[V8] Re: cold weather killing gas mileage (AHA!!!)

[Kneale Brownson]

I remember Citroen cars with little shades that could be operated from
within the cabin to limit cold air passing over the radiator.  I once
rigged up a window shade with a cable I could pull from inside to raise it
up in front of the radiator in my first SAAB.

I used to have a big dump truck that had shutters on the grille to keep air
off the radiator until the engine warmed.   The big truck had a solenoid of
some sort that responded to a temperature sensor that let it open the
shutters gradually.

Maybe we should look into some similar arrangement? 

At 04:08 PM 5/2/2005 -0600, dsaad at icehouse.net wrote:
>In this case, you need to block off part of the radiator core with something 
>- I
>use cardboard. How much you block off depends on how cold it is, and how hard
>you will be driving. At temps well below freezing, the radiator gets to be way
>to efficient - it is designed to keep the motor within temp on a +100F day 
>so it
>is over capacity most of the time, and way over capacity in the cold winter
>months. Even with a properly functioning t-stat, if it is 10F degrees outside
>and you are just putting around town, the t-stat will probably be closed 
>most of
>the time, but when it opens up the motor will get a dose of 10F degree water.
>The t-stat is a slow moving device so it does not just snap off.
>
>Long story short is that you want to make it possible for the motor to
maintain
>the radiator temp near 97C for maximum MPG. The easiest way to do that is to
>block off some of the radiator to reduce its efficiency. It takes energy (gas)
>to heat up the radiator. It is a backwards way of looking at the cooling
system
>but that is how the system works from the motors point of view.
>
>Dave
>
>
>
>Quoting Ed Kellock <ekellock at gmail.com>:
>
>
>Quoting Ed Kellock <ekellock at gmail.com>:
>
>> I too run below optimal in the winter unless there's a good long
>> warmup and then as soon as I start pushing a lot of air through the
>> nose, it cools off again.
>> I installed my thermostat and am 99% positive that I put it in
>> correctly in regard to flow and with the little valve at the top.
>>
>> Ed
>>
>> On 5/2/05, Ingo Rautenberg <i.rautenberg at waratap.com> wrote:
>> > You guys have me thinking.  This morning I watched my temp gauge and at
>> 42°F
>> > it took (mixed city/hwy) over 20 minutes to get to operating temp.  Over
>> > twice as long as I would think.  And thermostat  was replaced less than
>> 20k
>> > ago...
>> >
>> > Ingo
>> >
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