How does a grille block improve warmup time?

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by dremd

MetroMPG
I didn't mean to demean your post; I was actually trying to give it a boost by showing that thinner oils can pass as thicker ones without anyone noticing.

That's what I get for reading posts before breakfast. I missed that. Maybe I should take up coffee-drinking.

I find it interesting that the brand he ends up liking most because of its higher viscosity (the OEM G52) apparently doesn't have an oil weight on the package. Same with the GM syncromesh I'm using in my car rather than the manual-recommended 75-90. The syncromesh bottle has no weight info on it, yet it's clearly much lighter than 75-90.

[bennelson]

Not sure I can agree on that "people feel wind chill, machines don't".

That is one of those things I have heard lots of times, but my personal experience doesn't reflect.

A couple weeks ago, I had to park for work at a location I am not usually at.
It is the back of a warehouse with limited car parking.

I had to park in the open away from the building or other cars because those spaces were all taken up.

My car froze up solid that day. Had to push it inside the building and leave it overnight.

It was the same temperature all week. The only difference was that the rest of the week, my car was parked BETWEEN other cars.

Cars may not be able to "feel" windchill, but moving air cools by convection at the same time that your car is already radiating off its heat. So if you don't really consider that windchill, I think we can agree that the car is still cooling faster.

If you work 8 hours and it takes 9 hours for your car to cool to un-startable conditions, you're fine. If it is windy and your car cools to unstartable conditions in 7 hours, you need a ride home.

In my area, big trucks and school buses usually big sheets of cardboard covering the radiator in the winter, although I have been seeing less of this in recent years.

Covering the radiator should keep more wind out and keep in more heat.

[Frank Lee]

Windchill is the sensation of being below ambient temp and equipment (other than your own) doesn't do that.

[trebuchet03]

What was the temperature in the first place? I wouldn't go as far as calling that a "wind chill" effect - as that's reserved for human sensation (human's don't feel "temperature" - they feel heat flux).

But yes, if it's cold enough to be unstartable - wind will bring you down to that temperature faster if given the chance...

Originally Posted by bennelson

Not sure I can agree on that "people feel wind chill, machines don't".

That is one of those things I have heard lots of times, but my personal experience doesn't reflect.

A couple weeks ago, I had to park for work at a location I am not usually at.
It is the back of a warehouse with limited car parking.

I had to park in the open away from the building or other cars because those spaces were all taken up.

My car froze up solid that day. Had to push it inside the building and leave it overnight.

It was the same temperature all week. The only difference was that the rest of the week, my car was parked BETWEEN other cars.

Cars may not be able to "feel" windchill, but moving air cools by convection at the same time that your car is already radiating off its heat. So if you don't really consider that windchill, I think we can agree that the car is still cooling faster.

If you work 8 hours and it takes 9 hours for your car to cool to un-startable conditions, you're fine. If it is windy and your car cools to unstartable conditions in 7 hours, you need a ride home.

In my area, big trucks and school buses usually big sheets of cardboard covering the radiator in the winter, although I have been seeing less of this in recent years.

Covering the radiator should keep more wind out and keep in more heat.

[bennelson]

The temperature was a high of 0 degrees F all week. The only difference on the day that it wouldn't start was that the car was much more exposed to the wind.

It's my theory that the wind just sucked the heat out of the car faster, to the point that it wouldn't start.

[Andrew63]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Windchill is the sensation of being below ambient temp and equipment (other than your own) doesn't do that.

Frank, I'm sorry, in my first post on this forum, to be contradictory.

Equipment does feel wind chill. What is wind chill? If the outside temperature is 25deg, and the 'wind chill' is -12deg, then the object (human or not) 'feels' a cooling rate equivalent to -12deg ambient temperature with no wind. The final temp of the object will be the ambient temp, in this case 25deg.

Although the equipment has no senses, a thermocouple attached to the object would show a temp curve matching -12deg; thus, the object 'feels' -12 wind chill.

[MetroMPG]

Strictly speaking, the wiki gods say: "Wind chill is the apparent temperature felt on exposed skin, which is a function of the air temperature and wind speed."

That's how I've always understood the term.

I don't think anyone disputes the effect of wind on bringing an inert object to ambient temp more quickly than still conditions. But based on that definition, I wouldn't say it "experiences wind chill".

This may just be a case of semantics prolonging a dispute that doesn't really exist.

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by bennelson

The temperature was a high of 0 degrees F all week. The only difference on the day that it wouldn't start was that the car was much more exposed to the wind.

It's my theory that the wind just sucked the heat out of the car faster, to the point that it wouldn't start.

Your theory is absolutely correct I, perhaps a "purist" when it comes to technical definitions, just take issue (nothing personal) to calling it wind chill

When wind chill is reported - it's based off of us meat humanoids being in direct contact with said wind.... Unless your engine etc. is completely exposed - it will not have the same cooling effect magnitude.

I can't remember the quote exactly, but I agree... Confucius said something like 'Until we can define our words, we can not resolve our problems.' I'm botching the quote (I think the term "evil" appeared in there somewhere), but that's the general idea. Semantics, to me, is a big deal - the difference between hurt and kill is significant - even when someone calls semantics

[diesel_john]

Frank: I was wondering when someone was going to pick up on that. Only people (OK, and the wee animals etc.) feel "wind chill". Machines can only get as cold as the ambient temp, regardless of the icy breezes whistling past

i figured you meant that. But its real hard to warm up a little engine driving around in freezing temperatures. Esp . if your only burnin 1gph. Half goes out the exhaust, 1/4 goes to the wheels, 1/4 goes thur the heater to heat the cab. and that leaves nothing to keep the transmission and rad warm.

i have used JD HyGuard in my trans now for a year. (hydraulic oil)

i got a pair of kitchen drawer guides, going to make my variable blocker a sliding door.

[PaleMelanesian]

I can think of one case where equipment CAN get below ambient temperature. That is when it is wet. The cooling effect of evaporation can chill it below ambient.