Lower Grill block that can open and close

[dmac257]

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

If you design it right, the fan should not have to come on at all (it might in stop and go traffic).

Are you saying that the electric fan for a car/truck shouldn't be on if the car is moving?

I think mine is on all the time. I know it starts up as soon as the vehicle is on even if it is cold out. Maybe it turns off after I start moving but I cant tell from all the other noise once the thing starts moving. Maybe I will put a short wire from the connector out front of grill to top of hood with a little light to see if it goes on and off? Is it controlled from a thermostat (might be broken)?

Don

[Weather Spotter]

Originally Posted by dmac257

Are you saying that the electric fan for a car/truck shouldn't be on if the car is moving?

I think mine is on all the time. I know it starts up as soon as the vehicle is on even if it is cold out. Maybe it turns off after I start moving but I cant tell from all the other noise once the thing starts moving. Maybe I will put a short wire from the connector out front of grill to top of hood with a little light to see if it goes on and off? Is it controlled from a thermostat (might be broken)?

Don

The point of having it be electric is that it can only be on as long as it is needed. When the car is cold there is no need for the fan- it is hurting your warm up time. I would see about putting a LED on the dash to tell you when it is on. If it is on all the time something is wrong. A manual switch might by your fix (if you can read the water temp with a Scangauge or similar). Most cars have the fan come on at about 205-210F.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by dmac257

Are you saying that the electric fan for a car/truck shouldn't be on if the car is moving?

I think mine is on all the time. I know it starts up as soon as the vehicle is on even if it is cold out. Maybe it turns off after I start moving but I cant tell from all the other noise once the thing starts moving. Maybe I will put a short wire from the connector out front of grill to top of hood with a little light to see if it goes on and off? Is it controlled from a thermostat (might be broken)?

If your fan is relay-actuated, then an LED will work. If it is electronically controlled, then there is almost always a small, residual voltage that will keep the LED on all the time, even when the current is too small to move the fan. The latter is the case with my car - I put an LED on the fan supply wire and it turned out to be an engine-on light. Maybe it would work if I put that through a relay which closes only when there is enough current to start the fan?

[Weather Spotter]

I took the aerotrix into town today for ATV parts. The grill block worked just like it should!

Ambient temps: 83F.
intake temps: 85-89, most of the time is was at 87F.
Water temps were a little high at 197F when I opened the grill block, from there they varied from 190-200. On hot days like today normal no lower grill block is 186-190. This just tells me that I need to open the block once the thermostat starts opening at 180F.

[ShadeTreeMech]

There's no reason to worry about the temps even if they climb up to the 200-210 range. The boiling point of water is 212 and you have a water antifreeze mix that won't boil til north of 250.

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread yet, but it would be possible to have an automatic grill opening actuated by the fan. Wire a door lock actuator so it is given a signal to open a certain amount, with a limit switch to open the circuit when the actuator moves to a certain point. Have another limit switch for the closed limt. Then you can wire it so it is given power to open by the fan turning on. I'm not sure how to wire it for when the fan is turned off though, unless a solenoid is used to open the closing curcuit when the fan is activated.

Is there a 2 position relay that is spring loaded that'll close a curcuit when activated then close another circuit when deactivated?

[Weather Spotter]

Originally Posted by ShadeTreeMech

Is there a 2 position relay that is spring loaded that'll close a curcuit when activated then close another circuit when deactivated?

I have heard of these, but at this point I am not wanting to make it automated.

Water temps are not a big deal, just a note from what they have been in the past.

[Weather Spotter]

Update:

This week have have driven a lot of miles (about 400) and the grill block has worked great!

From my testing I see a .5-.8 MPG gain with the grates closed. I measure this by closing the grates and watching my instant MPG change. After about 30 of these tests that is the range I see.

Warm up time is also nicely helped. I am now up to temp in 2.5-3 miles. This is about 1 mile faster than with just the upper grill blocked.


I need to mod it though so that I can open only one grate if desired. This morning it was 45F out and I only needed the grill open for 50% of the time (2 miles open 2 miles closed).

Any ideas other than wiring up a second 6 pin switch ?

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by ShadeTreeMech

There's no reason to worry about the temps even if they climb up to the 200-210 range. The boiling point of water is 212 and you have a water antifreeze mix that won't boil til north of 250.....

I worked at a facility that had the pleasure of testing anti-freeze on a regular basis.

You really don't want to make it habit of getting the temperature much above boiling to start affecting the chemical makeup of the fluid. It definitely is affected by excess heat such as temperatures up to 250°F or so.

Jim.

[Phantom]

Weather you are using two actuators correct? Also do you have the wires ran like on the first page?

If so then it looks like you have A wire running from the switch to a point where you split the wire to both actuators. Run a separate wire for one of the actuators to a switch to break its circuit.

Here is pic to show what I'm saying I would explain better but have to leave for class now.

[gone-ot]

...is that a momentary, dual-pole, 3-way (ON-OFF-ON) switch?

...I don't believe it's a good idea to leave the solenoid(s) energized all the time once they've transistioned...that could burn them out.