Killing off some frontal area?
 

Does anyone think doing any of these mods would help with the areodynamics or resistance?

I will be removing my front bugdeflector soon as well, its been on there for 3.8 years and I'm not sure If I'll like what i see under there ;)

I'm not good with editing photos, but does this give anyone an idea of what I'm thinking about doing?

Orignal
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...l/P1020484.jpg

After
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...1020484eco.jpg


thoughts?

heres a strait on shot, but its when the grill surround was chrome
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...20453smllr.jpg

a friend of mine modded it, but I'm thinking I mite be able to get away with sealing up the bottom valance alltogether.. Thoughts? :confused:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i.../jhnfsduhf.jpg

These are mods that aren't out of my hands,
I fiddle around with plastic, metal and fiberglass.

any ideas?
thanks

I don't think there's any need to remove/cover the fog lamps.

You'll probably get more results from removing the bug-deflector compared to filling some of the radiator inlet.

turnsignals.. :thumbup: relocated into the corner lights.. :D

But yeah, I can definatly see what your saying..

Just want to clarify something. By doing this, your not reducing frontal area. In the picture below everything that is inside the green outline is what your frontal area is. So, if you take off your mirrors you have reduced frontal area. Or, if you chopped a few inches off the top of your cab you reduce frontal area.

What you are doing is taking the area you have, and making it more aerodynamic. This is what most of us focus on since reducing frontal area requires major body work and is usually impractical. IMO you could definitly close up the little slots between the headlights without even thinking about it. However, this is not going to get you far either. They aren't that big, so the improvment is going to be small. I would agree with Peakster about the fog lights, they're already flush with the bumper so you won't see much of a gain there. What you really could see a gain from is blocking the large grill up front, and the slot below the grill. Now, you'll definitly need to a keep an eye on the coolant temps and radiator fan useage, but I bet you could block off a LOT of area before you start seeing the fan kicking in a lot more often. Your truck was designed to have enough cooling capacity while towing/hauling, and normal driving needs a fraction of that capacity. Power is somewhat proportional to heat generation, so if your not using that power for towing you can get away with a much smaller open grill and thus better aero.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1...53smllrjv3.jpg

This stuff is all new to me..
Glad ya set me straight on this tho.. Thanks a bunch!
I'll be fabricating some wheel well skirts for the rear soon..

If I can pull 30mpg in this thing, I'd be impressed.. ;)

I'm with Daox: I'd go for grille blocking - probably before doing the rear skirts, if I were prioritizing.

The bug shield removal is in the class of deletes that will help a little bit, but not likely enough to easily notice.

Chris D. nice looking truck. I did a double take when I saw it. IMHO, the license plate is forcing a little air under the truck. Not the best. It would do better blocking some of the upper part of the upper grill. I know, it looks like pooy. but i like to block starting at the top because air you block up there can go over the top. The bottom opening looks pretty well engineered and probably cools the power steering and oil. The quotation marks could go because once you deflect the air you want to get rid of it not try to change it again and put it into a little hole. Air dams work good down to the lowest part underneath. i am a firm believer in a splitter on the bottom of the dam. see ugly pic (the snow is telling me the edge on that hood is too sharp)

Yup, I'm with diesel_john in that it's best to block the grill to whatever extent possible, and leave the lower opening to let air in. For exactly the reasons he mentioned.

Unfortunately the truck's front end is shaped a lot like a battering ram, as is my car's original front. Even so, whatever air you keep out of the grill will go off to the sides or over the hood, which is far better than having it bang around inside the engine compartment.

Good going and good luck!

When your doing a grille block, wouldn't you wanna do it from the outside of the grille? on the inside, wouldn't it create an air pocket of drag where the "pocket" is from the block to the front of the grille? creating a drag problem because the air can't get out from the pocket?

Yes, ideally we don't want to trap or speed up the air. we want to guide it around the top and sides as smoothly as possible without accelerating it much. And if we have to displace it, we only want to hit it once and be shed of it. but We need air thur the radiator, so the trick is getting the most out the air that we duct thur, rather than using a huge amount of air inefficiently. So we try to use the air that has to be displaced the most anyway. And the air in the center under that bumper looks like good air to put thur the rad. Also we want the air to exit in a low pressure area. Which hopefully we can create under the truck with a dam. The mfg's try to design these grills so they slick over(stall) at higher speeds and bypass the air. Maybe someone could design a rad. that is long and narrow for min CdA. Like the skin of the car. ouch

Yup. I think the ideal would be an opening smack in the center of the front panel. I think the opening should be narrow at the top and wider at the base. That is to allow lots of air at top of panel to skip over the hood.

