Quote:
Originally Posted by GKRenegade
Seems the renegade has recessed headlights and grill. If I put thin clear plastic to smooth it all out, that should help quite a bit with drag yes? If I did that with each recessed item and light on the front, it would have next to no drag especially if I were to silicone all edges.
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The general consensus is that stopped cavities on the nose of the vehicle are more or less null, aerodynamically speaking. The nose of the vehicle "piles up" a sort of stagnant nosecone of air in front of it; headlight buckets, having no flow through them, don't really change how that nosecone of pressure behaves. That's kind of the idea behind grille blocks; closing off more of the nose creates a more cohesive high pressure zone in front of the car that helps guide more air smoothly over the rest.
I think I understood that right. Anyway, the point is that your bigger gains are going to be found somewhere besides the nose. At least at first. If you make the rest of the vehicle very aerodynamic, attention paid to smoothing out the flow at the nose pays off greater dividends as the air moves aft.
That doesn't mean there are no gains to be had from doing what you're talking about, it's just that the results will be small, possibly invisible signals against the noise of everything else.
As to the belly pan, I would make sure that it was NOT a seamless unit from front to back. The engine bay has to have openings from which to shed its hot air for proper cooling. You will need to satisfy yourself on that score as to whether it's open enough for cooling.
If you're concerned about the material you use melting, look at some of the belly pans that have already been written up in this forum. In some cases coroplast (corrugated plastic) even covers the exhaust system areas without harm (though I wouldn't put it there myself). And in any case, coroplast will be lighter so that's probably your better choice wherever you can choose it instead of some other, heavier material.
MSDS for Coroplast:
http://www.coroplast.com/pdf/Coropla...2020140505.pdf
This calls out its melting temperature at 324F, not sure at what temp it starts to become soft but with sufficient support and restraint, it may not be an issue.