That's definately the gutter mesh from the hardware store. Haha. I used it in my car, I'm not spending $60 on car mesh. I paid a dollar for the gutter mesh. I was tired of rocks bending the fins on the bottom of my radiator. I was thinking about doing it on the truck, especially in the bumper openings where rocks kick up and bend the fins.

Looks good, something to set your truck apart - I think I'm gonna go ahead and do it. Did you ahve to take the honeycomb grill off to get the mesh in there?

 

The smaller the holes, the less air flow will be getting through, especially at high air velocity. Let me give you an example. Try blowing as hard as you can through a mesh window screen, like on a sliding screen door at your house. Hold your hand on the other side and see how much air actually comes through. It's not much compared to what your putting out. Compare to something that has larger holes and do the same test. You'll see that the item with larger holes lets more air through then the one with smaller holes. That's because even though the screen has lots of holes, it also has lots of barriers. The small hole size and increased number of barriers prevents high velocity air from passing cleanly because the air has to be broken up into smaller and higher number of segments. This creates turbulence. That turbulence slows down incoming air, resulting in less air flow getting to things on the other side.

So, the fact that the screen he used in that picture has such small holes, the air is going to be restricted compared to the stock honeycomb grill that has relatively large openings. Will it be enough to matter? He'll have to see as he drives it. For me though, i'll stick with the grill I have or something with equal or larger holes.

 

The additional restriction of that metal isn't going to have any impact. I don't have my truck here at the second, so might be off base on this, but believe the factory honeycomb is thicker, which actually causes additional restriction that would probably basically cancel out the metal grate's additional surface area.

At high velocities, highway mode, engine is getting more then enough airflow anyway. Already started doing some airflow testing on the front end of my truck this weekend to determine proper cfm's for electric fan sizing. The "3500" advertised as required for our trucks by certain aftermarket companies is complete crap.

 

Ya, the honeycomb grate is thicker, but the holes are significantly larger then the gutter mesh pictured at the start of this thread. More air is going to get through the stock grill then the gutter mesh. Like I said, only driving it will determine if it will make a difference. Since I have a large trans cooler in front of the radiator, I want as much air coming in as possible to keep not only my trans cooler in fresh air, but to also force air through the trans cooler to the condenser behind it, and then through that condenser to the radiator beyond. So for me, i'm not taking any chances in restricting air flow. Same reason I haven't put lights behind the grill. That's just my preference though.

 

yes it is the gutter guard. I got the same exact stuff that is used in DIY. And I have noticed no difference in performance. Also it is aluminized steel i believe. I picked it up in a 5 pack at lowes for $10. Also i am going to do the openings in the bumper below.

 

I think it looks great! good job. Same sort of design right from the factory on my brothers CTS-V, no restriction problems there.

 

Not necessarily. Anything in the grill opening is a restriction, but air doesn't flow perfectly straight, therefore the thickness of the factory grill creates a restriction. Only way you can know for sure if there is a true difference is to take a static pressure reading across both, but I'd bet anything the difference is less then 1/2%. I can see you having issues if you start putting multiple lights or items that cut the factory grill opening down by say, half, but even then you'll only see it on 85+ degree days at idle.

Took some airflow readings on my Ram this weekend, factory fan was moving under 1000 cfm at idle. That was less then 400 fpm face velocity across the grill openings. I'll be posting a detailed thread on this at some point, but still wanting to do more tests and calcs to determine additional info.

I can say this, when you buy the flex o lite 3300 cfm fan, bolt it to your radiator, you are never going to move 3300 cfm with that fan, guarantee it. I'm trying to determine what airflows are required so guys don't have to spend that much money for a fan.

 

i did my bottom ones when i frist got the truck a few years back, they still look the same(((( be no more deer horns))))