It's been darn cold here... (cai delete + grille block)

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by MadisonMPG

Depending on your health, you should try to cycle. 1 mile is super easy on a bike. I did a mile in 8 minutes, and that was taking my time. I mean, barely pedaling.

Well, I see you live in Alabama, and maybe you are still young. I live on Long Island, which is coastal NY. Right now the temps are about 20 degrees, usually with a stiff wind added, which often makes it feel closer to zero. Believe it or not, 20 degrees with humidity and wind feels a lot colder and more uncomfortable than 10 below zero with no humidity or wind. On a bike in winter? No way. Besides, there's usually ice or snow on the ground here much of the time in winter.

I'm 'on the wrong side of 50'. I'm is very good physical shape and usually do that one mile commute in summer on my racing bike, and also in spring/fall as long as I can stand it. But I can't do it at all in winter. Wind chill is often brutal, even in walking several blocks - bicycling is virtually impossible, unless you want frostbite - virtually guaranteed when moving 15 mph, or even 5 mph. Being in pain is no fun. I appreciate the seat warmer in my car because the 10 minute commute is also cold, even in an enclosed vehicle, which barely reaches operating temp.

The funny thing about communicating with others on a worldwide list is that we tend to assume that the weather is the same everywhere else as where we are. Considering that the folks in Florida, California and Hawaii think of their environment as being always warm, the folks in the Northeast, the Great Lakes, Canada and Alaska barely get above teeth-chattering weather in winter.

[wdb]

I'm still trying to find a local source for coroplast, sad to say.

I think I will design the next grille block to be an overlapping, sliding affair so I can change the size easily. Drilling holes is more of a one-time shot, harder to go back if you make too many.

[wdb]

Grille block is on the, errr, back burner for now.

I picked up a length of heat riser tubing, wrangled it around under the hood of the Fit, and fashioned a workable WAI for the little bug. Intake air temps are in the 60's or higher now, where before they had been in the 40's. The temperature in general is about 10 degrees warmer than it was a couple of weeks ago so I don't know how much credit should go where. I'm looking forward to my next couple of tankfuls, hoping for some improvement. Because the last few have been pretty dismal.

[Frank Lee]

You can use cardboard too. Everywhere and free.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

You can use cardboard too. Everywhere and free.

As a grille block? It would last a week strapped to the front of my car, less if there were any sort of precipitation. If I had easier access to the front of the radiator I may be able to do something, but alas Honda sealed that up pretty well -- top and bottom -- with the bumper cover.

As a WAI? Under the hood I would have too much concern for flammability to use cardboard. And I've never seen flexible cardboard tubing, or any other cardboard structure for that matter, that would allow me to extend the air intake so that it pulls air from behind the motor (where the exhaust header is).

Maybe that's not what you meant though...

[Frank Lee]

Try it and see how long it does last, you might be surprised. In the meantime you get to run it, evaluate it, size it, whatever so that when that coroplast finally does land in your lap you know exactly what to do with it. Or, you may find a roll of tape or something to weatherproof your cardboard version with.

[wdb]

The WAI seems to be having an effect. I've only run one partial tank, but the numbers so far are very encouraging. I'm seeing IA temps 20 to 40 degrees above ambient on a routine basis, and higher on occasion. The MPGs are responding accordingly.

[wdb]

A bit of an update, specifically on the WAI mod. Looking at average MPG's for ~2K miles before, and ~2K miles after, making the mod, shows a definite uptick in MPG after. About 1MPG. At $2.799/gallon the mod has paid for itself already.