Winter grille blocks

Slowly_does_it..

How about insulating the actual block? - online someone has insulated their sump. Also do you have your under engine bay panels in place, stopping water spraying over the engine? - An insulated engine bay as well might keep engine warm, so you are not starting from cold cold.

I can see your aerodynamic improvement with the cover you have bought. Also agree with having the internal temp low initally just to get as much heat into the engine as possible, but once you are up to temp the thermostat should keep it exactly on temp, regardless of how much water is coming out of the radiator / internal heating.

Joe_Horner

Trade it in for a Pug 405 diesel.

2 deg C outside when I left this morning, and the heater was producing useful warmth within 500 yards of starting (with no warm-up). Fully warmed within a mile.

On the other hand, do NOT let them run low on water because the cooling system's so marginal in order to do that

Ultrasonic

Slowly_does_it.. wrote: »

How about insulating the actual block? - online someone has insulated their sump. Also do you have your under engine bay panels in place, stopping water spraying over the engine? - An insulated engine bay as well might keep engine warm, so you are not starting from cold cold.

I see where you are coming from but personally one thing that appealed to me about the grille block is that it appears to be a properly made product. I've always been apprehensive about DIY bodged grille blocks, and starting trying to insulate the sump is in the same territory. My car does have a base panel covering the underside of the engine bay though.

hewhoisnotintheknow

woman i work with overheated her car earlier in the year when snow had covered the front of her car and she didnt clear it

going along the motorway and a good speed, there wasnt enough air getting to the rad to cool it down and it went pop

BeenThroughItAll

Ultrasonic wrote: »

I think the intercooler is basically the full height of the radiator, so it is partly behind the top grille and partly behind the lower grille. But just to be sure I'm not being thick, here is a photo of my actual car. The intercooler is the bit at the front with the black frame, directly in front of the main radiator, right?

(The engine in question is a BKC VAG 1.9TDI in a 2005 Octavia.)

Nope, that's the AC condenser.

The intercooler is almost certainly tucked off to one side if it's like all the other VAG TDIs and it'll be deep and tall with two bloody great pipes running to it.

One reason people like the idea of these grille blocks is to prevent wind-chill freezing part of the radiator core in extremely low temps; this can cause the rad to crack when the hot coolant is released into the rad when the stat opens. The corollary to this is that the icy cold water that's let into the hot engine when the stat opens could theoretically cause a thermal shock which could cause damage.

That's why thermostats have a bypass hole normally, to ensure that there is some pre-mixing of coolant as the system pressurises. It's also why modern cars with electronically controlled stats open them slowly and progressively as the risk is more significant with the tight-tolerances and exotic alloys used in modern high-efficiency engine designs.

Almost certainly not worth bothering with in the UK though.

chrisfreelander54

This reminds me OD when I was in my teens, I remember seeing my mates dad putting old leather jackets from the charity shop on his engine in the hope it would help warm it up in a morning when off to work in the winter mornings. Lol. Seems a bit strange to come to think of it.

Ultrasonic

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Nope, that's the AC condenser.

Thanks. You're right, that is the AC condenser! But I now realise what you can see right behind it in my photo is the intercooler (it is not in the wings). The radiator is in turn behind the intercooler and not visible in my photo. So I have an intercooler sandwiched between the AC condenser and radiator. Height-wise all three go from the bottom of the bottom grille to about halfway up the top grill.

None of which is going change my plan to try the grille block, but it is nice to know what's what!

Petree

I swear by mine, have a Citroen 1.6D (the super eco friendly one) which means its uses all the diesel driving, and none warming my feet!

Citroen call it a 'snow shield/obturateur pare neige' and its from the parts department so I assume its fine for the engine (it states to install at 10c) and it warms up far quicker on my route to work, i do 3-4 miles of B/A roads and then onto the motorway so without the shield i'm joining the motorway at heat 2 of 8 (1 if i'm blasting the heater), with the shield its bar 3-4 (4 is the normal level).

Also if you have the heater running when doing 70mph and cold wind is being blasted through the engine bay it stops the temp dropping back down, which think is going to be better for the engine.

To be honest i've no idea if it helps fuel economy, but £20 for several winters of warm toes it worth it in my book!

---lee---

I'll be dusting off my trusty rad muff for the defender this weekend. The engine is vastly overcooled at the best of times and the engine room is cavernous, so anything to reduce the airfow around the engine in general helps retain heat.

Mine attaches with velcro. I cover half the rad diagonally and leave the intercooler totally uncovered.

OddballJamie

Ultrasonic wrote: »

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...

Yes, the pan method involves removal, mainly used for if you think the thermostat has gone.

Not putting the heaters on inside the car straightaway helps to warm the engine up quicker too.