03 Toyota Sienna mod
 

I’m not sure what it will do. I’m getting 21mpg each week local m, 25/26 highway and I stuck this on the front. It’s a roadside bumper cover I was sick of driving by each day. Let me know your ideas. Sc. 3liter v6 30ok miles. I did rip the roof rack off.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...2&d=1577221695

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...3&d=1577221732

Make sure you aren’t blocking the transmission cooler completely. It may not be a separate cooler, some are built into the engine radiator. I4 Auto accords of my generation have it in the bottom of the engine radiator.

over-fascia
 

You've covered the best ram-air location for cooling.
The over-fascia is encouraging airflow under the nose,which is a no-no unless you have a full belly pan,and it will increase front lift at speed.
Take a look at any Tesla and follow their lead.

We just had someone in the forum do a similar grille bock, then he discovered the Grille Block Summary thread.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...ary-13768.html

In short, start from top down, not bottom up as you have done.

It does look nice though.

Will a splitter help now?

Or will a spiltter just increase down-force and drag?

splitter
 

It had one to begin with.Adding in one now is going to add downforce-induced drag.The moment arm in front of the front axle has been lengthened.These changes are subtle and would require virtual fortunes to properly 'tune.':(

Thank you for answering my question, yes you are right, it did have a splitter of sorts prior to modification.

Possible lifting problem now.

I am going to suggest starting over.

Upper grill block is the standard.

And lose that bug deflector. :eek:

If there are dummy openings that do nothing or are there just for styling, then by all means seal them up, or keep them sealed as may be the case on the outer ones.

Well, Darn.... kind of thought it was helping, blocking under body air flow. Just went to Fla and back. About 900 miles. Got a 25 cityhwy mix and best going highway was 27.5. I pulled the front hood thing off today. With all the weight up front, Engine,transmission and front passengers, would that negate lift? Here is a side picture. Thx for the info. If I ever get it to 28 mpg I’ll be happy.

Very innovative of you to use a road-side find like that bumper.

This looks like a good improvement in MPG, you should be happy.

If so far you have felt no departmental ill effects of light steering from the nose lifting, then I guess lift is NOT a problem after all.

No overheating either?

I wonder if using A/C in the summer will turn out to be more of an issue than winter driving.

I did not notice it handling worse. I hit 80 a few times. With almost 300k on the whale, handling ain’t that tight any more. Summer heat would be an issue. I can easy pull the cover off or cut some Gills in it. Under side of this has a gas tank and spare tire hanging low. Today I can remove the lower and just block the upper part. Let’s see what happens.

We have had some serious winds in the last few days(gusts at 60 mph), and I was driving my wife's Chevy Cruze one of those days.

Not as bad as the Geo Metro she had, and the Geo Tracker I had for 20 years, but you could feel it.

Do not peak pass at 80 mph on gusty days to be on the safe side.

We drove at 60-65 mph most of the time.

The bumper cover is off. I tried to block off the top. Tape did not work so I used wire. Looks great?.......nope. I will run around and see how it goes

I bet you could carve a pretty nice upper grill block out of that old bumper cover

Update! I have not had a chance to highway cruise in weeks. Today I got the magic number 29+ mpg for about 15 minutes on the highway. I have removed the back van seats. Replaced a worn tire. And the tank was about on empty. All tires at 40 psi. Also the outdoor temp is in the 60s today. The best highway number I have ever seen was 27 mpg. I can tell it’s holding speed better /longer. when I’m coasting. Side note: I have had
cEL code for an o2 sensor heater failure for years. SC

I might be mistaken, but isn't your car supposed to get number like that without aerodynamic modification?

SIDE NOTE:

Last week I was stranded at the cigar lounge (S10 would not start), one of the guys there happened to be leaving and gave me a ride to the auto store and back (NAPA).

I picked up a new distributor cap and rotor and installed it, running like a champ after struggling to get the ignition wires on in right sequence, good thing I had my Haynes book and star bit drivers on me.

My point of this short story is even though by my best estimation the cap and rotor was replaced just shy of 50,000 miles ago it was completely worn out, so much so that the truck had starting issues.

I am happy to report the 20 minute drive back home used much less gas - yes I could see just by using the gauge even though my odometer hasn't worked in about six years.

The power curve and torque I can lay down were also vastly improved.

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/maintain.jsp
I suggest lifting up the distributor cap and inspecting the metal prongs that stick down. Some of mine looked like they had been filed down at a 45 degree angle, when on a new cap they are longer and straight 90 degree cut.

I suspect that on older higher mileage cars the interval between tune ups are shortened as tolerances go out of spec.

Kach22i, good point, On fixing things first. The o2 sensor heater failure should just let me run a little rich until the exhaust temp gets up to operating temp. I think.

The EPA Est mpg is 19/24 on an 03 Sienna. I have not seen an attempt to Eco mile one of these.

It has a not so cool engine feature. The v6 is angled so 3 cylinders are covered by the fire wall and the intake manifold. You have to take the intake off to change the plugs and o2 sensor on that side. No miss fire codes yet.

Next step: planning to extend the chin splitter under the front a few inches. And block off a bit of the under bumper fresh air intake to the radiator.

It also has all the time on headlights that I need to figure out.

Maybe even wash and wax it. SC

Found my jigsaw! Cut a chunk out of my precious road side bumper cover. It’s tricky to cut this to fit the contour of the nose of this van. I failed... Added a small coverup on the under bumper splitter. Clipped a wire that runs the daytime running light. That should unload the altenator a little. I’m excited to see if it helps. Maybe 30 mpg is in the cards.

Pretty good results. I have held over 30 mpg for 20 minutes or so on the highway. Removed a trailer hitch bracket 50 lbs? Took out all the rear seats. Blocked off the front some more and lowered front air dam a few inches. Sc