DIY: Engine Grille Block

[BailOut]

One of the main reasons that fuel efficiency drops in the cold months is because fuel doesn't burn as well in a cold environment. Your engine can't always keep itself warm, and when its temperature drops too low your ECU starts feeding even more fuel into it in order to force it to run at a higher RPM in an effort to generate more heat.

In order to stop this wasteful cycle many people block their engine grilles in the colder months in order to stop the flow of too-cold air into the engine area. My own rule of thumb is to block the upper grille when daytime temperatures are peaking at 65F, and also the lower grille when daytime temperatures are peaking at 55F. I also use an engine insulation blanket once daytime temperatures drop to 45, and I will post a DIY on that when that time comes.

Supplies:

6' x 1/2" foam pipe insulation, x2 = $4 total at any hardware store
8" PVC, UV-resistant zip ties, black, x30 = $4 at Radio Shack and other places

Total cost: $8


Tools:

Scissors
Wire cutters
Flathead screwdriver


Instructions:

1) The front bumper needs to be pulled forward far enough to get your hand behind it. To do this use a combination of a lot of finesse, your fingers, and the flathead screwdriver to remove the 5 push pins on top of the bumper, right underneath the hood's front edge.

2) Once those are out do the same thing with the 2 that are in the front wheel wells, at the rear edge of the bumper piece.

3) Use the scissors to cut the foam to fit, using only one half of the foam each time (cut it in half lengthwise to make a half-pipe). Shape it a bit if you desire.

4) Run zip ties into the grille, and then carefully reach behind the bumper to route them back through the grille towards the front.

5) Close the zip ties and tighten them just enough to keep the pieces in place without wiggling too much.

6) Use the wire cutters to trim the excess from the zip ties, then use the screwdriver to push on the zip tie's nodule backwards into the grille in order to hide it.


That's it!

The lower grille is done in the exact same fashion.

[Meteorite Man]

Now it REALLY looks like a "BumperCar". The assumption of all that work would suggest you need some "padding" in the passenger's compartment too...Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself.

Get a sheet of that clear 3M stuff, cut it just a bit larger than the opening (trace the opening and add about 1 1/2" to the over all dimension) and then punch a few small holes (trace a half-dollar sized object) into it to allow SOME air to go in. It's clear, it blocks the air and it looks good. I've done it with a truck it had (diesel). That way I didn't cover up a custom grille and at the end of the season.....pull it off and toss it out.

[Chris07LB]

It gets THAT cold in Reno?? :rolleyes:

[BailOut]

It gets THAT cold in Reno?? :rolleyes:

I commute over a mountain pass that takes 3 plows and the world's largest snow blower to keep open in the Winter, and it still shuts down sometimes. Each day I pass directly in front of my favorite ski area (Mount Rose) which causes me to use many vacation days. :wink:

10 minutes from my office is the Diamond ski area. 20 minutes past my office is Squaw Valley, where the Winter Olympics were held in 1964. 30 minutes in the other direction is Heavenly.

One of our friends that lives just down the road is the Marketing Director at the Kirkwood Ski Resort.

In other words, yes, it gets that cold here. :smile:

[Chris07LB]

Makin' me cold just reading that.

[PetersRedYaris]

Surely there is a better looking option... Perhaps a power inverter with a space heater under your hood. :biggrin:

By the way, what is that on the front edge of your hood?

[BailOut]

By the way, what is that on the front edge of your hood?

Do you mean the magnetic bra?

[Kaotic Lazagna]

haha, yup, it gets super cold in Reno.

[BailOut]

Speaking of the weather here, it appears I got the grille block installed just in time. This is by no means anything close to what the mountain will look like in a few months when there are 6-12 foot tall snow banks on either side of the road, but today is only 09/20/2007.

Check out my drive over the mountain this morning:

7,000 feet:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/09202007-8000ft.jpg


7,500 feet:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/09202007-7500ft.jpg


8,000 feet:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/09202007-8000ft.jpg


9,000 feet:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/09202007-9000ft.jpg


With any luck my favorite ski areas will open early this season and I can try out my new snowboard. :smile:

[pp.sweet]

OMG...i feel for ya..dress warm,wear ya heavy sock,and keep some chicken soup in your thermost..Man I don't like winter..dont miss it one bit.

[steved]

I will probably take a carboard wrap in plastic and zip tie it on the inside of the grill.

