Saturn Wagon areo mod pictures

[kickflipjr]

So, I finally got around to doing some minor areo mods on the Saturn wagon and I took some pictures.


1) roof rack removal. Removed 6 bolts. and cleaned up the grime underneath.



2) I did a half grill block because its 90 degrees today and I don't want to overheat.



3)Blocked the gap on the front underside (should I leave this big black thing here?)



This all took under a hour total.

[minic6]

Looks Good. Do you have an actual temp. gauge to monitor the temp? If so remove your next change if temp creeps up.Yes you should in my opinion. It helps to deflect air from under the car. You could also do some a, b comparisons on then off.

[MetroMPG]

Nice going. Another energy-wasting roof rack bites the dust.

Would it be hard to re-install to carry something occasionally?

[kickflipjr]

The roof rack is only held by 8 screws so it wouldn't take too long to put it back on if the need arises.

[Nerds laugh at me]

Um ...you just blocked off the air that goes to the radiator. That big black thing is a spoiler that directs air upwards into the radiator through that hole that you covered. It serves double duty by steering the airflow away from the underside of the car.
I noticed that you still have the main area of the grill open. If you covered that up there would be no air at all getting to the radiator at all now and you would burn up.
GM did a really good job smoothing out the underside of their cars ( my mom has one, and I looked under it )
The way that you have it now you could actually take that spoiler off and see an increase in FE due to less frontal area. You would have to fix up the area under the bumper though, because it is the one area that Saturn screwed up on ( It is open like a parachute. )
I'm not sure which would help your MPG more - taking the spoiler off and having the grill open or blocking the grill and leaving the spoiler on. It would depend on if you feel like smooting out the cars underbelly , or just blocking off the grill ( That would be the easy thing to do. )
If you unblocked the area above the spoiler, you could completely seal the entire front end and not have any cooling problems. ( Look at the early SC1 front ends. They didn't even have a grill opening .( The ones with the flip up headlights ) Just make sure and unplug that area above the spoiler if you seal the front end openings.
Nice car. I like the body style -it was a cross between a station wagon and a sports coupe ( SC2 front end ) ... but then I like hatchback cars anyways

[skewbe]

Originally Posted by Nerds laugh at me

Um ...you just blocked off the air that goes to the radiator...

Umm... get used to it.

Grill blocks are one of the most common mods. Just gotta keep an eye on the temp gauge to see if you overdid it.

Nascar drivers do it with tape.

[cfg83]

kickflipjr -

Most coolio. I think you should do this to control coolant temperatures :

Manual Radiator Fan Switch
http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23668

It's my favorite Saturn Mod.

CarloSW2

[Nerds laugh at me]

Originally Posted by skewbe

Umm... get used to it.
.

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

[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.

[Nerds laugh at me]

I noticed that too, but there is that lip that probably acts to trip the airflow.
What do you think ?
A strip of black electrical tape on that lip could be angled upwards sevrving as an even more effective 'trip'.
Also, since black electrical tape looks identical to the trim that is already there, it would blend right in and not look stupid.( And could be done in less than 15 minutes )