New Car, New Grillblock.
 

I sold the Accord a while ago and got a TL. I managed 36 MPG on the 350 mile drive home, which is way better than I could have done with the Accord. However, the average day to day MPG's with short drives and a cold engine most of the time isn't terribly exciting. Now that its cold, I made some grillblocks and put an OEM 400W block heater in.


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7263/8...19258749_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7261/8...0ebe3741_b.jpg

I made the grillblock out of lasercut textured 1/16" ABS, held on with some twist ties around the stock grating. A nice upgrade from the hand cut spray painted cardboard that started to fall apart on the Accord.

All 6 front grill sections are blocked and its working great. It was about 40ºF outside today, and the water temp cracked into the low 180s' sitting in a drive-through. The thermostat opens around 176, I typically see 172-174º water temps in those conditions, sometimes 176 briefly. Just cruising at 50, it was sitting at 176 or so. Looks like a full grill block is the way to go on this car. Manual transmission, so no worries about overheating the auto. It's probably going to be a month before I can make any real determinations to the effectiveness of this on FE, and this car is new to me so I don't have any winter MPG data to compare to. If I can maintain my average with the block heater and grillblock, i'd be happy.

I'll post back with any noticeable changes to FE once I gather enough data. It looks like I might be filling up about every 2 months, so it might be a while. I don't really drive enough for the cost savings to matter, but it still can be fun.

That looks awesome, great work.

Very nice and clean!