I do this with my Echo and it works well. But will be harder to install on the Yaris

[PetersRedYaris]

I will probably take a carboard wrap in plastic and zip tie it on the inside of the grill.

I do this with my Echo and it works well. But will be harder to install on the Yaris

Or you could just let your thermostat do what it's supposed to. :biggrin:

I've been thinking about this whole blocking the grill during the cold months and am a little pesimistic. Diesel trucks do it because they won't even warm up do to the oversizes cooling system, but our little Yarii have no trouble warming up. My heat was blazing hot last winter even when it was well below zero.

Perhaps the loss of mileage in the winter months is more due to the cold air entering the intake. Cooler/denser air means more fuel is added to maintain air/fuel ratios. In addition, drag is always increased due to wet, snowey, and/or slushy roads.

Bottom line, if your heater is putting out hot air, your engine is warm enough to operate efficiently.

[redyaris]

Bailout props to you for your recent DIYs...You are the most interesting and devoted cause poster on this board.

I like your MacGyveresque approach. Taking simple tools and materials and applying to real world scenarios. May not look great but works i assume.

[KSIbucky]

I live in wisconsin and a padded blanket helps but i only put it on over night not while driving

[the_boss]

I know this tread is over 2 years old but does a piece of cardboard, and a can of black paint can do the trick as well?? put the cardboard behind the grill..maybe dunno..anyone tried?!

[Yaris Hilton]

Look in the hypermiling section and on hypermiling sites like cleanmpg.com. Many people have improvised grill blocks, mainly looking for aerodynamic gains. As an earlier poster said, the thermostat keeps the engine warm anyway.

[BailOut]

I know this tread is over 2 years old but does a piece of cardboard, and a can of black paint can do the trick as well?? put the cardboard behind the grill..maybe dunno..anyone tried?!
That will work for a time but cardboard isn't waterproof, so sooner or later it will become weak and begin to warp. It is better to use a waterproof material.



As an earlier poster said, the thermostat keeps the engine warm anyway.
That is incorrect, and is also an oversimplification. The thermostat only controls when water circulates throughout the engine block and when it doesn't. In other words, it controls cooling rather than heating. Even with a closed thermostat the engine can find itself dumping heat rapidly in a cold environment. The ECU senses this through water temperature, the knock sensor and the O2 sensors. In this state the ECU causes the fuel system to run rich in order to create more waste heat, thereby using more fuel. A grille block alleviates this and can be seen in use in many vehicles, both commercial and personal, in northern climes (ever seen "Ice road Truckers"?).

[Yaris Hilton]

That is incorrect, and is also an oversimplification. The thermostat only controls when water circulates throughout the engine block and when it doesn't. In other words, it controls cooling rather than heating. Even with a closed thermostat the engine can find itself dumping heat rapidly in a cold environment. The ECU senses this through water temperature, the knock sensor and the O2 sensors. In this state the ECU causes the fuel system to run rich in order to create more waste heat, thereby using more fuel. A grille block alleviates this and can be seen in use in many vehicles, both commercial and personal, in northern climes (ever seen "Ice road Truckers"?).
Yes, it controls cooling. Yes, an engine will still give up heat through its surfaces when the coolant flow through the radiator is blocked. If you're running the heater in the car, as most people will in cold weather, that's a significant source of heat loss. A grill block might reduce the heat loss from the surfaces of the engine by reducing turbulent air flow in the engine compartment. That would have to be established by experiment. If someone with a Yaris and a Scangauge in a very cold climate wants to do some comparison tests with the grill blocked and unblocked under the same driving conditions at the same outside air temperature, please post your results. Blocking the airflow through the radiator will have no effect on the engine coolant temperature with the coolant flow through the radiator cut off. The heater will likely be the main route of heat exchange under those conditions. We all know the ECU controls the engine differently when the engine's cold. We don't know that a grill block will make a significant difference in its operation. I seriously doubt it. But if you want one, go for it!

[RedRide]

This is why evey car should haver a water temp gauge.

If I eventually get a "scangauge", water temp will definately be one of the things monitored

[Yaris Hilton]

Most cars I've driven have had a temp gauge, which was analog, unnumbered and imprecise, but gave an idea if it was running cooler or hotter than usual. Not the Yaris, and I miss it.

