AZ's F150 thread
 

Hey everybody,

I've been a member for a little while now. Mostly lurking though, I really don't know too much when it comes to ecomods. When I've posted before, I was writing about my Camry (See sig), but since I was in the middle of a few projects when the winter weather hit I've had to drive my truck.

My F-150 is a 2007, Reg Cab XL V6 I've been messing with her since day one, but not until now in an eco sense. For anyone interested here's my build-up thread over on (f150online).

Anywho just got to building a grille block last night. It's just a mock up, but I'm going to see how this tank of gas goes, and then modify it. I was thinking once I get it where I want it, maybe making it out of lexan?
Thoughts on that?

Hopefully, I'll be making a lower grille block and lexan smooth covers for my fog light buckets soon.

Pics for clicks!

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1297619822

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1297619852

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1297619852

On my Silverado, I had the grill block behind the grill (Corex sheet ziptied with 3" square reinforcing plates on the backside). When I moved it to the front of my grill, I noticed an improvement in how quickly my engine got up to temp.

I believe the reason why is that air pushing on the grill block made it deflect enough to allow a lot of air through. Moving it to the front made the air pressure force it to stay in place.

Mike

Mike,

You make a good point, I didn't think about that. When I remake it I may put it on the outside. Now, have you had the grille block on during the summer yet? I am concerned about engine temps once it starts warming up.

Thanks for the info!

I initially had a small grill block (Just the upper part of my grill. and originally on the back), and that was on all last summer. This winter, I blocked the lower part of my grill and then moved the upper to the outside as seen here:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/emgarage-...f0278771e8.JPG

The opening on the driver's side is for my tranny cooler. They are a little hard to see, but there are two slots in the bumper that feed air into the radiator as well.

No summer data yet, but I don't expect it to overheat.

Mike

Mike,

That looks good! Looks like we'll be testing summer at the same time then. But hey, that's what a temp gauge is for anyway. quick question, for you; what did you use for material. It looks like you painted it (which makes it look more OEM) but I can't tell.

Thanks mate!

I went to a local plastic distributer and bought three 4'x8' sheets of black Corex ($16 each). I used it for the grill block and my partial belly pan and plan on using the rest of it for more streamlining under my truck. I probably won't do a full belly pan, but I'll eventually get the worst spots covered up.

Corex is a corrugated plastic just like Coroplast (it's what political signs are made of if you aren't familiar with it). If you buy it by the sheet, it comes in a huge variety of colors. It's a very popular material here on EM.

As for summertime testing with the grill block... I use an Ultragauge to closely monitor my coolant temp. I will set it up to give a warning if it starts getting too warm to make sure I get enough airflow, even in the warmest days of summer. I plan on removing the lower grill block any time I'm towing (side cutter and zip ties in the glove box just for this reason)


Mike

Mike,

Sounds great, I'll have to try to find some of that. I want to fill some of the gaps underneath the truck. Hopefully I can get enough material to start under the front bumper.

Thanks again!

I have been running a black coroplast upper grill block on my wife's 04 Ford Explorer for about three years now, winter and summer with no overheating. I did remove it briefly before towing a heavy load over mountain passes in summer.

I ended up gluing a layer of rubber over the coroplast on the VW because kicked up rocks kept punching holes in it.

Good to hear! I've never done any towing (and as of now, I don't plan on doing any), so that shouldn't be a problem.

I may have some free time this weekend, so I might try and re-make the grille block. I'd like to make a lower grille block to match...

Oh, I also found some pictures on here of how some one did some underbelly aero-mods to their F-150, so I'm going to try and replicate that. Hopefully soon!

One other thing I forgot... Does anyone know the laws regarding this (or where I could find out) about passenger side mirrors in Missouri?

I was thinking about using my OEM mirrors (the XL style) and cutting off the mirror and then smoothing it over; to make a mirror blank for the passenger side. We used to have an early 90's Festiva, and I remember that it just had a plastic triangle for the passenger side mirror.

Okay, I'm utterly confused at this point...

My truck gets about 16mpg. I think that this is awful, and I'm trying to improve it. So I started with the grille block. The last tank I ran (It wasn't full, just $20 worth) but I went from 16mpg to 13.06.

What?

I'm really sensitive with this truck; it's my baby. I'm really ginger on the gas, I pop it in neutral at the stop lights... How am I losing gas mileage?

Any ideas on Aero mods or "Adjusting the nut behind the wheel" are greatly appreciated.

Thanks everybody!

Tank to tank variations are large and mods of this nature net small results so fugetaboutit. Keep a fuel log and watch for a trend.

I'm still really new with this. I guess this was a n00b's worry then. Thanks for reliving me! :)

If you don't normally see mpg variations that large then look for the obvious: a really low tire(s), jack each wheel and give it a whirl as a brake drag check, make sure the parking brake isn't sitting there one click engaged, look at the air filter and general soundness of everything under the hood, etc.

Frank,

Will do! Now I got something to keep me busy tomorrow!

Thanks again!

AZ, I'm in STL also - if your last tank was during our recent cold spell, that could have had an impact. Likewise, during our very recent nice weather, the block may have caused your radiator fan to come on. I doubt either of these would have made a 3 mpg impact though....Frank's suggestions are definitely things to check!

ScanGauge (et al) is your friend. Stop light idling should not be a factor. Warming up before setting sail, for example, would be. If AT and its stirring fluid (slipping torque converter instead of TC clutch locked) that could be another factor. (Slower isn't ALWAYS better.) Putting an MPG gauge on the dash is exactly the right tool to help you optimize it. Otherwise the situation is death by a thousand paper cuts.

i would definitely put the block on the front of the grille as said earlier, doing that would give you a place to put the front license plate where you can see the entire plate (some states get pissy about that). you can then use the corex (or coroplast, whatever you prefer) to make basic air ducting from the chin opening up to the radiator and then block or unblock parts of the lower opening as required based on outside temps

So, I really need to re-do the grille block. My friend works at the dealer and gave we a free car wash yesterday (which was awesome of him) but it knocked out some of the cardboard. Hopefully I'll be able to re-do that today or tomorrow. I've gotta find some coroplast...

Yesterday I also checked my tires, and wow... I can't believe how low they were. They were about 32-35, I filled them all up to 42.

Anyway we'll see how all that effects the next tank!

Well I'm off to drive, catch y'all later!