Winter grille blocks

OddballJamie

Ultrasonic wrote: »

Out of interest, how can I test my thermostat?

Pan of water with a thermometer or use a OBD II reader hooked upto your phone giving a real time temperature and watch it rise, it will drop a few degrees at least when the stat opens. Then compare the pre-open figure to the manufacturers requirements.

Last one I dabbled with was about 85c.

Norman_Castle

If your heater is on low the thermostat will open sooner. Try turning the heat up.

ILW

Really cannot see the point if the thermostat is operating correctly. The radiator is in effect isolated from the system at low temps.

Ultrasonic

Norman_Castle wrote: »

If your heater is on low the thermostat will open sooner. Try turning the heat up.

Sorry, that doesn't make sense to me. The thermostat opens when the engine is up to temperature, so surely this opening sooner is a good thing since it means the engine is warmed up. What am I missing?

Ultrasonic

Curiousity has got the better of me and I've just ordered a grille block (after checking with my insurance company that this wasn't a 'mod' that they'd need to be notified of). I got it from the following site in the end as it is a little cheaper than superskoda (I think this is direct from the company that make them). They have grille covers for other makes if anyone else it tempted:

http://www.e-heko.com/en/Marka_Model/SKODA_OCTAVIA/II-2004.html

It may very well be that I never make back the cost of this, but I want to experiment...

Ultrasonic

OddballJamie wrote: »

Pan of water with a thermometer or use a OBD II reader hooked upto your phone giving a real time temperature and watch it rise, it will drop a few degrees at least when the stat opens. Then compare the pre-open figure to the manufacturers requirements.

Last one I dabbled with was about 85c.

The water etc involves detaching the thermostat from the car, right?

I have a ScangaugeII permanently connected to my car, and I have one of the gauges set to show the coolant temperture. I've never stared at it enough to notice when the temperature drops though, I'll try to pay a bit more attention to it...

Ultrasonic

ILW wrote: »

Really cannot see the point if the thermostat is operating correctly. The radiator is in effect isolated from the system at low temps.

I'll let you know how I get on. There are certainly lots of people who claim that they do improve warmup. The ecomodder thread I posted a link to earlier includes a post with some limited test videos if you are interested (see here), although obviously these are in rather more extreme temperatures than we are likely to see! But they do suggest some effect. There's at least one other example with numbers in that thread IIRC too.

It might just be that this is a case of a placebo effect convincing lots of people that grille blocks make their cars warm up faster, but I think I've read enough to convince me it is plausible.

yangptangkipperbang

Ultrasonic wrote: »

There are certainly lots of people who claim that they do improve warmup.

......there are also lots of people who sell "magic" things to put in your fuel tank to give your more mpg - that doesn't mean they work either!

Ultrasonic

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

......there are also lots of people who sell "magic" things to put in your fuel tank to give your more mpg - that doesn't mean they work either!

True, but I think there is a little more reason to believe that grille blocks will aid engine warm up than 'magic' though . I am a naturally sceptical scientist BTW, so I have done a bit of investigating before buying. I do though openly admit I have partly ordered one out of scientific curiousity, rather than relying on it being a significant fuel saving modification for my car.

While grille blocks are pretty much unheard of here, the one I posted a photo of is for example sold by main dealers in Finland. They are much less of a fringe idea in colder countries.

The aerodynamic benefits of grille blocks are scientific fact though. The only argument would be over the scale of the effect on a particular vehicle.

Retrogamer

I'd be pretty confident they will help the engine up faster.

Driving around with an open grill will cause cold air to fill the engine bay. Even if the radiator isn't in action early on as the thermostat is closed, the cold air blasting into the engine bay via the grill will still slow the engine down from heating up.

I'd be concerned about all that warm air in the engine bay being sucked up by the air feed though. Warm air is less dense in oxygen so you lose a bit of power and mpg