ptjones

I hope to ship your covers tomorrow. Thanks Your welcome Paul

We shipped our first set today, hopefully two tomorrow and more soon. Very soon we will start getting independent results, can't wait. I have 5k on my grill covers and there doing fine,Lexan is a very durable plastic I understand the head light covers are made of it. If anything happens to the grill covers the car is going to fair badly. IMO this is a hardware problem the car aren't getting to 202deg.F the minimum operating temp for ICE. As I have said before the shutters don't start to open until 180deg.F. Our cars are never getting that hot when it's below 60deg.F outside temp. Software just can't fix a machnical problem, But Grill Covers can.

I would like to know what temp the top mark is and what temp it has to reach before the gauge starts to move off center. I will keep on testing. Shipped first grill cover set to Plus 3 Golfer and he should have them Wednesday. Should have some results soon. Hoping to ship two more tomorrow. Paul

Your problem is the engine never warms up so it is wasting gas to heat the engine. Check out the 3mpg gain thread in Fuel Mileage forum. You have got to close off the grill openings to allow the engine to get to opperating temp (202-212deg.F). Look at your coolant temp gauge, It needs to read in the middle before your MPG's are going to get better. MPG Grill Cover prices are going up soon. They're $50 now but only a few sets left at that price. Each cover set is custom made so I'm losing money at $50ea so the price is going up to $100per set plus S&H We are using PayPal for payment. My email: paul@star-instruments.com Any questions email me. Thanks

I compared my ScanGauge WT numbers to the CMax water temperature gauge. It turns out that the bottom line on the CMax WT gauge represents 140 degrees F. The middle line represents 178 - 211 degrees F (211 was the highest I could get the ScanGauge to go to at 80mph on the highway! and ruined the c**p out of my mileage!). I do find it odd that the gauge did not move for 31 degrees. The outside temperature was 54 degrees F, Wednesday we are to reach 63 and will try again. Keep in mind that I have both grill covers installed. I mentioned earlier about the Hotline Assistance Request and here it is: To emphasize "The thermostat is fully open at 202 degrees, so normally the engine should be approximately 202-212 degrees (again depending on the conditions present and if the engine is operating at that time.)" A 50/50 mixture of water/coolant at 21 psi boils at approx 285 degrees F. Note: The coolant reservoir cap has 21 psi stamped on the top.

I have a couple of Grill Cover sets left at $50 then the price goes up to $100. you can email me at paul@star-instruments.com The oil pan heater is also my idea and I'm going to install a Wolverine Model 9 on my car, there avalible on amazon for $56. I tried a bigger one but it didn't fit the oil pan, It was to big and made the ICE run hotter at Hwy speeds. I need to figure out the right display mode to show everything so I can monitor WT. Maybe today I will have some temp info. We are starting to ship covers today.

Or you could buy a Grill Cover set and gain 3-4mpg and be getting 47mpg alot of the time. :)

click on new content on right side close to the top or just call me 770-683-9177

You need to read the 3mpg gain thread, your problem is the ICE is never getting up to temp. My grill covers speeds up ICE heating up plus reduce aero drag at 70mph. There only $50 now but will be going up soon.

MikeB I'm assuming that you got your Energi if you had I would like to see it. Paul

Just checked Fuelly and Prius and PriusV have the same up and down fuel economy problem with summer and winter. I read a couple of post with graphs showing power train loses with temperature. Interesting.

In your situation at 40mph there wouldn't be much aerodynamic improvement but there would be ICE improvement. Most people would think three pieces of plastic dirt cheap for $50. The material cost is over $25.

Like I said I can send you the Proto set. You need to aerodynamicly block off both grills and the difference is very obvious. This is not a small improvement.

MPG Grill Cover prices are going up soon. They're $50 now but only a few sets left at that price. Each cover set is custom made so I'm losing money at $50ea so the price is going up to $100per set plus S&H We are using PayPal for payment. My email: paul@star-instruments.com Any questions email me. Thanks

C-MaxJaxon did you install the foam pieces yet? Everyone that did, improved there mileage 4-6mpg. Given what you are saying there should be some people getting no improvement and we aren't seeing that. I did use a scientific approach and averaged my many test and my graphs show it. I'm so confident with my results I will ship you a prototype cover set and you can send them back.

Having worked on airplanes I can tell you the license plate holder doesn't improve aerodynamics and mounting it on the cover does. I agree it would be hard to say how much. I'm looking forward to you answering the rest of my post.

Did you test it? One of the other members though it did. I thought you would be curious on how much range you would gain from grill covers on your Energi.

And here is the Positive spin on it. If you look at my graph the average improvement is 4mpg and add in 1mpg for license plate holder for a total of 5mpg. So you will always have a center cover on, Summer time you would have one with cut out which should be good for 2mpg. In reality the only reason for changing the covers at all is for the AC to work efficiently and if your speed is above 62mph all the time. If you are only using the ICE half the time it shouldn't get that hot. With those numbers you could pay for the covers in one winter or 6-10 fillups. BTW there is something plain wrong driving an CMAX getting 31-35mpg during the winter and people ask what kind of MPG's are you getting. At least with the grill covers your getting 36-40mpg and people are still impress compared to what their getting. BTW everyone that has seen the Grill Covers thought they looked good. Ford dealers,salesmen,service people and customers. Nice to do some to your car that improves MPG's and makes it look better. You people are way over emphasizing over heating. Having a ScanGauge changes the picture on over heating. The problem is just getting up to 200-220degrees to where the ICE works the most efficiently. Hopefully one of these days when it gets warmer We will be able to figure out what the range is on the CMAX temp gauge . It would be good to know the temps for low and high marks. I looked up on google the boiling point of 50/50 water coolant mixture at 21psi, 21psi is on the top of radiator cap, is 285degF. So in theory as long as the coolant doesn't boil your OK. I would imagine there might be other problems prior to reaching 285degF. ScanGauge is a good info tool, you can see issues before they become problems.

You should add to your list Wolverine Model 9 oil pan heater. Also the grill covers improve gas mileage more than anything else. You get about same MPG from Premium as No Ethanol and alot cheaper. Not sure worth the cost. Drafting isn't for everyone but it's whorth 3-4mpg at 70mph more if you have head wind.

I had the problem once but it was my falt for not turning it off. Put it on the charger and 10min it was running. No problems.

I estimate that my grill covers block 90% of the air to radiator, but there is still air circulating around the ICE cooling it. The Shutters don't work as well as intended. With my covers I only had one time the temp reached 233deg. at 62deg. outside temp going uphill for a long time at 70mph. I have a ScanGuage to monitor WT,it thats the quess work out. I'm going to sell a few more of the covers at $50 then I'm raising the price to $100 a set. There is to much time involved custom making each one of this covers. Not enough volume to pay for tooling to keep the price down.

Well I did it. I taped little video camera on center grill, I had to get a USB extension cord to connect it to the Laptop. Here are the results. Shutters start opening at 190degreesF and gradually open in steps to fully open at 213deg.F. This confirms my idea that at 70mph most of MPG gain is aerodynamic not thermal because shutters are wide open. On my my trip to Phoenix and back my WT was 213-216degF 95% of the time. That is when shutters are fully open and there wouldn't be any aero advantage if the covers weren't there.My pics are in my gallery and it's hard to make out the shutters on the Laptop screen.