diff --git a/test/e2e_node/e2e_remote.go b/test/e2e_node/e2e_remote.go
index a062d13fe8..04ab1f7bd3 100644
--- a/test/e2e_node/e2e_remote.go
+++ b/test/e2e_node/e2e_remote.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import (
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
 	utilerrors "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/util/errors"
@@ -34,7 +35,7 @@ import (
 
 var sshOptions = flag.String("ssh-options", "", "Commandline options passed to ssh.")
 var sshEnv = flag.String("ssh-env", "", "Use predefined ssh options for environment.  Options: gce")
-var testTimeoutSeconds = flag.Int("test-timeout", 45*60, "How long (in seconds) to wait for ginkgo tests to complete.")
+var testTimeoutSeconds = flag.Duration("test-timeout", 45*time.Minute, "How long (in golang duration format) to wait for ginkgo tests to complete.")
 var resultsDir = flag.String("results-dir", "/tmp/", "Directory to scp test results to.")
 
 var sshOptionsMap map[string]string
@@ -215,8 +216,8 @@ func RunRemote(archive string, host string, cleanup bool, junitFilePrefix string
 	// Run the tests
 	cmd = getSshCommand(" && ",
 		fmt.Sprintf("cd %s", tmp),
-		fmt.Sprintf("timeout -k 30s %ds ./ginkgo %s ./e2e_node.test -- --logtostderr --v 2 --build-services=false --stop-services=%t --node-name=%s --report-dir=%s/results --report-prefix=%s %s",
-			*testTimeoutSeconds, ginkgoFlags, cleanup, host, tmp, junitFilePrefix, testArgs),
+		fmt.Sprintf("timeout -k 30s %fs ./ginkgo %s ./e2e_node.test -- --logtostderr --v 2 --build-services=false --stop-services=%t --node-name=%s --report-dir=%s/results --report-prefix=%s %s",
+			testTimeoutSeconds.Seconds(), ginkgoFlags, cleanup, host, tmp, junitFilePrefix, testArgs),
 	)
 	aggErrs := []error{}
 
diff --git a/test/e2e_node/jenkins/e2e-node-jenkins.sh b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/e2e-node-jenkins.sh
index 92fdbe96e5..d0f57f6078 100755
--- a/test/e2e_node/jenkins/e2e-node-jenkins.sh
+++ b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/e2e-node-jenkins.sh
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ go build test/e2e_node/environment/conformance.go
 PARALLELISM=${PARALLELISM:-8}
 WORKSPACE=${WORKSPACE:-"/tmp/"}
 ARTIFACTS=${WORKSPACE}/_artifacts
+TIMEOUT=${TIMEOUT:-"45m"}
 
 mkdir -p ${ARTIFACTS}
 
@@ -46,4 +47,5 @@ go run test/e2e_node/runner/run_e2e.go  --logtostderr --vmodule=*=4 --ssh-env="g
   --images="$GCE_IMAGES" --image-project="$GCE_IMAGE_PROJECT" \
   --image-config-file="$GCE_IMAGE_CONFIG_PATH" --cleanup="$CLEANUP" \
   --results-dir="$ARTIFACTS" --ginkgo-flags="--nodes=$PARALLELISM $GINKGO_FLAGS" \
-  --setup-node="$SETUP_NODE" --test_args="$TEST_ARGS" --instance-metadata="$GCE_INSTANCE_METADATA"
+  --test-timeout="$TIMEOUT" --setup-node="$SETUP_NODE" --test_args="$TEST_ARGS" \
+  --instance-metadata="$GCE_INSTANCE_METADATA"
diff --git a/test/e2e_node/jenkins/jenkins-serial.properties b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/jenkins-serial.properties
index 3e5a7ad387..e380ce85ca 100644
--- a/test/e2e_node/jenkins/jenkins-serial.properties
+++ b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/jenkins-serial.properties
@@ -9,3 +9,4 @@ SETUP_NODE=false
 #TEST_ARGS=--cgroups-per-qos=false
 TEST_ARGS=
 PARALLELISM=1
+TIMEOUT=3h