Aero mods on 06 civic
 

Workin' on mods for the civic and I'm not sure if I should leave some areas open or not. I will definitely close the whole front in the winter, but I'm wondering if these 2 air inlets that I have open are necessary or not.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3...irblocklr2.jpg

The green area is where my license plate use to be and then I modified it to block the center of the bottom air intake area. Luckily there are pieces that stick out of the bottom grill from the radiator area to screw the license plate in instead of them drilling holes into the bumper.

The red area is where there are already pieces stock that block the air.

The orange area is where I plan on blocking first once I figure out a way to strap it in without damaging anything. I wanted to go with a strong plastic type that I could paint black, but it looks like people use clear plastic to block it as well and I wouldn't mind that if it was unnoticeable.

Block it all or no? Comments or suggestions on any of it are welcome. :)

I think you're doing it in the right order, and no, I wouldn't block it all at once (by that I mean, sure block the top, but leave the bottom open on either side of the plate until you have some feedback on how it's going).

How good will you be at keeping an eye on the temp gauge (less useful) and listening for the cooling fan to kick on/off?

My car isn't too noisy on the highway so I think I'll be able to pay attention to it. I'm still messing with my scangauge so I'll use that to keep track of my temps. Problem is, I'm not sure what a dangerous coolant temp is (obviously if I see my hood smokin' I know it's hot, lol) so could I gauge it from driving in the morning (5am to work) to driving home (2pm from work) and figure a nice range in between?

Las Vegas gets crazy hot real fast (117F was our high last year), so I'm trying to be as careful as possible.

I blocked the entire lower grill on mine, but not the upper. The upper on the 05 has two slots, but the top slot is probably 70% blocked aleady, even though it doesn't look like it from the outside. Engine temp rarely gets above 200, but daytime highs here have not gotten above 70 degrees yet.

monitor the cooling fan, if it comes on while your driving you start losing any advantage of blocking because of the increased electrical load.

on mine i plan on making an upper grill out of fiber glass and painting it black, the design i am thinking of will be even with the front face of the headlights and but up against the headlights so as to provide a completely smooth surface. i am not sure what i will do about the lower grill yet as i dont know how this will affect the temperature. also a small aero idea would be to put clear plastic or fill in the area over where the fog lights go so as to have smooth flow in that area as well (i noticed you (like me) don't have fog lamps)

anyhow good luck hope these ideas help some

The car probably came from the factory equipped with Honda Genuine Coolant Type 2 (Blue) which has a boiling point of 268 degrees Fahrenheit. I'd be concerned if temps went over 212.

I operate in a similarly arid area, although not quite as extreme and scan gauge usually reports my engine as running between 198-202. 206 is the highest I've seen thus far and that was idling in bumper to bumper traffic.

Thank you all for the advice. I'm gonna work some more on this and monitor it closely. I'm thinking rather than blocking it veritcally, I will try to do it horizontally to see if I can get better results.

Johnpr, I'm interested to see how your turns out when you smooth it out. I was thinking of smoothing those fog lights out as well, but couldn't figure out a way to do it without drilling holes into the bumper. Most adhesives usually melt in the summer here so that isn't an option either.

If your fog covers have no lights in them, the easiest way to block them off would be with some thin abs 1/16" some door insulated foam for the edges that touch the bumper then run som toggle bolts through it. That way you can screw them down as tight as need be, it will take the shapte of the bumper, and with no permanent damage to the painted areas of your bumper.

Or, a bit more expensive alternative would be to use vinyl to cover the hole or the paint protection film material which is clear.

I've got one piece made to block half of my upper grill, but I've run into a problem. I don't want to drill holes into anything so I'll settle with using tape. What kind of black tape could i use to hold the pieces I made in place? I though of electrical tape, but I remember how gooey that gets when exposed to extreme heat. I'm gonna need something that can withstand 100+ temps in direct sunlight(and preferably black or clear tape).

Thanks.