Roush Hood Heat Extractors Mustang EcoBoost/ GT 2018-2023

Today we're going to add a little bit of Roush styling to our 2018 Mustang GT. These heat extractors are factory in the 2018 Roush Mustangs, and will fit your 2018 GT or Ecoboost. They install a direct replacement for the factory hood vents will require a little bit of modification for installation, but add a nice aggressive look and are functional.

For this installation, need a 1/4" ratchet, 8 millimeter socket, 9 millimeter socket, 1/16" allen key, plastic pry bar, scraper, center punch, 1/8" drill bit, 7/32" drill bit, 1" hole saw, drill, heat gun, squeegee and safety glasses.

The first step in the process is to remove the hood blanket by removing all these little plastic clips.

With the blanket off now you can see the bracket that holds our factory hood vents in place.

Very carefully push up on the studs, pull up on the clips to release the hood vent.

All right, the hood vent removed, trim panel from below can be removed. There's a little double stick tape in here, so just get underneath it, pull it off. Sure you get rid of any residual tape on here.

This is the part where we have to drill the hood. To do that, use the provided and cut it out. Now what I recommend doing, grab two of the studs and the nuts that come with it for mounting tabs, and use them to locate this. Then I'll get it where it needs to go, and then tape it in place. Now with it located, we have to punch these holes to drill, but what I'm going to do, just where it's going to be drilled out, is put a piece of tape on the hood. And we use a center punch to mark the hole. And you want to put something in the engine bay, underneath the hood before you drill. We just have a piece of plastic in there where those punched holes are. We start with our eighth inch pilot bit. Okay, now I can remove the template.

When you drill these holes, you want to make sure you actually go through both layers. So, once we have the pilot holes drilled with an eighth inch bit, then we'll grab a seven, thirty second bit, and open them up. Again, go through both layers. Okay, now we're back underneath the hood. What we're gonna do here is this outer hole has to be opened up to a one-inch hole saw hole, so we can put a nut on the stud when we install the new hood screw. Now, make sure here, you're only going through this section, not the hood skin. With the holes drilled, you want to put paint or clear coat, or something over this, so the hood doesn't get damaged in the future. If you have touch up paint, clear is included with it. If not, just go out and but some clear, and then brush it on. Now, Roush includes a decal that goes in here, basically, to black this out, so that when you look through the vent, you don't see the color. So, grab some soapy water, just basically clean this area off. Make sure the metal shavings are gone before you do this.

This is the included blackout graphic. Obviously, this opening here, goes around this. So, basically, soak this area again with some more soapy water, and then remove the graphic and spray the graphic as well. Basically, line that up. And grab a squeegee, work out the bubbles. All right, I want to use a little bit of heat, allows to dry this, and get it to fit on some of the curves. Again, this is underneath the heat extractor, so don't worry about making it perfect. Just try to get it so that it's mostly flat. What we're gonna do now is grab your punch, just punch out all the holes where all the studs are gonna go through. It makes a little bit easier to put it together later. All right, so, we're just about ready to mount our heat extractor.

So, now this part includes these studs, and these studs, the instructions say, basically, thread them 10 millimeters down into each of these holes with 22 millimeters protruding. Now, what I found, since most of us probably don't have anything to measure that, grab one of the these little push pins and hold the hood in. If you hold the stud on the side of it, like this, then thread a nut on, it's almost perfectly 10 millimeters. So, hold that. Thread the nut until it touches. That's ready to go in the heat extractor. Now, you can start it by hand. Make sure there's a flat point, and a point for an allen key. Make sure the allen key part of the stud is facing up. Thread that in, grab your allen key. Basically, thread it down to the nut. It just barely touches, and thread it off, and repeat the process with the other five.

Now the last step, before we can install the extractors is to install the double stick tape. It's gonna go on this corner here, on this edge, and then around here, on this edge as well. Make sure you get it in enough that you don't see it when it's on the car. Okay, we're ready to install. So, what we're gonna do is line up all of our mounting holes, and once you have it started, pull off these tabs for the tape. Then, I'm gonna install the retaining nuts on the bottom. Nuts in place, just put a dab of Loctite on each one. Then, you're gonna hand tighten them. If you're looking for a torque spec, it's like two foot pound. And you'll want to repeat the process on the other side. Then we can reinstall the hood blanket.

The parts that Roush Performance Parts design for their mustangs always add a really nice touch to any Mustang GT or EcoBoost. These heat extractors look great, and they're functional as well. As far as the installation goes, probably about less than two hours, be back on the road in no time.