My grille block

[markweatherill]

Here's my partial grille block; on a car with a slatted grille like this I found you can squash lengths of plastic pipe of the right diameter into the openings.
I backed the openings with foil tape to help the pieces stay in place.

I'm sure it will help only a tiny bit, what with the front being so bluff anyway. But it's cost free to try. Before this, I had taped over the back of the openings, but I felt filling them in was better.

[4FreeMPG]

The EPA tested a blocked and unblocked 18 wheeler grille and no changes were noted.

I'll try to find the PDF file.

[Pinhead]

Tonight on my way home from work it was 1°F. With it being this cold, my heater was barely able to keep up. I was watching the Scangauge's IAT reading follow the outside temperature and slightly warm up when I slowed down. Seeing this, I figured it wouldn't hurt to block the grille to get a little less of that frigid air inside the engine compartment. I did something somewhat similar to the one in the original post only I used duct-tape. Not necessarily for aerodynamics, but for engine heat.



After doing this, the IAT went from 1°F to almost 30°F and I finally had some heat in the cab.

[threepiston]

The EPA tested a blocked and unblocked 18 wheeler grille.

You believe the EPA?

[ssheen]

1F that is t-shirt weather!!!

This week end we are going down to -40F with the wind. A chilly -29C for a high... Winter is here, and so is winter gas mileage.

[Pinhead]

I've been trying to combat cold-weather effects on mileage with engine heat; my grille block raises the IAT but the fuel is still cold. A two-stage fuel heater will hopefully eliminate that problem. However, the heavy gear lube in the front and rear axles will still be cold and thick (4wd)...

[ssheen]

I am really interested in your results. I have been keen to warm the fuel as well. My mileage is down about 5mpg with the winter weather.

A little off topic, What are you using?

[Pinhead]

I am really interested in your results. I have been keen to warm the fuel as well. My mileage is down about 5mpg with the winter weather.

A little off topic, What are you using?

You mean what am I using as a fuel heat exchanger? I made a couple using hardware from the Home Depot down the street. I am running the fuel through them in series and the engine coolant through the water jackets in parallel (otherwise two of them is too restrictive and I lose cabin heat).