5 Basic Aeromods: A-B-A Test Results

[accord_minded]

I spent a LOT of time reading up on ways of adding wheel covers to alloy wheels. A LOT of time. There are a lot of ingenious things folks are doing, but it seemed like most involved the use of equipment (e.g. drill presses) and skillz I don't have. I bought pizza pans. I noodled around with various ways of attaching them, etc. But I wasn't comfortable with pizza pans attached only with zipties.

So, I went with the default of coroplast and zipties. Simple solution, cheap, and easy to undo.

However, since they are butt ugly, I have two thoughts on improving the look. One is to paint them a metallic alloy color (which I've done, but don't have a photo yet). That is helping to tone down the stark white/black contrast.

The second idea I had is to take a high rez picture of the original wheels and take it to a sign shop and have them print four full-size versions on adhesive sign material and stick them onto the coroplast. So you'd basically have a picture of the original wheel on top of the coroplast. Might be too expensive and might look sh*tty, too, but I'm going to investigate.

Anyway, here's what the wheel covers look like as tested.

[accord_minded]

The lower grill block was made from coroplast with a slotted opening and cover that I could raise and lower. I don't think I'm going to have an overheating problem (haven't fully tested yet, tho), but I thought I would go ahead and add the sliding cover while doing the original build, just in case I need it later.

I made the slotted 'window' track by epoxying some additional pieces of aluminum.

The upper grill block, alas, is just clear tape. Not happy with that from a design point of view, but it is easy to remove and I can do something a bit more elegant some time in the future. For the A-B-A test, I only had tape over half of the upper grill since on a test run, with both lower and upper grill completely covered, engine temp went up to 220 pretty quickly. With only half the upper grill covered, temp was around 205 (normal temp is around 186).

The last image shows both grill blocks 'installed' (I hesitate using 'installed' when referring to tape). The lower one has been painted black, obviously. It was attached to the car with black zipties. Seems pretty secure.

[Xist]

What about cutting a piece of paper to fit your wheel and using a sideways crayon to trace the rims? You could transfer that to something sturdy and use it as a pattern to paint your covers.

[freebeard]

Spirals. Definitely spirals.

Extra points if they spin in on both sides.

[accord_minded]

Originally Posted by Xist

What about cutting a piece of paper to fit your wheel and using a sideways crayon to trace the rims? You could transfer that to something sturdy and use it as a pattern to paint your covers.

That's a good idea, too. Thanks for the suggestion.

Not sure I'll do anything at this point. They actually look OK painted now. And anyway, YKYAEM if you don't care what your wheel covers look like, right?

[accord_minded]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Spirals. Definitely spirals.

Extra points if they spin in on both sides.

Hah! I guess I should think about something more exuberant, shouldn't I?

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by accord_minded

So, I'm back from a trip and am posting up a few photos of the aeromods that I installed for my A-B-A test.

Thanks for the photos! Added this to the "selected threads" on the home page.

[OG VX]

Nice on the mirror delete! Thanks for sharing that.

[accord_minded]

Ecomodders: so I've had three full tanks since I did the four mods and increased tire pressure. Not a big sample, but enough for an update.

A-B-A testing showed an increase of 2.65MPG (7.74%) due to the mods.

In the real world, the difference I'm getting is even better.

My five tanks prior to the mods gave me an average of 34.84MPG. Then I had one tank that had some before and some after miles on it, so I'm discarding that tank as not being truly before or truly after.

With the three full, complete tanks since doing the mods, I get an average of 38.18MPG.

So my real world improvement is 3.34MPG (9.15%).

Could be due to some improvements in my technique on one hand. But on the other hand the last three tanks (post-mods) have been during cooler weather than the prior five tanks (pre mods). Also, pump error, etc., blah,blah, the normal disclaimers.

Overall, I'm pretty confident that the A-B-A testing is born out under real world conditions.

Accord-Minded

[benphyr]

Originally Posted by accord_minded

So, I'm back from a trip and am posting up a few photos ...

Thank you greatly, subscribed (to look back later when I will be able to apply them to my new (1998) Odyssey.

-Benphyr