Saturn Wagon areo mod pictures

[skewbe]

Originally Posted by Nerds laugh at me

Yah ..but not the underside of the car! Usually what you want to do is to block the grill off. If he keeps his spoiler now, it's only purpose will be to keep some of the air away from the underbelly, whereas before it actually cooled the car too. .

I don't see a lot of difference between that and blocking it off in front:


The saturn left an air opening in the front of the grill and is keeping the air out from under the car and engine bay, and it blends in nicely, looks like a good solution to me.

Originally Posted by Nerds laugh at me

If he takes it off now, his mileage will actually get worse unless he smooths out the bottomof the car.

Probably, he should extend "that big black thing" if anything (Man, did that not come out right?!?)

[usedgeo]

On my Saturn the spoiler is not installed and I have a sheet of plastic from the bumper back past the engine. The only air that goes through my radiator gets through the width of the license plate and about 2 inches tall. Running 60 mph down wind yesterday in 100 degree heat I had to open up one 2 inch wide slot for half the grill. I actaully came up a couple mile grade at wide open throttle with only the usual slot under the license plate open. The fan cycled three times. I then stopped and pulled some block since I don't have my alternator hooked up. The engine quickly dropped from 220 when the fan came on. 220 is just barely passed straight up on my gauge.

Just trying to give you some food for thought and say my 2001 Saturn cools very well with small amounts of grill open. Even with a small opening the fan is quite effective.

[skewbe]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Kick - just noticed in the pic of your hatchback: your car is the only one I've seen recently that doesn't have a spoiler integrated into the trailing edge of the roof (profile view).

Dang, Good eye Darin!!

[Jim Dunlop]

What's wrong with the engine temperature creeping up? The fan kicks on to keep it below 1/2. My 66% grille block gets the temperature up past 1/2 ever so often, but I've never seen it even close to the Red area.

[kickflipjr]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Kick - just noticed in the pic of your hatchback: your car is the only one I've seen recently that doesn't have a spoiler integrated into the trailing edge of the roof (profile view).

You've probably got some lift & drag that could be reduced with the addition of a simple roofline extension that ends abruptly (rather than curving down into the rear glass as it does now).

Of course, a full or partial boattail would be the best, but not everyone wants to go that route.

So a small lip spoiler would do the job? I don't think I am hardcore enough for a boattail.

My car runs a bit warmer now, but not dangerously hot.

A better side veiw for the areo experts:

Yes, its rather brick shaped.

[skewbe]

If my sw2 had that front air dam I would glue/pop rivet a piece of lawn edging to it in a minute. It would have to help and be totally inconspicuous. I must have tossed mine after the swap or something (threw out a lot of plastic).

Edit: I would extend it in front of the wheels as well. Then maybe butter up a tail edge out of foam/bondo/toothpaste/whatever, and a sharpie for color style

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by kickflipjr

So a small lip spoiler would do the job?

It'll do some of the job, yup.

[OdieTurbo]

I'd like to see how this turns out, on my SL1, I took off the "black thing" and still have my grille open, no effect on temperature. Since I don't have a scangauge I have no idea of the effect on MPG. I too wonder if I do a grille block will I cut off all air to the radiator? Any ideas fellow Saturn guys? Can you block off the grille and remove the black thing without any ill effects?

[SL8Brick]

Re:Rear lip spoilers.....
I hope you don't mind the repost, but here are some pics of the 'JSP Katana' rear lip spoiler on my Volvo wagon......http://gallery.newbug.org/volvo. The hatch edge on my car is rather strait, but the spoiler is very flexible and could easily be bent to contour to the hatch of the Saturn.

And kickflipjr, your "brick shaped" Saturn is downright slippery when compared to my 245.

[MetroMPG]

I don't think you need an actual "spoiler" (ie angle different than the roof line ahead of it) if all you want is to reduce drag. A simple roofline extension, with an abrupt cutoff will accomplish the goal of cleaning up separation. Though it won't reduce lift as much as an angled spoiler like the one in your pics.