Soooo... it was hot today in San Jose! When I left work, the car's ambient temperature gauge displayed 89. It stayed pretty steady at 89-90 the whole trip. At one stop it hit 96
, but then later went back down to 90 a couple miles away. In other words, it was HOT! I was a little nervous, but watched my temp. gauge like a hawk! The whole trip, it never went above half way up the gauge, which is standard even without the grill block, but no concrete numbers to know exactly what was happening. I don't know if the fan ever came on to keep the temp. down. Coming up to a stoplight, I heard a sound I've never heard before, but I was not able to pin it down to the fans to know for sure. I only heard it the one time. When I got to my 96* stop, I left the engine running, opened the hood and the fans were not on. Obviously that doesn't mean anything for my drive, but at least at that point they weren't on.
One of my stops was to my post office to pick up my UltraGauge!!!!!
I haven't been this excited in a long time, I don't know why, but I guess it's just an eco-modder thing! (YNYAEM if...) So tonight I can start to calibrate it and get the screens how I want it and tomorrow I can attach it and see what the temp. of the engine actually is, rather than relying on the stock temp. gauge. I'm still trying to decide a location where I want to put it, but I have a couple of ideas. I have had the grill block for about half a tank (~200 miles), so the UG will be useful to know if the block is working or not without having to drive for tanks and tanks and tanks.
The three things I noticed/heard today: 1) A weird sound (maybe the fans?). 2) Occasional engine sound (knock?) 3) brakes squeaked a couple of times even though they are new (replaced all 4 in 2012), maybe it was just the heat?, it didn't happen every time.
I got two ideas today from being so focused on the grill block. The first is an added benefit to the grill block besides aero and warm-up time is my stock intake (which is sort of a CAI, its really close to the front grill) will take in hotter air. That increases knock potential, but I have a VVT-I engine, so I don't think that matters (maybe, thoughts?). I heard an unpleasant sound a couple of times, but I have never heard knock, so I don't know if it was knocking or not.
The second thought was an ability to know if the fan is on. Like a little LED light that comes on when the fan is on. It could be really inconspicuous, since it probably won't be on very often, but would be useful, so you could know when/how often the fan is on. Unless of course an UG/SG has the ability to show fan on/off, then that would be the most useful
Long post, but a lot to get off my chest!