I did mine with a diagonal slash because it's a Volvo so I wanted to mimic the Volvo radiator grill slash logo thing. I'm planning to build a new panel in spring with a larger opening for summer use, it might have an opening that's a semi-circle with curved top and flat part at base. I'll have to deal with the structural issues of a big hole in panel though. Rear stiffeners, laminated up to build strength alongside the cutout.

Okay, because most of the times when I see grille block threads, they remove the grille and block the inside of the grille, which I see as an inefficient grille block. My lower duct tape grille block and upper side grille blocks are coming off now, and so I'm hoping to make my foam board grille blocks soon so they will last longer. Sure, it's not coroplast, but it's definitely more water resistant than duct tape. How should I attach the foam board... hmm. any idea's?

Foam board doesn't last long either. Thats what I used on my Matrix. Its been on there roughly 1.5 months now and its looking pretty sad. Use something more rigid.

I would, but I got the foam board for free :D so I'm gonna use it now until i get some rigid blocking material. I'm gonna use the foam board because tape and water don't last as long as foam and water. Might as well use it since I got it for free. I'm not gonna use any of it for underbelly stuff tho since it is very liable to catch on fire :O. Until I get some coroplast, this is all I have to work with, right now there's a hole in my grille block, which I think someone at my school kicked in because they thought i'd be funny. Nothing more duct tape can't fix :). I want to hold it on there with something not permanent, but more resistant to water than duct tape.

Is it better to block the top openings or bottom?
My Civic has slots in the Bumper that look like they actually go to the radiator,
but between the bumper and the hood that seems to go over the engine.
At first I was going to cover the lower slots,
but the opening below the hood seems to be more of a scoop and might help more.
Which have others blocked, top? bottom?, both?

If you live up north, which you do, and it is winter, I'd just block every part of the grille that you can during the cold winter months, then remove the bottom grille block when it starts getting warmer and you notice your temp gauge rising. that way you'll get cool air to the radiator when it needs it, which is during late may, june, july and early august.

Thanks,
I've got some board and tape to start the project.
Will switch it to plastic when the weather gets better.

A grille block from behind the grille is, for all practical purposes, just as aero as one in front.

tricky part is making the air that you don't block go thur the radiator and not thur the cracks around the radiator, headlight wires, hood release cable, ac lines, bumper mounts, etc... if you just block at rad. it forces air thur the leaks in the chamber that's between the grill and rad., true it also slicks over the grill and diverts air around. Or are we talking directly on the back surface of the grill.

Aluminum tape works good over small holes, I use cable ties and plexiglass or aluminum sheet. I go the local recycler and buy aluminum by the pound out of the their junk pile. I scored a bunch of old road signs the county had scraped. One was so big I made both my side skirts out of it.

Frank Lee,
I am trying to figure out a way adjust the amount of air ducted to the rad. manually from the drivers seat?

I have lots of zip ties if that's what your talking about. How exactly would I tie it to the front of the grille tho? (I really, REALLY don't wanna take off the front bumper and grille to do this.)

Hey Diesel John, where can I see more pictures of your vdub?

I've got an idea for a scoop that you can adjust the flow to, long choke cable on a old 4" diametor wood burning stove fireplace flu plate piping extension and using HVAC stuff from home depot for the ducting.. :)

I took the bugdeflector off today and used some rubber foam to fill the hood/grill gap..
I'm still adjusting the foam-rubber stuff.. almost perfect..

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...l/P1030477.jpg

After you have the shape, i just drill a few holes around the edge of the piece your adding and fish the tie around something in the grill and zip. Locate the holes by something to tie to. I use sheet metal, roof flashing comes in rolls, house hold window plexiglass.

Chris D. that looks too good, store bought!

current vw winter configuration is post #7 this thread, flat grill with the license plate covering half of it.
you thinn' some kind of sliding plate thingy.

In the summer i need one square foot to keep water and oil cool, in the winter on a cold zero day, i can drop the temp gage enough to close the thermostat with the heater alone. I am only burning a gallon an hour, so in the winter i have to block just to heat the cab.

Yes I meant blocks on the back surface of the grilework, no leaks.

I think your driver-adjusted vent idea has merit. You could do a venetian blind sort of thing with cable control, or any number of ways to open/close I suppose. I would be tempted to rig an all-mechanical thermostatic control and let engine compartment temp decide whether to open the vent or not.

How would that work if I put a hatch cylinder behind the rad. and counter balance it with an adjustable spring, then a cable and two pulleys to some sort of a sliding door(also spring loaded) in the grill. that way it would be proportional not just open or shut. how could the opening be made aero efficient at partial opening.

Frank Lee what did you have in mind for a mechanical thermostat?

Your hatch falls on you head unless it's to hot to be outside! mine too!!! best way is to take a detailing brush or something and shove it to where the fat part of the cylinder hits it and can't move. great way to hold up the hatch on those frigid mornings.

A brass bellows and simple linkage, similar to those found on old air-cooled VDubs.