3 MPG GAIN WITH GRILL COVERS

[ptjones]

Well the testing results are in and at 70mph I see a net gain of 3mpg at range of temps from 45-70 degrees F. This also seems to carry down to 40mph or so. The covers are not air tight(80-90%) and are easy to install. I used Velcro squares to attach Covers to Grill, it makes it easy to install and remove. The Covers are made of  strong Polycarboneate Plastic that won't shatter and can take fair amount of abuse. They are hardly noticeable unless you look hard.The plan is to remove bottom Cover when temps get into the 70's degrees hwy driving. Remove middle Cover and put New Cover with cut out for radiator opening when in 80's hwy driving. IMPORTANT NOTE: radiator fan comes on when Water Temps reach 215 degrees F and thermosat opens around 195 degrees F.  If there were enough orders for the Covers I could see a price around $50, maybe lower if in the volume was in the hundreds. I'm looking for someone to try out the Covers to see if they get the same results. Will have a picture shortly.

[bymaine]

I saw pix in your gallery of the grill covers. Do you think they would help in cold New England weather? What is your reasoning behind installing them? To limit cold air intake into the engine? Will this force warmer air from under the hood? Do you have all 3 grills covered? We are in the teens this week in Maine...Thanks

[Chinto]

With your modifications in place have you found that your radiator temperature gauge is showing a consistent increase in water temperature?  I have noticed that my gauge will barely pass the lower third of the gauge while cold out.   When it was warm outside the gauge would consistently be around the half way mark of the gauge.   Of course now that it is cold out my gas mileage has dropped to 38.    

[ptjones]

I saw pix in your gallery of the grill covers. Do you think they would help in cold New England weather? What is your reasoning behind installing them? To limit cold air intake into the engine? Will this force warmer air from under the hood? Do you have all 3 grills covered? We are in the teens this week in Maine...Thanks

The cold weather is the reason I developed the covers. You should expect about 3mpg increase and your ICE will warmup faster. I don't block off top grill but you could when it is really cold. BTW the upper grill  right side lower opening is for the ICE intake,so don't block that off. I hope to have some covers ready to ship next week. Let me know if you want a set.

 

Paul

[ptjones]

With your modifications in place have you found that your radiator temperature gauge is showing a consistent increase in water temperature?  I have noticed that my gauge will barely pass the lower third of the gauge while cold out.   When it was warm outside the gauge would consistently be around the half way mark of the gauge.   Of course now that it is cold out my gas mileage has dropped to 38.    

The covers will make a big difference in WT, it should be in 202-215deg range for the best MPG. You should gain 3mpg with covers for the same outside temp. Should have covers ready next week.

 

Paul

[bymaine]

Sounds great, thanks for the offer. The short trips are killing my mileage. There is nothing but freezing temps predicted for the next 10 days up here. I'm getting 35 mpg over the past few days due to the frigid temps. Will be very interesting to see how the grill covers increase the engine heat/mpg! Thank you very much. Brian

[Chinto]

The past few days have been in the teens (5-20 degrees) so I decided to try ptjones technique for improved gas mileage in cold weather.  I simply applied foam water pipe insulation tubes (for 1/2" pipe)  to the middle and lower grills.  (see photo)  I have obstructed 95+% of the grill opening with the foam tubes.  I used a zip tie on the two long tubes to anchor.  The shorter tubes are only pressure fitted in place so if needed I only need to pull them off for increased air flow.   I have not been driving much since the application so I have no conclusions yet on mileage improvements.   From the little bit of driving so far I have noticed that the water temp gauge will approach the half way mark on the gauge whereas before would barely approach the first bar on the gauge.  Also I think the heater works better warming the cabin.  I will be watching my mileage #'s starting today now that I will be back to my usual driving routine.   I expect that my short trip to work will not benefit much but hope that the other miles will compensate for those short trips.  

 

I would have thought that the built in radiator shutters would have performed this task more efficiently.  I am guessing that the auto shutters are set to open to soon to allow the engine to hit the optimum operating temperature when it is below 32 degrees.  Is that something that Ford can address?   :sos:

 

 

 

 

 

[ptjones]

The past few days have been in the teens (5-20 degrees) so I decided to try ptjones technique for improved gas mileage in cold weather.  I simply applied foam water pipe insulation tubes (for 1/2" pipe)  to the middle and lower grills.  (see photo)  I have obstructed 95+% of the grill opening with the foam tubes.  I used a zip tie on the two long tubes to anchor.  The shorter tubes are only pressure fitted in place so if needed I only need to pull them off for increased air flow.   I have not been driving much since the application so I have no conclusions yet on mileage improvements.   From the little bit of driving so far I have noticed that the water temp gauge will approach the half way mark on the gauge whereas before would barely approach the first bar on the gauge.  Also I think the heater works better warming the cabin.  I will be watching my mileage #'s starting today now that I will be back to my usual driving routine.   I expect that my short trip to work will not benefit much but hope that the other miles will compensate for those short trips.  

