2013 C-Max grille block
 

Hey Guys,

Well, at 26,000 miles and counting, I have begun the aero mods. About a month ago I fabricated Lexan wheel covers. However, I took them off temporarily to get a decent baseline of summertime mileage in completely stock form. Yesterday I fabricated a center grille block and reinstalled the wheel discs.

The grille is made from 1/8 inch black G10 Garolite (epoxiglass). Since I am modding a brand new $30K car, I wanted to make the mods look as good as possible. However, UV resistant carbon fiber was too costly. So, this is a good compromise.

I have a total of 4 hours of work in the grille, including the facia removal and reinstallation. This was needed because the stock grille clip tabs are released from the backside of the facia.

I have only done a small amount of driving with these mods so far. But, it looks like around 2mpg improvement so far on the highway and about half that in the mixed driving I do day to day. I consistently see 56 to 57mpg in stock trim. My driving area does not vary much. So, after a tank or two (couple weeks of driving), I will have a very good idea of my mixed driving mpg improvement. Also, we are going on an interstate trip this week. That will give me a very good idea of the highway mileage increase.

The remaining mods I have planned are;

#1 The upper and lower grilles, modded the same way this grille is modded.

#2 Three inch dropped chin/dam to match the lowest part of the car.

#3 Rear belly pan. (The car's stock belly pan stops before the rear wheels.)

I have a couple other things I want to do as well. But, again, this is a brand new car. I want to keep it looking nice. Besides, even though this is my work car, I still have to maintain a high "Wife Acceptance Factor". :D

I hope to see 5mpg improvment with all mods combined. That should be doable. Heck, the blocking the 3 grilles, alone, should net at least half that.

Matt

Looks good!

Nice work !

Well, I put 120 miles on the car today with a 60/40 split of in town versus highway driving and I netted 61.1mpg. My typical day is 57mpg with this temperature. My best day ever was 61mpg, but that only happened once. Since that one 60+mpg day, I have struggled to hit 58mpg. So, this 61.1mpg looks promising. Obviously I cannot pass judgement just yet. However, once I put another few full days of driving on the car, I should have a very good idea of the true mpg improvement.

Oh, to put that 61.1mpg into perspective, the last 8,000 miles have averaged 54.5mpg.

I will keep you posted!

Matt

I know this is old but, I recently purchase a 14 energy and am looking to maximize our efforts as well and will be making a grille block asap

I noticed that the lower grill entry has automatic shutters. That's good, that means that blocking the center grill like Recumpence, shouldn't have any negative side effects. Blocking the top grill opening might be a winter only thing though, only by testing can we know. Recumpence MPG's are good, specially compared to what is on fuelly.com.

Gil

So, I got curious and did a bit of a google search. Looks like the bottom and middle grill openings have auto grill shutters, but not the top one. So, maybe covering the top grill opening could give better results. http://wholesale.tasca.com/graphics/.../8.jpg?refresh

well done! looks great