First impressions (ABS so far): excellent!  Heats up to 225C in about a minute, holds temperature great (just a tiny ~2C overshoot when it first reaches setpoint, then perfect flat line!), doesn't flinch when cooling fan comes on (unlike a 10-15C drop I was observing with the stock hotend), doesn't need much retraction, and whenever I change filament I'm still amazed how smooth it is (retracted filament comes out in one nice-looking piece, and it takes maybe 50mm [sic] to flush out the old color, unlike 200-500mm with the old hotend!).  And all this with stock electronics and PSU (although I have a beefier PSU on order).

Now if I could say the same about the rest of the printer (took this as excuse to rip out extruder and carriages as well... too many things changed at once, I never learn... so excuse me while I go rip out some hair too... ).  As for the shroud, I just redid it in OpenSCAD (fairly simple structure) but now distracted with other things, lawsy's under-carriage fan is just fine (since I changed carriages).

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:114036

Yes, seen that, but has only STL -- in long run, probably easier to redo it based on mechanical drawings on e3d-online.com than fiddle with STL.  Thx anyway.

BTW, is CAD source for the fan shroud available anywhere btw?  I'd like to try a tweak or two (for a nozzle cooling fan on the side)..

If you're referring to E3D, sure. I wasn't (sorry for confusion), and if I need extra travel (ie jhead is shorter than MG hotend), I'll need a longer leadscrew instead.

Fully disclosure - I distribute them for E3D... but I am not alone in my affinity for the design.

Tried Google and forum search, but failed to find anything -- basically, before getting one, want to figure out if I'll have to mess with z-axis or not (thought I read somewhere that you *gain* travel, which would probably mean my current rod is too short).

TIA!