Why would you seal that? Thought this was good to help ventilate heat out of the engine bay.

 

I read somewhere that lip is for a seal. Just wanted to make sure.
Not saying its right

Im printing out some 5.5mm spacers (from TPU) to try and get the hood aligned good.
Its such a pain getting things aligned correctly when you are a one man team

 

Cant say I've ever seen a gasket/seal around the hood at all 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

@Alexr54 -- just to make sure, you're not referring the seal between the windshield and the cowl, you are asking about around the edges of the hood?
No seal around edges of hood

 

Yes exactly. Thanks!

 

@ChrisReyn

Just left his hood margins all catty-whompus to distract everyone from

concentrating on the other "whoops-is" everywhere else.

----JEEPFELLER

 

I think 5.5 mm should be about right.

If your tub and hood is like mine, you won't ever get it perfect, just good enough.

 

The little rubber bumpers on the top of the grill shoukd give you the spacing. When I replaced my old ones,which were rock hard from age, i bought ones about twice as thick to help keep the hood from rubbing paint off the fenders when things flexed. They work perfectly and I`m guessing i have at least 1/4" gap at the minimum.

 

I never knew of a spec for hood gap. If the hold downs are lined up correctly it is fine approximately 1/4 to 5/16" seems correct. I don't recall a hood gasket on the rear of the hood. Jeep bodies like I bought new in 77-78 weren't noted for beautiful finished. Spot welds often were visible through the paint. They weren't some fancy high end ride. Just the best Off-road ride going then. Still Great as well. 240k miles on 258's or 232's with normal maintenance wasn't unusual. In that day AMC wasn't terribly concerned with 1/16".

 

Our 79 CJ7 is 1/4" at the cowl. It's such miss-mash of parts it's hard to get the front clip to fit right. It did come with a hood/cowl rubber gasket

 

Maybe the gasket was put there by a previous owner?
Seems more people don't have one then do.

 

I actually got it lined up pretty good using 5.5mm spacers. Thanks all!
Not expecting perfection, but doing the best i can.

 

Can't say for all CJ's, but "most" vehicles for the last 80 years or so, had what is called cowl "lacing" or a cowl "lace" which is a seal of some kind. Not sure if I've ever seen it referred to as a "hood lace" but it might have been in some circles.
Usually the word "cowl" was more often associated with this seal.
Usually rubber, but in the old days they were often thick, fiber reinforced rubber for longevity and heat resistance and "abuse" resistance, due to how often hoods got opened and closed back in the day these rigs were new.
If you own a modern vehicle, do you remember the last time you had the hood open? Haha!

The point of hood/cowl lacing was to seal the rear, near the heater/vent air intake grille to keep any noxious fumes out of the cabin the as best as possible. Between road-draft tubes (before PCV systems), oil leaking out and burning on the exhaust, fuel vapors coming out of every orifice, and whatever else used to be lurking under there, it could get pretty ripe in the cabin.
Look up cowl lace and see what comes up. All of my previous vehicles had it in one form or another.

Paul

 

When i think of cowl i think of the windshield cowl.

 

That would be referred to as windshield to cowl. Also hood to cowl and fender to cowl as well.
🍺🍺

Edit, it’s actually fender to body….

 

I used to help my Granny milk the cowls when I would stay on the farm for the Summer

-----JEEPFELLER

 

You learn to duck quick, whether for just a swishing tail, or a quick kick from a hind leg!

The entire body panel area between the hood and windshield is the cowl.
Where some manufacturers might consider the vertical rise under the windshield to be a different body part, such as just part of the tub, I think most would consider that also as being part of the cowl area.
But the part with the intake vent for the passenger compartment certainly is the cowl.

Paul

 

I found cowls to be more work than they worth. Nothing but expensive hay burners. Just like my horses that I still have, unfortunately.

My CJ's hood has respectable gaps, though, so that's a win.

 

I'm unsure of CJ, but YJ's seemed to have them, and that may be what you've seen, as I think they would fit a CJ as well.

Here is mine on my YJ.

But if nobody else has one? Eh, I wouldn't fret, lol. Heck, maybe that's partially why my floor board is like 300°!!! Should probably take it out to vent engine heat. 😂

 

This is exactly what i was referring to. Thanks!