I am not sure whether I should put it here or elsewhere? I'm thinking Modding? I'll figure it out at any rate.
Over a coffee (actually a diet coke with no ice) down at White Castle and apart from my endless *****ing that I had somehow succeeded in hitting every single red light between here and there, pulsing into a good majority of them (I was cut down to 58.3 because of that and went on for minutes about how I would never take that trip again), Hadi and I got the idea somewhere that we'd go grill block the car. I figured, what the heck, cold weather is just around the corner, there's already cold nights and it's only a matter of time before cold days, too.
Meet the world's cheapest grill block. At least it - sort of - matches the car's color scheme:
I'm going to do some testing over the next few days although I'm hamstrung by having only one Sg and needing to constantly flip back and forth between gauges. After one trip the jury's still out on the FE improvement but I'm deeply concerned about the water temperature.
See, my commute on I-275 is DWL, Fas, DWL, Fas. When I say "DWL" that means a high engine load on the steep grades around here, typically 55% engine load. Climbing the hills around here both times and I watched as the fWT gauge rose to 211 and 215 degrees Fahrenheit (first and second hills respectively). I know the boiling point of water is 212, with modern coolant somewhat higher. The car never threw a Cel or an overheat warning.
As it hit 215 on the second hill it then dropped to 207 and then 200 and 192. I guess the fan kicked in? This has me concerned because there's still some 85 degree days ahead and today was a cool night, 60 degrees or so. I just don't want the car to overheat as I climb the hills around here, is all, but having an open grill will be a killer when it gets cold.