Grill block cooling device

[ShadeTreeMech]

I like this thread. I'd thought about putting a copper line on the frame of the car and running the coolant through that in the summer to give me the go-ahead for a full grill block. By using the frame of the car to cool the engine I should be able to cool it rather well. But I think I'd need a thermostat in there somewhere, or I'll never warm it up in the winter.

PS what's a wood gasifier?

[LeanBurninating]

google is your friend

Electricity from wood waste

[Apostile]

if you want to get all technical, sure the thermostat keeps your coolant all locked away inside the engine block until it warms up sufficiently, but you must remember that once that temperature is reached all of that cold coolant from the rest of the cooling system has to be cycled through and warmed up. If you keep the rest of the coolant from getting unnecessarily cooled down, you'll get your engine (and all of it's coolant) warmed up quicker.

[RobertSmalls]

I've thought about this as well. You want a smooth radiator on the surface of your car. It should be fed with coolant on the radiator side of the thermostat, so it doesn't interfere with warm-up. You could add a few fins or large ridges to increase the surface area. If the fins are spaced far enough apart, and point paralell to airflow, the aerodynamic impact could be smaller than that of a grille opening.

I've thought about a coolant-to-frame and/or coolant-to-hood heat exchanger for my Insight. The hood is too thin to conduct heat across its surface, and the frame has too little area exposed to airflow. Overall, it would be cool, and I might do it, but it really wouldn't let me reduce the grille opening that much.

[Christ]

what about the roof?

complex and annoying, but probably large enough.

[Frank Lee]

OK What about the roof. What is the predicted benefit?

[shovel]

I just don't "get" grill blocks in the first place... the assorted crap inside your engine compartment that resists airflow is already a "grill block"... if air has an easier time sliding over your hood than through your engine compartment, it will, because that's what air does when presented with a moving car.

[The Atomic Ass]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Indeed, this would reduce the size of any air intakes needed for the radiator. One downside though, and this has been discussed in other threads, is that it may not be safe and/or legal to have anything on the outside of the car at coolant temperatures, just in case someone touches it. So, you'd need a grill to cover it, and then a grill block on that grill etc....

The exhaust and cooling system are openly exposed on my bike. Nobody touches them because common sense is surprisingly not dead yet.

Originally Posted by shovel

I just don't "get" grill blocks in the first place... the assorted crap inside your engine compartment that resists airflow is already a "grill block"... if air has an easier time sliding over your hood than through your engine compartment, it will, because that's what air does when presented with a moving car.

It still poses a drag. Think about an open parachute, and all the air that goes around it. And all the air that doesn't.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

You could add a few fins or large ridges to increase the surface area. If the fins are spaced far enough apart, and point paralell to airflow, the aerodynamic impact could be smaller than that of a grille opening.

The amount of heat exchange between fins and air depends on how much air flows over the fins and how fast. The amount of drag produced by fins depends on the same. In this case, fins would be counterproductive.

I think the hood would be the best large area surface for heat exchange. The warm air coming off the hood would help prevent fogging and icing on the windshield.