New front air dam

[puddleglum]

I thought it was time that I stopped just reading about mods and tried experimenting with one so I built a front air dam last weekend. I'm quite happy with the look (the less important part) but I'm not sure yet if it is going to help MPG. I already mounted a partial front pan last year and redid my grillblocks in the fall. Lowest suspension parts are at 6" and bottom of dam is 5.5". Eventually I would like to do a full pan and widen the front bumper to clear the tires but that is not an outside project at -20c. Anyway, I had a 200mile highway run yesterday that I make occasionally and mileage was only 8L/100km avg. at 65-70mph but -20c to -12c temp may have had some effect. I avg around 7.6-7.8 in the summer if the winds not blowing hard. I need to do some sort of A B A test when it warms up to be sure I guess. It may be too low or maybe I should have left the middle open. It may be creating more turbulance at the front tires since it doesn't clear them even though I tried to deflect it out at the end. I would appreciate your feedback. I was going to post pictures but apparently the file sizes are too big.

[cfg83]

puddleglum -

The album feature will upload any size JPEG. Go as follows :

User CP -> Pictures & Albums -> Add Album

Create an album and add a picture to it. The album will automatically downsize the image to fit. Then click on the picture and you will have a "BB Code" text of the image that you can copy into your post.

CarloSW2

[luvit]

i'm so confused. you talk mpg, mph, & 200 miles. but you posted 8L/100km.
so i did some research.

you got 29.40 mpg
according to this site: http://www.pege.org/fuel/convert.htm

[puddleglum]

Carlo, thank you for the help, I'll try this again. Luvit, sorry about being confusing. I was trying to use US terminology, but I do everything in metric and I didn't take the time to work out the conversion.

Here is my second gen. grill block with adjustable lower baffle and the pan before adding the air dam.




This is the filler pieces I built to tie into the small factory air dam and a piece of vinyl siding starter strip and some rubber cove molding that made the air dam.


Here is some assembly and the finished product.








Sorry that some of the pictures are dark but please tell me what you think. I

[luvit]

grill blocks look great!
by the way, how cold has it been for you this week?

[puddleglum]

lows have been around -5 to -15F with windchills -15 to -25F. Highs around 0 to 10F. Not as bad as a few weeks ago, hit -40. It's supposed to warm up this weekend though.

[cfg83]

puddleglum -

Excellent execution! I like your choices of materials. We usually see garden edging for this kind of stuff.

I see you have a block heater "ceegar" (plug), so to speak, ha ha. ... Or maybe a battery trickle charger plug?!?!?

CarloSW2

[Jethro]

That is one of the cleanest set of mods I've seen. Looks totally stock!

BTW, What kinda vehicle is that? I can't place it.

[MetroMPG]

Clean looking work.

It'd be great if you make a garage entry for the car. Then we'd all be able to figure out what it is.

[Christ]

Love the grille block. It almost looks like a factory option!