Lower & Upper Grille Block Ideas (Toyota Echo)

[Joenavy85]

instead of solenoids why don't you get a 6 foot choke cable? you can set up a couple pieces of small aluminum "c" channel with a piece of coroplast to slide on them, pulling on the choke cable could open the block and allow more air in, after the engine temp stabilizes you can slowly close the opening until it creeps up then leave it alone

[CigaR007]

@ Joenavy85

Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely look into it.

Originally Posted by alohaspirit

nice!

no pics yet?

Should have some pics by tomorrow, promised !

[Joenavy85]

Originally Posted by CigaR007

@ Joenavy85

Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely look into it.




Should have some pics by tomorrow, promised !

i was bored out of my mind at work yesterday (24 Hour Shift) and was inspired to come up with something like you were thinking of for my Jeep, and that's what i came up with. you'll likely need to make some sort of 90* arm since the choke cable is only 6' long.

[CigaR007]

As promised !

[alohaspirit]

looks pretty good

[CigaR007]

Originally Posted by alohaspirit

looks pretty good

Thanks ! The only drawback is that it makes it difficult to do an actual ABA testing. I would have to buy a new upper OEM-style grille and switch it.

Which reminds me, the lower grille block is in need of a makeover...

[alohaspirit]

i would think you could just remove the entire thing for ABA testing

[CigaR007]

That is indeed a possibility. Although, wouldn't it artificially "inflate" the gain from the full upper grille block ? Pretty sure an opening that big would create a fair amount of drag; especially at highway speeds.

[alohaspirit]

i think the open-grill is very similiar to no-grill


how much of an increase would you peg the upper grill block at?

[CigaR007]

It's hard to say really. Without an actual A-B-A testing, it remains speculative, based solely on a tank-to-tank basis. I will have a better idea once I fill my next tank. But so far, it looks promising.

Check my fuel log in the coming days. There should be a trend shaping up.

The only constant is my daily commute, which is about 60 miles, 95 % highway with an average speed of 50 mph. I average 45+ MPG in both directions every single day. The main variable would be the weather, which has been better (warmer) over the last few weeks. I had two consecutive tanks at 44 MPG and the next two are shaping up to be at 47 and 48-49 respectively.

The driving technique is always the same at key points. There is about 3 miles of Engine On Coasting in each direction for a total of about 6 miles depending on traffic density. No other specific technique, I just monitor the GPH, LOD and MPG to maintain a high efficiency.

A 1 or 2 MPG gain wouldn't be a far stretch in my opinion.