directly under the solid portion of the top part of the vent. This will prevent rain from going directly down the drilled holes. I then 3-d printed small vent rings that sit higher in the vent to prevent drain water from going into the engine compartment.

The 6 1.75" holes equal about 12 square inches of vent area.

Would you be willing to print me a set of those rings?

 

[Runngun18]

This is what I did....

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