Dodge Ram Grille Block: Upper & Lower

[radioranger]

seems like your doing your homework, I'll bet you would be fine if you had some sort of auxilary fan like a 12 v boat bilge blower with a duct from a cool place to blow air by the exhaust manifold area, and maybe put it on a timer to run 5 minutes or so after a hot shut down .

[ron]

wow Dave looks real nice ,Im not ready to make permanent yet, I just used clear packing tape on the outside of the grill temp is 172*/176* not enough records for as yet aprox 1.75 mpg in my rig with 4:10s&CTD

[radioranger]

looks pretty comprehensive, I'm not sure if my last reply got through so a repeat, i'm new member, but how about a boat blower fan setup to cool down under hood after shutdown or during intense slow traffic situations, also diesels that i am familiar with are so much more efficient that they run cooler , much , that gas engines.

[skyking]

Looking very nice Dave. I did the cardboard block on mine the other day, I covered about 90% of my radiator. It got about 5° above normal at the worst case, climbing a 4500' mountain pass.

Originally Posted by radioranger

looks pretty comprehensive, I'm not sure if my last reply got through so a repeat, i'm new member, but how about a boat blower fan setup to cool down under hood after shutdown or during intense slow traffic situations, also diesels that i am familiar with are so much more efficient that they run cooler , much , that gas engines.

I have a cheap remote thermometer I have used elsewhere, it will go underhood to check things out. I'll place it over and behind the heater (Turbo ).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002B0KVFQ/ref=sc_pgp__m_A2OXMMY6UKNCC_1?ie=UTF8&m=A2OXMMY6UK NCC&n=&s=&v=glance

[Diesel_Dave]

Update, I've found that Dodge makes a "bumper filler panel" for the 3rd Gens that came stock on some of the 1/2 ton trucks.

The part number is 55077896AC. I'm in the process of seeing if I can find one at a junk yard. It should look more "professional" than the one I made.

[steve05ram360]

I did the bumper fill panel the other day, wrecking yard $20. New at the yard they were $35. Now that I see what you did for the main grille, I will give that a shot as well.

[slowmover]

I went ahead and ordered a set of pre-made ABS grille inserts yesterday from CRE.

Lack of a garage, and time, made it a not-too-expensive purchase at $80 shipped.

Once ambient drops to 50F the CTD takes a truly noticeable longer time to come to op-temp. I also ordered the MOPAR winter front, but don't expect to use it much here in South Texas . . and might not have ordered it at all but for being able to more closely track temps with ULTRAGAUGE.

.

[ECONORAM]

Originally Posted by Diesel_Dave

Update, I've found that Dodge makes a "bumper filler panel" for the 3rd Gens that came stock on some of the 1/2 ton trucks.

The part number is 55077896AC. I'm in the process of seeing if I can find one at a junk yard. It should look more "professional" than the one I made.

Yes, my truck has one of those on it. I am curious, did you find any FE increase with the entire grill blocked? I tried some ABA tests last week w/25% blocked and about 80% blocked and I didn't get any improvement...

[Diesel_Dave]

Originally Posted by ECONORAM

Yes, my truck has one of those on it. I am curious, did you find any FE increase with the entire grill blocked? I tried some ABA tests last week w/25% blocked and about 80% blocked and I didn't get any improvement...

I never got the chance to do A-B-A testing and quantify it. I doubt the effect is that large, quite honestly. That being said, it's hard to see how it would hurt.

[steve05ram360]

I did a 75% block in an effort to get a hotter IAT, managed 20*f over ambient. With the grille block in place & hotter intake air I still ran a 20.2 mpg with ambient air temps about the same for both runs (no aba). My truck is real consistent at 20.2 mpg for some reason. I can say though that around town throttle response is noticeably better with the grille bock in place & warmer IATs.