Hi all,

When pine needles, leaves, and other plant debris falls through the grating on the rear of the hood (where the windshield wipers attach) on our trucks, where do they end up going? Do they accumulate somewhere in the body of the truck? Or are there drain holes somewhere in the body for them to fall out of?

Thanks.

 

Head on over to the pre powerstroke forum. There is a thread on page 1 right now that says something like, "Just an FYI" for the subject. It explains exactly what you need to do to clean it out!

 

Unfortunatly they collect in the cowl area and end up plugging up the drain holes thus why cars and trucks rot up there, they just help retain moisture.

 

I noticed on the cab I purchased from the junkyard, i think it's a 1985 that had AC.

If you don't have AC, you have vents in the kick panels; with AC, they're blank panels.

Anyway, directly under those panels underneath the truck on each side is a hole I think you can probably fit your hand into.

That hole is generally closed up by a rubber flap assembly, and debris is *supposed to* end up there.

You might remove your heater fan underneath the hood and see how much crap has made its way into there, though.

 

I just got through cleaning mine out, had some rust penetrations in the floor of the wiper valley, which helped rust the cab floor. THE WATER GOT UNDER THE RUBBER MAT. I fiberglassed the valley floor and sides. I 'm looking for a 93-96 cover grate since it has small holes rather than louvered openings to lessen the amount of debris that will fall through. Good luck with yours and I would suggest that anyone check theirs out especially all that live in humid climates.

 

I've found pine needles and leaves around my heater core before. Almost started a fire one day.

 

I got a cowl panel with the small holes from a jy off of an '87-'89. The lines on the hood match up much better. I have not installed it yet (sometime this summer). I primed and undercoated the underside, and I plan on priming and painting it before I install it.

 

Thanks all, I'll look for these secret leaf-accumulation areas in my truck.

There is a type of firm-but-flexible black plastic screening with holes about the size of a garden pea or smaller, I found it once at an aquarium supply shop.

You can cut this screening to fit, and slide it through and under the longitudinal slits that make up the "cowl grate" on our trucks. The edges will feed under the hood skin and hold it up nicely.

This makes a good leaf-entry barrier that isn't visible unless you look for it. But unfortunately I can't find that black plastic screening any more (it was years ago).

 

Even with the smaller holes used on the later models, I found evidence of a heater box fire in my 95 Mazda truck (ranger with a facelift). So the later style cowl panel isn't a perfect "cure" for crud getting in there, but it sure cuts down on the size of things that can fall in.
That reminds me, while I have the cowl panel off my 80, I need to get a shop vac after it. Prolly oughtta pull the blower motor off and give a good vacuuming in there as well......

 

I was thinking about attaching (as in gluing or silicone caulking) some plastic screen material or weed mat to the bottom of the cowl.

 

I did have a fire, not big but not fun.

 

I was driving to work one morning in March this year. It had snowed that night (very wet and heavy) and I did not clean off the cowl intake. Well, about half way to work I started to get a whiff of what smelled like wood burning. I did not think much of it as just thought to myself "it's somewhat cold this morning and people have their wood burning furnaces going". The odor became much stronger and I happened to look down and smoke was just pouring out of the heater vent. Fortunately I was very close to work so I turned the heater off, rolled down the window, and unbuckled in case I had to make a quick exit. Needless to say I made it to work, parked out in the back of the lot in case the truck decided to combust and went in to the plant. I was talking about my morning and one of the guys who owned an '84 F150 said the same thing happened to him. He said it was after a heavy snow and it only did it one time but it did create alot of smoke. The first warm weekend after this little "event" I pulled the cowl panel used a shop vac to pull out what I could and flushed the heck out of it with a hose. The only think I can guess is that I started to "smolder" some wet leaves/debris.
I did smell like smoke that entire day.

 

I'm gonna guess there are leaves & debris in your heater box, the fan speed resistor is in there,
it's an exposed coil, looks similar to this:

 

The plastic screen material I used years ago was flexible enough to be fed through the grating slits in one piece, yet sturdy enough to hold itself it place tight under the slits by its own "spring pressure". It worked well, just put it in and forget about it. It kept out most leaves except little maple tree "helicopters", they could and did fit through.

 

Thanks ctubutis!
Can I get to the heater box from under the hood? Or, do I need to pull the panel that exposes the heater core from inside the cab? My truck has (had) AC so from what I have read it is a bit easier to work on (maybe?).
Sorry to hijack your thread Galendor!