Winter grille blocks

Retrogamer

In Sweden and other cold countries, these are quite common.

You remove a core plug from the plug or head then put one of these in instead. Simply plug it in and it keeps the coolant in the block nice and warm. Better fuel econemy and quicker to warm the heaters up when you first start it.

Lum

Ultrasonic wrote: »

Iceweasel wrote: »

These radiator 'Muffs' as they used to be known

Have you tried one? Genuine question.

Yes, me and my girlfriend are both rather fond of them, but I don't see what this has to do with car temperatures.

Iceweasel

Ultrasonic: My bar of chocolate gag was just meant to light-hearted - don't think I'm trying to belittle your attempts at improving efficiency.

Yes - I have used these things in the past - I grew up with them. My dad had a muff (Lum: stop sniggering or you'll be sent to the naughty step) for his Daimler Century, My uncle had one on his Series 1 LandRover and I had one on my 1964 Mini.

BMC/BL dealers even used to have them on display along with tins of antifreeze at this time of year - very pretty with stuffed Robins perched on the tins.

In my Escort Mexico in the early 70s I even used a piece of varnished hard-board slid in front of the radiator to blank off half of it during half-night winter events. But the Mexico had an oversize radiator and a primitive basic thermostat. No ECUs back in those days of twin-choke carburettors.

But that's enough nostalgia.

To me radiator blanking belongs back in the era of everyone having chains - as they still do in parts of Eastern Europe where coincidently Škodas are built, and lots of folks still use these devices.

I suspect they use them out of force of habit rather than having made a calculated decision on their effectiveness - as you are doing.

Just like Saudi Arabian truck drivers still insist on using two Pepsi cans to prop the engine cover open on their 'Juffali Mercedes' to aid cooling. Much to the smiles of the German mechanics in the workshops, who cannot convince them that Mid-East temperatures were take into account in the spec of the vehicles.

My current car heats up to 88degreesC within 2 miles of my house. If the temperature drops below freezing I doubt it would take an extra mile to get to the same temperature.

But I'll be checking this and who knows - I might be looking for a suitable blanking device myself - we shall see.

Ultrasonic

Iceweasel wrote: »

Ultrasonic: My bar of chocolate gag was just meant to light-hearted - don't think I'm trying to belittle your attempts at improving efficiency.

I know . Sorry if my response sounded defensive, I didn't mean it to!

My current car heats up to 88degreesC within 2 miles of my house. If the temperature drops below freezing I doubt it would take an extra mile to get to the same temperature.

Your car has a petrol engine, right? As you probably know diesels take rather longer to warm up. At last week's temperatures it took at least 5 miles of my 9 mile commute to fully warm up (I wasn't fully paying attention to be sure exactly how far it took).

As above I'm not remotely counting on the grille block being a major advancement in my car's warm up ability, or its aero perfomance, but I'm prepared to give it a go. I'm sure I'll be able to sell it on to some other fool like me if I decide it is useless .

Iceweasel

Ultrasonic wrote: »

I'm not remotely counting on the grille block being a major advancement in my car's warm up ability, or its aero perfomance, but I'm prepared to give it a go. I'm sure I'll be able to sell it on to some other fool like me if I decide it is useless .

It'll be interesting to hear you get on with this. Be sure to report back with the effect (or otherwise) it has.

Good luck with it.

Lum

Iceweasel wrote: »

BMC/BL dealers even used to have them on display along with tins of antifreeze at this time of year - very pretty with stuffed Robins perched on the tins.

Why would they have a competitor's car on display?

Norman_Castle

Ultrasonic wrote: »

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?

I'm thinking the heater is much smaller than the radiator so the total amount of water heated is less. The water returned to the engine from the heater will be warm rather than the cold water from the radiator when the thermostat opens. You will also have warm feet.

Norman_Castle

Why would they have a competitor's car on display?

Only a Reliant Robin could make this appealing.

Ultrasonic

Norman_Castle wrote: »

I'm thinking the heater is much smaller than the radiator so the total amount of water heated is less. The water returned to the engine from the heater will be warm rather than the cold water from the radiator when the thermostat opens.

I've read this a few times but am still struggling to get my head round you're saying. Surely if the heating is on low then less heat will be lost from the coolant in the heating matrix than if the heating is on high? Less heat lost from coolant then means faster engine temp rise.

Ultrasonic

Maybe I'm starting to see where you're coming from...

I can see that if, at the point the thermostat would be about to open, the heating is turned up then this would delay the thermostat from opening and therefore stop the cold coolant sitting in the radiator from entering the engine. That makes some sense for short journeys where doing so could prevent the thermostat ever opening at all I think. Although it would be tricky to judge in practice!

But I still can't see any way that having the heating on high rather than low right from when you first move off could be advantageous though. Having the heating on as low as possible has to be optimal as far as I can see, as anything else will slow down the initial engine temperature rise.