Winter grille blocks

Ultrasonic

I'm tempted by the idea of a winter grille block for my car, to help it warm up quicker in winter as well as reducing aerodynamic drag a bit. Specifically I'm looking at one of these:



From: [STRIKE]http://www.superskoda.com/Skoda/OCTAVIA-II/Skoda-Octavia-II-front-grille-winter-cover[/STRIKE]

Edit: Slightly cheaper here: http://www.e-heko.com/en/Marka_Model/SKODA_OCTAVIA/II-2004.html

Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences on this?

The cover will be in front of the air intake on my car, which is in line with the top right of the top grille as you face the car, somehting like 10 cm behind the grille. I assume that the engine essentialy sucks air in rather than relying on it being blown in, so that this is a non-issue, right?

forgotmyname

If you block the inlet even partially you will be losing power. The only air the engine can suck in is from the hot engine bay which reduces power also.

10cm is not a lot of space.

Ultrasonic

forgotmyname wrote: »

The only air the engine can suck in is from the hot engine bay which reduces power also.

It could reduce peak power slightly I guess, but I'm pretty sure I never use that! The air would still be coming from in front of the radiator.

oldagetraveller

Aluminium foil on the radiator front is much cheaper! But only about half or less initially.

vikingaero

London Taxi drivers do it all the time with their engines in City traffic with no harm.

ohreally

Ultrasonic wrote: »

I'm tempted by the idea of a winter grill block for my car, to help it warm up quicker in winter

A properly operating 'stat will ensure optimal warm up. Since the stat is closed until a pre-determined temp is reached how will this help?

Ultrasonic

ohreally wrote: »

A properly operating 'stat will ensure optimal warm up. Since the stat is closed until a pre-determined temp is reached how will this help?

I think this sort of thing is pretty common in colder countries, and there are plenty of sources online discussing the effects. So I'm pretty sure they do help engines warm up quicker.

Is your point that a thermostat prevents engine coolent flowing through the radiator until a predifined temperature? If so, I'm guessing the effect therefore comes from not having cold air blasting through the engine bay.

Ultrasonic

oldagetraveller wrote: »

Aluminium foil on the radiator front is much cheaper! But only about half or less initially.

I'd be rather twitchier about trying something like that to be honest, plus it wouldn't have the aerodynamic benefit of the grill cover.

That said, I suspect a grill cover like I found would need to be used for a few years to make financial sense...

Rolandtheroadie

Last year I put a piece of cardboard between the front grill and the radiator on the wifes 2.5 diesel.
Definately helped it heat up quicker.

ohreally

I recall (decades ago), radiator blinds appeared around this time of the year, they were controlled by a cord from within the car. I think they were used to limit the airflow through the rad to help lift temsp when it was very cold out but

I suspect with modern technology these types of contraptions were obsolete - guess i'm wrong then.

Perhaps this type of appliance may only be effective in circumstances of over cooling?

Ultrasonic

Doing a bit of reading elsewhere I've found people discussing that the cold coolent in the radiator will end up going to the engine once the theremostat allows, which will then cause engine temp to drop. Not sure what the scale of this effect would be...

There's a discussion here if anyone is interested:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/how-does-grill-block-help-engine-warmup-25061.html