Take it off and dont worry about it. I dont have one, my truck didnt have one on it when i bought it. It wont hurt anything to take it off. They always start to sag and fray apart and look nasty anyway. They hold dirt and crap, another thing is you dont want it to sag and fray apart and get caught in the mech fan..

 

I ripped mine off a couple years ago as soon as I saw the back corner start to sag. I tried the duck tape deal and it just ripped out too. When mine was just sagging in the center it didn't bother me because it sat on the shroud and wasn't hurting anything.

 

how much does the noise increase? is it bad when your in the cab driving down the interstate? i might just rip it out if the noise aint too bad..

 

Dunno, do you prefer the sound of a prius or a 408 stroker? if it's the 408 then the sound won't bother you.

 

Was out at the lake with a buddy of mine when we started smelling something burning and we hadnt started a fire yet. I looked back at his ford escort and thought I saw a light flickering so I popped the hood and when I opened up the hood there was a fire ball. Freaked me out as I thought it was blowing up. I slammed the hood down and grabbed the cooler and filled it with water and used that to put out the fire. We couldnt see what started the fire but it started and ran fine after that. We stopped several time on the way back home with that same cooler full of water :P The insulation under the hood was never touched.


Mine also didnt have one when I bought it. And I think its too quiet. Definitely need to get some performance exhaust on it once I fix the plenum.

 

I didn't notice much difference

 

Well, to give you an idea, the body shop that fixed the hood from another boo boo took the pad off and it took me a month before I figured out it was even gone. I noticed no increase in road noise.

 

I didn't notice any increase in road noise either.

 

Not much noise increase in the cab, just hear it more when outside the truck and a little louder when on the throttle getting up to speed, and when passing other cars, cant tell when cruising

 

well...sounds like im gonna remove it. it was sagging on the edges and would stay damp forever after washing the motor. might make it easier to clean as someone already mentioned. thanks guys for your feedback. i might throw it in storage and try to fix it up in case i do want it up. otherwise it will stay off