Piwoslaw's Peugeot 307sw modding thread

[jtbo]

Svietlana is really beautifully modded car, there is lot of harmony

I have Vibroblast M1 sound insulation inside of my hood + standard sound insulation, when I added M1 there I did notice that hood is staying frozen even I drive really long trip during winter, seems to be that it adds also some thermal insulation and might be perhaps good for your plans to increase insulation of engine bay?

At least it is easy to apply in summer time as it gets so soft when temperatures are around +20C.

[Piwoslaw]

Two new mini-mods:
I covered the hole between my intake and radiator. That should keep warm air out of the intake air when stopped. I have no idea why that hole was there in the first place, Arragonis mentioned having something similar in his Fabia.

The second mod is a small tab of plastic in the right half of the upper grille. The plastic funnels air from the radiator half into the intercooler half. With the IC being walled off from the rad, hopefully this mod will increase engine temp and cool intake air by a tiny amount. I doubt that either of these mini-mods will have a visible effect on FE, though.

Next week the Wife and I are driving to Slovenia for vacation. I will remove the rear wheel skirts since I have heard about how anal Austrian police are when they spot a car with Polish plates. I'll keep the Kammback though, since it is easier to remove on the roadside, and probably has a larger effect on FE.

It's getting warm, the daytime temps are above 20°C (68°F), but ever since I lost the upper grille block engine temps haven't been high yet. Is it time to remove that temporary engine insulation? Nah!

[Arragonis]

I never fitted that shelf or put any holes into the grill block and may not as Helga is due to be replaced end of June when Mrs A's Prius arrives. The way she is sipping Diesel at the moment that may not even leave enough time for a full tank to see any effect

Mrs A's Octavia (which I will probably take over) is similar behind the grill - the whole space is open behind the bumper. SuperSkoda do a block for the Octavia but I have been told a legend of an OEM block though which may be cheaper.

EDIT - PS, I like the walling off - may look at that too.

[jtbo]

We have had some heatwave here too, over +20C during day, today I did read +24C, but it did not really feel that warm at shadow at least.

Anyway my upper grille is blocked 75%, only 50% of upper grill intercooler hole is open.

Also at bottom grille 50% is blocked, that is lower part of it, no temp increase yet, so I'm thinking of adding bit more block to lower grille.

During winter I got some heat when I had everything blocked, but only at days where temp was near 0, still nothing too warm and now as I have front air dam, air will exit more freely from engine bay, so I don't need as much grille at open as I did before.

It seems to be really small amount of heat that diesel motor makes when getting over 60mpg.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by jtbo

It seems to be really small amount of heat that diesel motor makes when getting over 60mpg.

That's efficiency! Diesels are more efficient than gassers = produce less waste heat. But in both cases doing the same driving with less fuel leads to less heat being lost.

You should keep your intercooler uncovered - diesels are more efficient when the intake air is cool, gassers like warm air. My IC is covered only at start-up, once the coolant warms to 60°-70°C I open the IC's half of the grille block.

[Piwoslaw]

I had a chance to get under the car today, so I used my new IR thermometer to check how the heating pad is working. I preheated the engine for an hour before driving two houses down the street to my brother-in-law's garage. By the time I got under the car and took the engine tray off, the oil pan and heating pad registered 26.6°C, while the rest of the car was between 10°-15°C. I plugged the pad in and its temperature started to rise very fast. After about 3-5 minutes it was almost 200°C, while the oil pan was 55°-75°C, depending on how far from the pad.

I've been monitoring engine coolant temps just after start-up and it seems that the oil pan heater doesn't have much effect on those, the difference is noticeable after a few seconds when the coolant hardly cools once it starts to flow through the engine. In fact, the coolant+oil pan heaters in tandem work so well that my engine hardly notices that the glow plugs are faulty - the ECU only throws a code after a cold start. Absolutely no problems when starting the engine, only the battery's age (6 years, of which at least the last 3 had really cold winters) is starting to catch up - sometimes, after killing a warmed up engine at a red light, it turns 2-3 times before it catches on. Gotta start researching replacement options. I'd invest in a deep cycle battery only if I could turn the alternator off, otherwise I don't think it is worth the extra cost.

[Arragonis]

Does it turn over slowly, or just takes some time to catch after turning at normal speed ? If the latter I wonder if no fuel is being injected for a short time.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

In fact, the coolant+oil pan heaters in tandem work so well that my engine hardly notices that the glow plugs are faulty - the ECU only throws a code after a cold start.
Absolutely no problems when starting the engine, only the battery's age (6 years, of which at least the last 3 had really cold winters) is starting to catch up - sometimes, after killing a warmed up engine at a red light, it turns 2-3 times before it catches on.

6 years is a fairly long time for a diesel engine battery, especially if the car remains outside in a rather harsh winter climate.
Shutting down the engine more often than usual won't help either.
In warmer times, they often fail with very little warning.
Starter relais clicking and that's it.

I will most likely replace mine before next winter - it'll be 6 years old then. My previous car batteries have failed between 4 and 5 years, so I feel like it's already living on borrowed time.

[Arragonis]

Touch wood apart from my alternator going in my 205TD I have never bought a battery ever. Helga is on her original one since 2005 as far as I know, there is no record of it being replaced. It seems to be OK with me sitting and listening to the radio for 1.5+ hours whilst A jnr is off learning guitar and 3-6 months of stop-start - maybe not as aggressive as PW though.

Batteries are strange things IMHO...

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

Touch wood apart from my alternator going in my 205TD I have never bought a battery ever. Helga is on her original one since 2005 as far as I know, there is no record of it being replaced.

It's about the same age as our batteries.

It depends on how long you keep your cars, too
My 306 had 2 replacement batteries in 10 years.
Then again, it had some sort of electrical issue, probably alternator, and would blow a headlight bulb every 6 months.

The car before that, 3 batteries in 14 years.