Thread: incredibly hot engine bay temps, need advice or suggestions 41 Willys 350, pics insid

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I seem to be posting quite frequent here about issues here and there, Im working through one issue at a time. The truck is in great running order now so it's time to pick off the little things over the winter. The first is this hot engine bay.

Since downsizing the carb to a properly sized 600 the truck is running much more efficient. Since im using less fuel im noticing that the truck tends to run a little warmer even on cool days, such as now when we are seeing temps in the upper 30's. It seems to be running in the coolant temp range that it did over the summer in the upper 90's,and these temps creep up seemingly quick than they used to. This concerns me as it will get warm here again.

Im running a smaller radiator and electric fan in the front (due to the small size of the Willys grille), and a large radiator with dual fans pulling in the back so I should have plenty of radiator surface.

radiator in the bed:

and engine up front:

This engine bay gets so hot that when I park the truck I prop the hood just to vent the heat. It feels like summer under there, its just trapping heat and it is going nowhere.

So Ive evaluated a few options:

1. Im running hooker headers, I know that I could wrap them to keep the heat in the pipes. However they are so tightly wound this would not be easily done and with the configuration of the headers in there it doesnt seem that the heat tape would be all that effective.

2. I could take off the panels on the inner fender wells (maybe the best option?) but this takes away from the clean look of the engine bay

3. I read that running an oil cooler can help drastically but with the cooler temps here in the fall and winter im worried about the engine not getting enough heat, and then im stuck with the oil sludging up.

4. Maybe the willys people will know this.... maybe there is some effective way to vent these hoods without making a drastic cosmetic change?