[Christ]

Originally Posted by cfg83

Christ -



I thought that another purpose of the grille block was to keep the engine running hotter in general (maybe this is what you wrote). The idea is, we are "narrowing" the operating range temperature of the engine on purpose because hotter means more efficient (to a point). We can get away with this because we are running under reduced load and we are monitoring the engine at a higher degree of attention than regular drivers. Does this make sense?

CarloSW2

Carlos -Sure, this is an added bonus, in some cases. The coup here is that many engines already run hotter now than they did in the past (generation-wise, not "my car used to run cooler than this") and are much closer to their optimal range.

Obviously, they're still not perfect, and a grille block can have a mixed effect to this. In most cases, though, you're right on the money here.

I didn't mean that it was the only purpose of the grille block, I meant that the other effects are a matter of circumstance, and the primary effect is reduced airflow over the cooling surface.