Good or bad grill block?
 

I was wondering about my winter grill block and what you all think about it. Is it hurting my areo or helping it. My temps stay normal in the 173-180 deg f area. Unless it gets over 60 outside. http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...psec390822.jpg

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...psduunlwn4.jpg

Looks good to me.

regards
mech

I don't know about the sides being open if that created bad turbulence. I was wondering if it would be better to block it all the way across or if it gets too hot, to block off the outer parts and leave a hole for the center.

180f? Do cars actually run that cool? Last two I had run at 200f.

Looks good to me, but try blocking all the way across and watch your temps.

Both of my cars run about 185 F, and the motorcycle about 177 F.

I'm going to try all the way across and see
This is after a 53 mile drive at 65 mphin 17 deg weather. I pulled into the garage and snapped this.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...pshfdtgh5n.jpg


Rock auto shows a 180deg thermastat for the 12 mazda 3 2.0 skyactiv manual.
My wife's jeep runs above 200

Temps look normal to me considering your level of grill blocking, the cold weather, and assuming efficient driving techniques. The fact that you are 8 degrees below the rated temp tells me you can block even more. Try blocking the entire lower grill.

I can get away with about 90% grill blocking on my vehicles during our more moderate winters.

Can't hurt. Block the brake vents too unless you're crazy hard on 'em.

Off topic, but I'm surprised you're idling at 0.19gph with that Skyactiv engine. My 1ZZ-FE (designed in 1999) is 0.18-0.19gph idle. I would've hoped that with direct injection, high compression ratio, better VVT, and such that they would've been able to cut idle consumption more than 10% (since the displacement is bigger on the Skyactiv).

At 17 degrees outside temp, I'm guessing the seat warmers and heater was on. Perhaps the headlights were also on. This would call for higher idle consumption.