Ducting air from grille to radiator

[fud2468]

When doing a partial grille block, wouldn't it make sense to duct air directly from the grille opening to the radiator? Otherwise it would seem there's too much chance for turbulence enroute. A duct might allow a smaller opening in the grille to get the same amount of cooling effect.
Of course there'd still be turbulence for air passing through the radiator and into the engine compartment, but that's unavoidable.
Ray Mac

[Daox]

Ducting would be ideal. However, its a huge pain in the butt to make which is why I don't think I've seen actual ducting work done.

[bikin' Ed]

Ok, it'll be a little while before I get pics, this is still in the planning stage. On my '06 Dodge Dakota quad cab I have blocked the entire grille and removed the cooling fan from the engine.

Even as cold as it has been (30 F), I'm having trouble keeping the engine cool enough. (It has been the plan all along to install an electric cooling before spring.) I'm hoping to be able to use the two holes below the bumper to duct cool air thru the radiator.

I'll keep you posted.

[i_am_socket]

Once I build my adjustable grill block, I plan to duct it. Not really ideal to do it while it's still all just packing tape.

[Tango Charlie]

I don't know if you can call it 'ducting', but I boxed in the area between the lower grille opening and the radiator of my Vibe. You can see it in post #53 of my 'Vibe mods' thread. With the upper grille completely blocked, and the lower opening blocked roughly 90%, coolant temperature is never an issue. In fact, I think it's taking LONGER to warm up than before. I noticed this immediately after installing the radiator-bumper 'ducting', which was before winter hit hard and we still had comfortable ambient temps.

If your car has a similar gap between the grille and the radiator, I would highly recommend boxing it in or 'ducting' it. You can get away with a much smaller grille opening. Of course, keep an eye on the coolant temps, preferably with a Scangauge.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Daox

Ducting would be ideal. However, its a huge pain in the butt to make which is why I don't think I've seen actual ducting work done.

I incorporated complete air-tight inlet ducting within the noses of the CRX,Dodge D-100,and T-100.I was afraid not to ,as I'm running the Chrysler/Korff/Horner dead minimums for inlet ram area.It wasn't that big a deal.

[Daox]

Do you have any pics of your setups? Materials used? Tips on construction?

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Daox

Do you have any pics of your setups? Materials used? Tips on construction?

Daox,the pictures I have are mostly Kodachrome slides and the window of opportunity to transfer these to prints or digital is something I need to investigate.When I did the projects I was obsessed with completion and didn't always do a photo-journal.----------------- The nose of the CRX was mocked-up with cardboard and masking-tape right on the car,then I glassed over that.After the layups were done,I soaked the whole nose in a farm and ranching type stock tank.The corrugated paper turned to mush and separated from the composite fiberglass.------------- I built "light" so if I ever had a collision in the front,the nose would disinegrate,and not take the radiator out with it.------------------------------------- The nose of the Dodge was done with cardboard patterns,tranferred to plywood,cedar,Masonite,and I also used a very light gauge of aluminum sheet to form the inside of the duct.Foam rubber was used to close gaps at the radiator bulkhead,again,very light construction to protect innards in a crash.--------------------- The nose of the T-100 is constructed much as a cedar canoe,with cedar bulkhead,stringers,and formers,all joined with screws and in some places angle-brackets.Toyota did a faily good job inside the grille,and the grille remains in place,with the wood superstructure and skins marrying up to it with labor-intensive tailoring of the wood.Luan Mahogany door-skin is used to close the whole thing in,with spar varnish polyurethane and 35-year latex caulk to seal and weatherize.The grille opening is the lid from a stainless-steel trashcan lid which resembles a NACA ( precurser to NASA ) Cowl,and it is joined to an ABS plastic surround,which actually mated to the trashcan.This setup is more like a "plenum" than a duct,as the inlet simply "blows" into an airtight chamber.I experienced one over-heat episode this last Thanksgiving holiday do to extremely slow speed in traffic up a steep mountain ascent.Otherwise,there's been no trouble at speeds up to 115-mph.The face of the bumper has been cut away on either side of the internal ogival valve to allow a straight shot for the air.I have not done photo-bucket yet but hope to soon,as I do have a few good close-ups of the T-100.P.S. the skin facets for the non-airtight portion of the nose is fashioned from PVC shower stall sheeting I got from Home Depot.The turn- signal and headlight covers are heat-gun-formed plexiglas held on with stainless screws,

[basslover911]

Yeah I plan on ducting mine since I only have a 6 by 12" hole in the bottom. It is probably the #1 thing you can do to lower coolant temps again if you are doing a grill block, more than running the fans more or anything.

Plus it just makes the "system" (car) MUCH more efficient. Oh, one more thing that I have noticed (with a grill block and will probably notice it more with the ducting) is how clean my engine bay has been... it looks pretty much BRAND NEW.

[fanamingo]

Originally Posted by aerohead

... I'm running the Chrysler/Korff/Horner dead minimums for inlet ram area.

Can you elaborate? My google searches have turned up empty.