New front air dam - Page 2 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

puddleglum · 01-09-2010, 12:03 AM

Thanks for your encouragement. My goal is to find a way to do mods that help mileage and look good as well. Now I just need to determine if it's really helping mileage. I did the garage entry but is there anyway to enter mileage in metric? Oh, yes that is a block heater plug. They are standard equip. here. Everybody has them.

thatguitarguy · 01-09-2010, 01:11 AM

Very nice work! That siding starter strip is a great idea and the cove molding looks like it belongs!

I know you're in a cold area, but I'm curious if the little peephole you left open is enough for when the weather gets warmer?

puddleglum · 01-09-2010, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thatguitarguy

Very nice work! That siding starter strip is a great idea and the cove molding looks like it belongs!

I know you're in a cold area, but I'm curious if the little peephole you left open is enough for when the weather gets warmer?

No it's not. That will only do for around town when it's cold. The center pieces slide in behind the outer ones so it can be opened up as needed. When opened up it was okay on the highway to 50 F last fall so if I'm in town it will be good for warmer than that.

puddleglum · 01-24-2010, 01:21 AM

I wanted to post an update on my airdam. I made the same trip last friday as I did before. I've been thinking that I may have made it too long since it was an inch below the rest of the underbelly and initial results were not stellar. Anyway, I decided to pull it back off except for the tin brackets. This left me with around a 2" air dam. the temp was warmer (steady at around 20F) and almost no wind for either trip. My trip up mileage was a little worse, a little over 28 mpg but there was freezing drizzle and fog in the morning this time which may have had some effect on results. On the trip back, though, I got 31.3 mpg. I've decided that I need to take an inch off the rubber when I put it back on and I think it will work better. I'm also not entirerly happy with using the tin for support brackets. I hit some ice in a parking lot and bent the center bracket already. The rubber folds under and comes back nicely though

puddleglum · 02-09-2010, 01:25 AM

Well the test results are in. I decided to do an A-B test before I reinstalled my modified air dam. I replaced the tin center section with plastic (old siding) and I shortened the center of the rubber to 2.25" and tapered it down to 3" on the ends.
got some black screws to install the rubber this time and it looks even better than before. Sadly though, It is a failure. I made three two way runs without the air dam. Weather was not ideal but result was consistant. At start of test, temp 14F, S wind 9.4mph, Baro. 100.0kpa and runs were east and west at 70mph. Avg for two way runs was .83 liter and 27.04mpg. Installing the air dam took a little longer than I thought so I only had time for one two way run with it on and I had to turn the lights on. Wind had changed to SSE 11.2mph and baro. 102.4kpa with fog. With the air dam, I used .83 liter and got 26.88mph. Very discouraging, just a waste of ime and money

I don't know if it is redundant because of the partial belly pan that I had already or if it didn't help because it doesn't fully clear the tire. Any thoughts?

Christ · 02-09-2010, 01:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by puddleglum

Well the test results are in. I decided to do an A-B test before I reinstalled my modified air dam. I replaced the tin center section with plastic (old siding) and I shortened the center of the rubber to 2.25" and tapered it down to 3" on the ends.
got some black screws to install the rubber this time and it looks even better than before. Sadly though, It is a failure. I made three two way runs without the air dam. Weather was not ideal but result was consistant. At start of test, temp 14F, S wind 9.4mph, Baro. 100.0kpa and runs were east and west at 70mph. Avg for two way runs was .83 liter and 27.04mpg. Installing the air dam took a little longer than I thought so I only had time for one two way run with it on and I had to turn the lights on. Wind had changed to SSE 11.2mph and baro. 102.4kpa with fog. With the air dam, I used .83 liter and got 26.88mph. Very discouraging, just a waste of ime and money

I don't know if it is redundant because of the partial belly pan that I had already or if it didn't help because it doesn't fully clear the tire. Any thoughts?

I think you should give it another shot when the weather breaks and clears up. I'm fairly certain your gains were lost to the minute changes in weather, temperature, and the fact that you had to run 200w of lighting.

MetroMPG · 02-09-2010, 12:44 PM

I'd be reluctant to declare this either a success or a failure without very controlled testing. The difference between the two airdam sizes will be very small regardless.

puddleglum · 02-10-2010, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I'd be reluctant to declare this either a success or a failure without very controlled testing. The difference between the two airdam sizes will be very small regardless.

I had taken the air dam off to modify it and the A test was done with no air dam. The only part of the dam that I didn't remove in the A test were the outer deflectors in front of the tires. I'm going to leave it for now, but I'll probably experiment with something different in the spring.