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Something nice other than the square hole stock one that came on my ex. I would be very happy to get black but there are a lot of chrome ones I like too.
Oh by the by, the carriage works grill I bought..... Everywhere I looked said it would mount up perfectly fine, but it didn't. The actual grill itself, perfect! All the welds looked great, nothing was bent or tweaked, awesome.
Then came the mounting part. The bottom mounted up just fine like the instructions said. The top was a different story completely. I had to straighten out the 4 brackets they sent, and 'adjust' them to where the would even touch the grill shell. But after some time with a dead blow hammer, a vice, and an anvil, they lined up just fine. I did have to cut some new slots in the grill shell to slide the c-clips into. Other than that, it was an easy install. Just took a bit of outside the box thinking.
When picking out a new grille. Is it important to take in to consideration the design and how much or little it restricts air flow?
I really don't think so, it's a matter of how many square inches of open space is needed in a worst case scenario and I doubt if any grills on the market even come close to being too restrictive for the cooling.
to be honest, the intake draws air from behind the headlight and the side-most portion of the grille.
if you do the Zoodad mod, then a aftermarket grille may have an effect on airflow.
stock header panel. see the small rectangular hole
after the zoodad mod. much larger hole...but even with a restrictive grille, you will still get plenty of air from behind the headlight. you can see the filter element through the bigger hole now
I haven't seen any kind of temp increases towing or not.
I have the same one but in black. I live in GA and have towed here allot. No noticeable temp increase even during the dead of summer.
Your fine with whatever grill you choose.