Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Here's a picture to go with aerohead's analysis:
Turn the undertray into a partial bellypan, and have the flap slide instead of hinge. |
That's a nice idea but I don't want to prevent air circulating around the engine bay, a belly pan seems risky. It was designed and tested with a large airflow keeping everything cool, having put in the grill block, at times in hot weather I am opening the grill in order to cool the engine bay more than the coolant in the radiator.
I like the image of the Corvette in post #2 but I don't have an air dam and the bottom under the radiator is flat. I'm not sure what effect adding an air dam would have, there is a bit of a tunnel running under the grill which may be intended to give highest flow under the centre of the car and shape the flow further back, or maybe it is just styling! I'm sure adding an air dam would have a significant effect though, seems like another project.
The original question hasn't really been answered but I think I'll take the easy option and just put a vent in the centre of the grill block with an iris to control the flow and control the iris based on the coolant temperature at the exit of the radiator and override it when engine compartment temperatures get too high. Then I can try to test whether opening the iris or turning up the fan power uses least fuel.
Thanks for the replies
