Retro fitting newish OEM grill shutters to older vehicls

[oil pan 4]

Exploded view of Chevy Cruze "shutter" grille [w/video]

So simple, never thought I would see such a thing coming from an OEM these days.
Looks easy enough to build up a stack of these as needed for use in an existing vehicle.
Could it be too good to be true?

[gone-ot]

...an aftermarket "add-on" just waiting to be exploited!

...I'd be interested if it also included some way of coordinating (OBDII connector?) it's operation with the existing ECU in the car.

[oil pan 4]

I went to autozone to see if they could get gill shutters for a chevy cruze and an 08 silverado XFE and didn't have any luck.
Looks like its an ebay, dealer or junk yard part.
Local junk yard doesn't have anything that new that is pickable (all the good stuff is not for sale).

[Flakbadger]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Local junk yard doesn't have anything that new that is pickable (all the good stuff is not for sale).

And the crappy part is even if it was pickable, it'd probably be front-end collision damage anyway

Here in a few years you'll find plenty of these cars getting older and there will be some being parted out.

You might get lucky and find one on Craigslist that was destroyed in a flood or something too, and tear some of that apart. Anyway, good luck!

[oil pan 4]

Another grill shutter idea:
http://www.broilmaster.com/assets/BR...r%20Manual.pdf

Yes its a broilmaster as in cooking grill you cook with. But its full stainless steel construction, measures 15"x30'' and is about a half inch thick when closed but expands to about 2 inchs when open.
Best of all its only about $100.

[ProDarwin]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...an aftermarket "add-on" just waiting to be exploited!

...I'd be interested if it also included some way of coordinating (OBDII connector?) it's operation with the existing ECU in the car.

The easy button here would just be to trigger them off the engine fan. When fan comes on, shutters open. Fan goes off, they close.

[cfg83]

oil pan 4 -

My problem with these is making them fit in your grill. Other people have used home-made cable-actuated sliding systems the are two flat sheets with holes. Slide one way, all holes intersect and your get airflow. Slide it the other way and the grill is closed or slides to a position that lines up fewer holes.

CarloSW2

[oil pan 4]

The only problem I see with the Broilmaster is it might not be big enough.

I absolutly considered sliding plates with holes but figured during the summer they might restrict air flow too much when open.
The slider grill blocks would have to be removeable for summer time use.
I may use sliders to fill the gap between the broilmaster and what it doesn't cover.
The other good thing about these shutters is they close up real tight, would be good for winter time when its 0'F here and my truck doesn't even warm up with a 50% grill block.

Originally Posted by ProDarwin

The easy button here would just be to trigger them off the engine fan. When fan comes on, shutters open. Fan goes off, they close.

From what I have seen with the heavy duty stuff you don't really want to have an all or nothing cooling system. You want to ramp the air flow through the cooling system gradually. Such as having shutters that open at 180-190'F and fans that start to kick on at 200'F.
http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/in...?topic=13847.0
It will have a manual switch bypass and fully manual opener, because thats how I roll.

I am in the process of installing an compressed air system too.

[orangustang]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

The only problem I see with the Broilmaster is it might not be big enough.

I absolutly considered sliding plates with holes but figured during the summer they might restrict air flow too much when open.
The slider grill blocks would have to be removeable for summer time use.
I may use sliders to fill the gap between the broilmaster and what it doesn't cover.
The other good thing about these shutters is they close up real tight, would be good for winter time when its 0'F here and my truck doesn't even warm up with a 50% grill block.




From what I have seen with the heavy duty stuff you don't really want to have an all or nothing cooling system. You want to ramp the air flow through the cooling system gradually. Such as having shutters that open at 180-190'F and fans that start to kick on at 200'F.
shutterstat question
It will have a manual switch bypass and fully manual opener, because thats how I roll.

I am in the process of installing an compressed air system too.

A fix for this could be to use a secondary adjustable thermostatic fan controller such as this one: Flex-a-lite 31147 - Flex-a-lite Adjustable Electric Fan Controllers - Overview - SummitRacing.com

Simple enough.

[oil pan 4]

With out compressed air how would the shutters be moved electronicly?
Do you know of the part we need that will do the job and where we can buy it?

I had always planed to use air, never even considered using electric.