[Shroomster]

Brian I hate to hijack your thread but what is that on the lip of your hood?

http://yarisworld.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8086&stc=1&d=1190081833

[rningonfumes]

^looks like a bug deflector

[Shroomster]

I'm an idiot and didn't read the entire thread....


at any rate did you DIY or is there a store/website?

[BailOut]

Brian I hate to hijack your thread but what is that on the lip of your hood?
It's a magnetic bra. I got tired of all the rock chips. Now it only chips above the bra. :rolleyes:



I'm an idiot and didn't read the entire thread....


at any rate did you DIY or is there a store/website?
I've done 2 versions, both DIY. One used foam pipe insulation and the other employed large foil wrap insulation.

[knowmercy]

Yaris Hilton you're absolutely right. This guy is full of it. It's the cooler intake air temperature and different fuel additives that make the car use more gas in the winter and has very little to do with the amount of time spent in "cool" mode because the water temperatures are low. Also, there are *very* few people who have actually looked at the fuel maps for anything on toyota engines and this guy is not one of them. I'm looking at how honda does their water temp versus air temp compensation for cold weather and I can tell you that getting the water temperature up to operating range quickly has very small gains for reducing the fuel used.

[TheSilkySmooth]

Lower air temp = more dense air = more air = more fuel = more power = less throttle required to maintain speed = less throttle input = less fuel used = stasis. Most of the extra fuel used in winter is due to extended warmup times and higher rolling resistance due to cold tires and cold wheel grease and trans fluid. Blocking the grill can help highway aerodynamics and reduce heat loss through the engine block, which is not insubstantial. Engines are very inefficient, less than 30% of the fuel energy goes to moving the car, the rest is waste heat.

[Yaris Hilton]

Engines are very inefficient, less than 30% of the fuel energy goes to moving the car, the rest is waste heat.

Which is why conserving heat is not a big problem.

[TheSilkySmooth]

Oh, I still give him some props for at least trying. Let the green mentality spread - or was that "soylent green" .... Yikes!
- Since I drive 80 on the highway - maybe I should look into blocking the grille - nascar style. Nascar and yaris in the same sentence dont sound just right ....

[Rick]

My Yaris saves my wallet, not the planet. If the green fraudsters Strong, Gore, Hansen, et al. were all found hanging from lamp posts somewhere it wouldn't bother me a whole lot.

That said, the passive components of the Yaris cooling system are adequate for desert operation. They are also massive overkill for cold climate operation. If I don't block the upper and lower grilles I can't get the coolant up to thermostat temperature (~184F) in a 23 mile commute. The heater isn't very pleasing under those conditions either. Much worse from an efficiency standpoint is that the transaxle remains cold and rolling resistance stays very high. If you don't virtually stop all airflow through the engine compartment the transaxle will take hours to get up to its design temperature.

Grille blocks may not be helpful in a Tennessee winter, but they certainly are in a Minnesota winter. It lets me run a 200F coolant temperature which provides me comfort and about a 4 MPG boost. All ScanGauge verified of course.

[chai]

I wish the cars came with no front grille at all - would be more aerodynamic and help in the Wisconsin winters...

[jonismyname]

I wish the cars came with no front grille at all - would be more aerodynamic and help in the Wisconsin winters...

or a louvered grille like the heater vent, with a little push it's open, with a little push its closed...

[TheSilkySmooth]

My Yaris saves my wallet, not the planet. If the green fraudsters Strong, Gore, Hansen, et al. were all found hanging from lamp posts somewhere it wouldn't bother me a whole lot.

That said, the passive components of the Yaris cooling system are adequate for desert operation. They are also massive overkill for cold climate operation. If I don't block the upper and lower grilles I can't get the coolant up to thermostat temperature (~184F) in a 23 mile commute. The heater isn't very pleasing under those conditions either. Much worse from an efficiency standpoint is that the transaxle remains cold and rolling resistance stays very high. If you don't virtually stop all airflow through the engine compartment the transaxle will take hours to get up to its design temperature.

