I do use the hooks on occasion. My friend has a 1 ton GMC van that she uses for heavy hauling about 5 or 6 times a year that every time she needs to use it, its sunk down into the mud. The Beast usually makes short work of snatching it out. I do not want to remove the hooks, you never know when you will need them. I plan to just fill in the gap around the hooks with coroplast. I also noticed when under the truck installing the airdam that there is a plastic deflector under the truck, presumably to deflect the air coming in through those slots underneath the truck, instead of letting that air plow into the engine.

I am seriously considering a grille block. There is no way this thing needs ~ 6 square feet of grille area to cool that engine. I'm going to keep on the lookout for a large piece of black plastic either cheap or free to block it off. I'm thinking that the huge grille opening is acting like an open parachute on the front of the truck. Because of its high ground clearance and large grille area I think I can get better than average gains (% wise) than doing these mods on a normal car. Only the fuel logs will tell though... With the extended airdam its front ground clearance has been reduced to about 6 inches instead of ~ 14 inches. This has got to net me something, but with my heavy city driving SG is reporting 14.1 MPG on this tank, but then again I don't trust the SG to report my fuel usage correctly. The variance swings from 1% to 7%. I think this is because it is not recognizing DFCO, and depending on how much DFCO I do the variance swings wildly on each tank.

I do notice that the truck seems to glide better with the extended airdam. Today on level ground @ 40MPH I shifted into Neutral and was able to glide ~ 400 yards and I only lost 5 MPH. I've also gotten pretty good at DFCO @ the lights. I can see a red light ahead, downshift & DFCO. I've gotten to the point where many times the light will turn green right when the RPM gets to the point where DFCO cancels, and I can shift back into Drive and go. I expect this to really pay off when I take it on the highway. (Which unfortunately isn't often). Still I have the truck getting close to the EPA highway rating driving in city traffic. I think that is an acomplishment all by itself. I could really boost the mileage by trying to drive the Buick only in town, and the Beast only on the highway, but then I'd only be filling the tank once a month on the truck. Plus I don't think the Buick is up to the challenge of being a DD again this soon. I just put it back on the road 2 weeks ago, I'd like to ease into it.

-Jay

as for the recovery hooks, I would use some kind of rubber if you could find some so that it would form around the hook to make a better seal than coroplast would. don't know where to find it but hey it is an idea.

for the grill block. you could use plexi-glass (plastic sheeting from lowes) I got my sheet for around $13 from lowes and it cuts good with a dremel. I have used it for my car and my wife's element. I used black wire ties to put it on the element so it is less noticeable. you could cover the area above GMC and if that works out you could cover the area below GMC leaving just the area beside of GMC for cooling. just be sure to cut out a section so that you can still unlatch the hood.

I have always been told that the grill and cooling system on most cars were designed to take the heat of arizona days and to hold up to outside temps being 137 deg. I don't know if this is true but most of us rarely see 100 deg days depending on where you are. we have only seen 2 or 3 100 deg days around my parts and my grill block hasn't had any issues.

the plexi-glass at lowes is near the glass cutting area and the lumber.

good luck

I'm thinking about a 90% grille block, leaving the passenger side, lower corner open because that's where the auxillary oil and tranny coolers are located. The hood latch is not accessed through the grille on this truck (It was on my old 74 Chevy though). I try to be as thrifty as possible, so I will work with whatever comes my way free, or as reasonably cheap as possible. I may check the curbs on trash day. I might find someone throwing out an old piece of plexi or black plastic. The friend that has the GMC 1 ton van that retrieve from the mud in her backyard on occasion works for Lowe's so if I have her buy it for me I'll get a 10% discount.

-Jay

discounts are awesome. also remember that duct tape is pretty cheap too. not pretty but pretty cheap.

I will probably do a duct tape grille block to experiment and see how much I could get away with blocking off the grille, so I can just cut one piece and place it behind the grille. I'd rather not take the grille out twice.

-Jay

looks good,,try the clear box tape

GE silicone caulk, or Plasti-Dip. Both are in Home Depot/Lowes.

What bit do you use on the Dremel for it? I have a perfect piece for my truck and I'm thinking I should do the work soon.

...with aggressive driving or towing a heavy trailer.

:thumbup: Nothing wrong with a little curb shopping. Look at residential roofing sites for skylights; the piece I have came from one. At the time I didn't know what I was going to use it for, I thought I was just going to cut a couple small pieces out for fixing a broken fog light...if I had known I would have saved a lot more. Then I could use a couple on the truck and one on the VW.

Never lasts long for me. :(

Darn! My mom & dad just had a new roof put on their house, and they had a Plexiglas skylight replaced at the same time because the roofers said it was so old that it may start leaking if it wasn't replaced with the roof. Still, I'm sure something will come my way economically.

-Jay

Tape Tow hook holes
 

Those tow hook holes are about 3 sizes too large.
I'll bet you could tape up around those holes and cut back a little drag..
You could likely use tape over those bolt holes in the lower edge of the
extension too. I found some Shurtape outdoor duct tape at Lowes.
It's pretty good stuff. Looks like it will last a while.

I taped over some holes in my steel rims. The tires make less noise now.. :o
https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...0d9aeb8658.jpg
Did about 250 miles over the rainy weekend and the tape still looks fresh.

That's a thought. I'd like to have some long term solution. I'm just afraid that tape will look bad after a while. On a side note you should get some valvestem extensions and cover up that last hole.

-Jay