Not too long after I got my truck my serpentine belt lost a rib that ruined my heat shield/headliner under the hood. Due to it being pretty dinged up, I was thinking of just removing it entirely. Another thing I was trying to figure out was, my LED lights I have hung under the hood. With the headliner in the way there's no real way to mount them. I was thinking of mounting the lights across the rear of the engine bay where the wiring harness runs across the top of the motor but I don't think it would provide as much light over there as it would from the top.

How do you guys feel about the headliners? I wonder if there is a aftermarket design that would work better. For some reason I doubt it but, I will look into it anyway.

In the picture you'll see what I'm talking about with my lights. They're kind of hung in a crappy way. Looks ugly but I'm not sure how to fix that issue with the headliner there. If it was on bear Hood I could probably mount it quite straight and easily. Or so I think anyway.

 

Does the hood liner provide any sound muffling benefits?

 

I know it does provide at least some sound deadening. I've been considering better lighting under my hood as well. Still running the little factory lamp.
I've been eyeballing that liner (and lack of, in places) on mine, wondering if I removed the hood, and cleaned it really well.... if I could use spray foam to re insulate it. I know it would fill the gaps and between places. The question is could I get it to stay, and be at least somewhat even.... 🤷🏻

 

Maybe some spray on bed liner would be a better option? Probably more durable to.

 

as a coating, absolutely. As insulation/ sound deadener...... not so much.

 

And I'd be careful about adding weight to da hood. Those gas springs don't have much extra umph. My truck has an aftermarket hood with no liner on it. I never gave it much thought.

 

A naked hood!?! Have some decency!

 

I didn't think about the extra weight being bad for the shocks. Not sure why that didn't cross my mind.

I could maybe cut out some little pieces across the headliner where I'm wanting my lights to mount just to give me a spot behind the headliner to mount to. I was really wanting to use some double-sided mounting tape so I wouldn't have to drill into the hood with self tappers which is why I wanted to get to the metal. It would leave a much cleaner appearance too cuz I wouldn't have those straps holding it. Mounting tape won't stick to the headliner. In fact, nothing will stick to the headliner.

I'm going to have to think about some ideas for the rest of the day.

 

Interested in this as well. Does the engine bay need to be insulated? I would think you would want to remove as much heat as possible. Also would be interested to know if someone has removed theirs and how big the noise difference is

 

The hood insulation definitely helps quiet the engine noise. This combined with insulation on inner fenders does make a difference outside the cab. Not sure how much it matters inside the cab.

 

Sound suppression is the hood liners main purpose but it also helps protect hood paint from motor heat, and the motor from the heat of the Sun. Without it, especially in Florida, you will see a noticeable decline in paint quality related to the hood, and the efficiency of your climate control system during times of extreme temperatures. You can get good liners for under $50.

 

This is interesting to me. I don't necessarily doubt it. I had a black 2004 F250 without a hood liner (granted 5.4L motor) and no noticeable paint degradation in the 12 years I owned it in Texas. That said, it was painted once over from incidental damage so hard to take my experience with much conviction to refute this.

 

I'll just chime in here with the statement that if the hood liner ever gives out in my truck, it will simply be removed and trashed. I've never been able to notice any difference from the inside of any diesel powered vehicle that I've removed from them in the past and I've had quite a few. Gas engines make way more underhood heat than a diesel, IMO due to the much higher EGTs that they generate and the subsequent heat soak after shutdown. I cannot state any experience with paint degradation due to hot weather, I've spent most of my life in Washington. Now that I live in Arizona, the vehicles that do have ruined paint, it's all over the top of the cars and not necessarily just on the engine hood. I think those hood blankets are just to quiet down the vehicle for the benefit of owner perception of how noisy the engine can be if they're standing outside of it while the engine is running.
Anyway.... I'll just leave it at that.

 

Removing the hood liner may impact the overall condition of the exterior paint, but I never noticed anything on my "minty" 2002 Mercury Sable that ran for over 150,000 miles with no liner. Admittedly, the car had 255,000 miles on the original engine and transmission and I didn't wash it for 8+ years before turning it in as scrap metal at the salvage yard. This car was used as a beater to get back and forth to work 120 miles a day and let me tell you, people are either scared or respect a car like this on the interstate as I rarely got cut off.



Now that the joking is over, I could see there being some long term adverse effects to the paint or clearcoat from the heat being generated under the hood, but my engineering education is from "Arm Chair University".

Tristan, you could try and remove the liner to clean it up a bit. I did this to a liner on one of my previous cars after the belt broke and damaged it. I was not able to make it new again, but I removed the loose parts and washed it with dish soap. You could try and paint it with spray paint to freshen it up as well. I had seen this done before in the past, but nothing recently.

 

I run a prop and scenic shop. We use urethane foams all the time.

Unless you use FIre Rated foam that stuff is super flammable.