Grille blocks may not be helpful in a Tennessee winter, but they certainly are in a Minnesota winter. It lets me run a 200F coolant temperature which provides me comfort and about a 4 MPG boost. All ScanGauge verified of course. The mech engineering side of me agrees with you 100%, and the car nut side of me also agrees 100% :w00t: If you have high inefficiency due to heat loss, then the MORE you can do as an abatement, the better. I would bet a yaris wouldnt even need a rad in the winter. just run a 500cmL Aluminum pipe form the rad inlet to outlet with a T for overflow and cap. Put the rad in the garage for the winter:biggrin:

[TheSilkySmooth]

Which is why conserving heat is not a big problem. Your argument, Mr. Hilton, is illogical. I fear you may have succumed to the same impotency as some tragic greek hero with his hair shorn by a femme fatale ... I told you not to let her strain the martini through the g-string - Olive! Then along comes Engelbert and he falls for that same strange woman and her wicked ways - Delilah!

[yaris2010RS]

okay...well i cant understand y most posts and topics on here do turn into a bitch fight.....but i'm gonna join in. lol.

i agree with everyone...kinda.... for the most part, an engine will heep itself warm enough....but thats for the most part, i have neen in other cars that if the temp in below -15*C and u are trying to do 100km/h you will watch the temp guage drop, but at idle it will be okayish. the grill block is a great idea and will help quite a bit to keep the engine at running temps. i do find a huge loss in fuel efficiency in winter but that might be because i spend more time heating it up and i rev a little higher also. but getting stuck or sliding (or parking lot drifting :)) really hurts too.

it was said colder temps dencer air=more fuel needed yes.... but unless u use a RAMair system, the stock intake (2010 yaris) is in the motor area.... if the grill is blocked, the engine is warm and the snow and ice is melting off ure hood, it is also getting warm if not hot air.....

problems with grill blocks, if its not cold enough for it and/or if u block too much of the grill your car could overheat....this is much worse then losing 5MPG in my opinion......


just to moderate a bit..... if u dont feel it is needed or even practical to even think of using this, thank u, that is your opinion. it does have its pro;s and cons but is this really what this fourm has become..... if someone has an idea u don't personally like u attack it. its all about constructive ideas and yes, critics are a must but really, its become about personal attacks

[localkineguy]

Can we get a testament to the increase in MPG after fitting the grill with this?

[ibanezjeepguy]

just don't block things off and you'll be just fine... if you want to block off airflow going through the radiator thats fine but when it cracks due to heat stress you're on your own.
engine is going to maintain its heat very well due to heat soak in the metal but also the fluids are going to help hold in the heat. heat rise off the exhaust manifold keeps things a tad warmer under the hood also. I would ONLY do the radiator dam if my "engine is cold" light keeps coming on while I'm actively driving down the road...... THEN I would be worried, because thats the main indicator that the motor is not running in closed loop mode.

[rningonfumes]

Kineguy, he does this during the winters. It is important to note his geographical location. He lives and commutes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Nor-Cal, just west of Reno, Nevada. Winters get really cold up there. Brian- Bailout doesn't post her much anymore. You might have better luck at cleanmpg.com. There are a lot of threads made by him which would give more back ground to this mod and other things done to his car.

Yes, this is to help get the engine temps up to optimum quickly. The other thing is that it helps aerodynamics a tad.

My question is.....why is everyone so worried about the airflow? There's a fan, which gives off an engine-light if it stops working.

[dave mac]

When it starts to get cold, I block the upper grill with strips of black electrical tape. You can barely notice that anything is different. Unless you tell someone, they don't even see it. I just cut the strips to the exact length and neatly apply them top to bottom w/a slight overlap. Takes me less than 10 minutes, no tools, no disassembly, and costs pennies. In the Spring I just peel it right off, no harm to the grill or painted surfaces (I make sure it doesn't touch paint when i apply the tape). I live in the Northeast, so it holds up all winter, and yes I drive on the highway. I do this every year. If it's really cold I can also easily block the lower grill too, or just parts of it. See pix:

[komichal]

We did this twenty years ago when we were driving cars made in 1975 and we were too lazy to replace the thermostat.
If this really works then it is a big shame for Toyota that it produces the same crappy cars as the Eastern Europe did in 1975.

[dogsridewith]

I might be inclined to first block the lower grill and little fake grillettes on each side of it on this 07 hatch...for one thing, it is a sticks trap. Note, on the hatchback that all three lower grills can almost be cleanly covered with a single flat ribbon shape.
(Yeah, I know you can put fog or driving lights there...note how much bigger these fake grills have gotten on everything as front end styling has become outlandish in the last decade.)