Winter and MPG

[RazBarlow]

I noticed this morning that it took my old taurus up to 5 miles before the torque convertor actually locked up in overdrive. It is getting colder , it was actually 16 degress F this morning. I turned the scanguage onto the intake temp and it read 29 degrees all the way to work. Is this why you guys are blocking off your grills ? What should the intake temp. be to get good mpg ?
I am new to this and the scanguage.
Thanks,
Raz

[lovemysan]

Good question. Every car has its "favorite temp" . The grill block helps in a few ways. First it blocks amount of air traveling through the engine compartment and then tumbling under the car as it exits. Second it keeps the drivetrain warmer. A grill block affect everycar's intake temps. On my saturn the airbox pickup tube was just behind the headlight. My saturn likes 170f and 90% humidity.

[baddog671]

Lol, lately I've been able to get to my destination before the car gets to its normal operating temperature. Course its been snowing for the past 4 days.

Sucks though, I practically have no heat

[Hateful]

my intake is next to the exhaust manifold. Not sure how hot that is but it was coming from under the car.

[VetteOwner]

yea i gotta make an airblock for both my cars, ones easy, the grilles just a huge rectangle, the other is 2 weird hotdog shapped things...

what material should/could i use? i was thinkign some thin sheet of aluminum(like siding/flashing material) beacuse its durable, light, and moisture wont affect it...

[RazBarlow]

Now, when you guys are creating grill blocks do you leave them on all year around or just in the winter ? I would think your auto would overheat if left on in the summer .
I have also been monitoring my intake temp on the scangauge and it is running in the 20-30 degress f. I cold air good or bad for FE ?
Remember guys I am new to this ,
Thanks,
Raz

[8307c4]

It depends on a lot more than that, you really need to know your car before you put a blanket or cover on your radiator. I have the same problem when it is cold but my car also has the highest temperature thermostat available so there is no way I'm blocking any part of the cooling system.

My car has an aluminum engine, even at 20 fahrenheit it takes all of 2 miles, before I even get out of my neighborhood the ice is registering something on the gauge, that or I can feel heat starting to come out of the vents. Aluminum Ices heat up quickly, and overheat even faster when suddenly bereaved of appropriate cooling, I think I can go 30-45 seconds before my engine severely overheats in a case of inappropriate cooling.

It takes a hit when it's cold, but with a super hot thermostat the benefits are outweighed once it gets up to Optemp, you have to decide what is best for you but I would certainly check into one range higher temp thermostat long before I go blocking off the ice's cooling.

Other notes: The hottest temp thermostat may not be the best choice for your car, you have to experiment, different cars will react in different ways to this, not the least effect is the fact that a HOT ice will test the rest of your system (hoses, pump, gaskets (such as cyl.head)), etc.

[budomove]

I run a rad block 365 days on the civic with a 3 x 5" hole. In a week or so I will switch it out with another block with no hole. We'll see if it cools sufficiently for the winter, if not I'll cut a tiny 1x2" hole and see how that works. When I first started, I made a few, and started with the one with the largest hole (3x10"), and worked my way down when I saw that the temp gauge was not budging even in the heat at wide open throttle with the hotter 195f thermostat to boot. So far no problems with the 3x5" hole in the summer.

[budomove]

Originally Posted by 8307c4

The hottest temp thermostat may not be the best choice for your car...a HOT ice will test the rest of your system (hoses, pump, gaskets (such as cyl.head)), etc.

Do you think this could have something to do with a newly installed aftermarket waterpump leaking thru the weep hole after a few months?

I installed the 195f thermostat on the civic, then had the mechanic do the water pump/timing belt I had purchased at autozone.

the water pump leaked one drop at a time when it was up to operating temp in the summer, and i topped the overflow tank off a few times over the one month period it had this extremely slow/mild leak. Then it just stopped leaking all of a sudden.

I just recently got an oem timing belt/tensioner/water pump to install myself when i get the time, and am wondering if perhaps i should switch back to the stock 172f(i think it's 172) while i'm at it.