Hi all,
A little background first. My turbodiesel car has no less than 4 radiators - an oil cooler, intercooler, air con condenser and the main radiator. The air con is broken so that's left off all the time. Here's an
image of how the radiators are arranged. The oil cooler is the sump. I use the car for commuting 800 miles a week, and so I do not want to damage the engine. I will be getting an oil temperature gauge to keep a better eye on engine temperatures - will also be helpful to have a better idea of how quickly the engine warms up as well. An EGT would be useful to keep an eye on how well the intercooler works, but at the moment, I'm too chicken to install one.
There are 2 holes in the factory underpan which I assume is to let in air to cool the oil cooler, so I'll be leaving those alone. Here's an
image of the front of the car with the grilles and outlines of the radiators behind it.
Here's a poor picture of the front with the bonnet open to get a slighty better idea.
How should I block the grille? Looking at the image, it seems that the upper grille isn't of much use apart from the air inlet, so is it safe to completely block? The lower grille seems to be slightly like a scoop - see the sides where the optional fog lights would have gone. How should I block this, and by how much? The lower grille also contains the environmental temperature sensor which the ECU uses to decide how long to run the glowplugs.
Thanks for advice in advance!