 

I would have thought that the built in radiator shutters would have performed this task more efficiently.  I am guessing that the auto shutters are set to open to soon to allow the engine to hit the optimum operating temperature when it is below 32 degrees.  Is that something that Ford can address?   :sos:

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have to have a front lisense plate? I can see 1mpg lose there. I think  it defenatelywill help WT but I'm not sure it helps aerodynamics much. Lumpy surfaces create drag, smooth surfaces reduce drag like on aircraft.

[C-MaxJaxon]

Front plates are required in many states, but I see cars occasionally without them. Some people decide it's worth the risk of a small citation once in a long while.

[Chinto]

Do you have to have a front lisense plate? I can see 1mpg lose there. I think  it defenatelywill help WT but I'm not sure it helps aerodynamics much. Lumpy surfaces create drag, smooth surfaces reduce drag like on aircraft.

 

Yes Illinois requires a front license plate.  So you think that the material application + license plate will cancel 2/3's of the potential mileage gain?    At best then you are thinking I will only gain 1 mpg with this setup?  

[ptjones]

Yes Illinois requires a front license plate.  So you think that the material application + license plate will cancel 2/3's of the potential mileage gain?    At best then you are thinking I will only gain 1 mpg with this setup?  

They don't require it in GA. I have a solution, mount license plate on the inside of my cover. What do you think? Worse case it could be mounted on outside.

[ptjones]

I just completed a 43.6mi trip temps from 39-45deg.F,very hilly, 55mph, slight tail wind and 300ft drop in elevation and I got 53.6mpg, 28mi EV (64%) 3.9mi regen, .8gal and brake s. 99%. BTW that was with grill covers on and WT temps 195-205deg.

At 70deg. I should be getting 60mpg. Pretty good don't you think!

[bymaine]

Maine requires front plates as well. We are looking at single digit temps tonight and tomorrow up here. Will try and get to the hardware store for some insulation to trial some temporary grill covers. Today, I averaged only 35 mpg with temps in the low 20s. The water temp gauge never goes above the first bar, like chinto reports. I think Illinois and Maine are in the same cold wave. Thanks for the pix Chinto. 

 

Great numbers from Ptjones! How would you compare your water temps to the gauge on the display screen...do you think 195-205 is equivalent to half way up the  gauge? My SE doesn't have any numbers for the water temp  - just a low and high mark. Thanks for the info. Hopefully some cold weather blockage will help my numbers!  

[bymaine]

Test results from Maine - 1 degree last night. Used (3) foam pipe insulators and wedged them into the lower and middle grills. I tried to attach pix. Huge improvement in mileage compared to the 35.6 I was getting all day ( even in warmer daytime weather!) 

 

My trial trip was 20.1 miles - I averaged 41.4 mpg! (10.8 EV, 0.8 regen, used 0.4 gals) Most of the trip was under 45mph. 

 

I set up "my view" to include the power screen and eng temp. The water temp is definitely running warmer and warming quicker - Staying warmer for a longer period of time. During the first 10 mins of the trip, the temp would drop below the lower line every time I went into EV mode and cause the ICE to start. As the trip progressed, the engine rarely kicked on due to temp. As others have noticed, the mileage increases as the trip goes on. 

 

I want to remove the foam and repeat the identical route today with the same frigid temp conditions. I am very curious to see the difference.

 

Thank you Paul and Chinto for the pix and posts.

 

Paul, do you think your plexiglass covers can be modified to accommodate a front license plate?

More later. Brian

Edited January 3, 2013 by bymaine

[bymaine]

Don't we have cool lobster plates in Maine?

Edited January 3, 2013 by bymaine

[ptjones]

Test results from Maine - 1 degree last night. Used (3) foam pipe insulators and wedged them into the lower and middle grills. I tried to attach pix. Huge improvement in mileage compared to the 35.6 I was getting all day ( even in warmer daytime weather!) 

 

My trial trip was 20.1 miles - I averaged 41.4 mpg! (10.8 EV, 0.8 regen, used 0.4 gals) Most of the trip was under 45mph. 

 

I set up "my view" to include the power screen and eng temp. The water temp is definitely running warmer and warming quicker - Staying warmer for a longer period of time. During the first 10 mins of the trip, the temp would drop below the lower line every time I went into EV mode and cause the ICE to start. As the trip progressed, the engine rarely kicked on due to temp. As others have noticed, the mileage increases as the trip goes on. 

 

I want to remove the foam and repeat the identical route today with the same frigid temp conditions. I am very curious to see the difference.

 

Thank you Paul and Chinto for the pix and posts.

 

Paul, do you think your plexiglass covers can be modified to accommodate a front license plate?

 

More later. Brian

I think they can be mounted on the cover, maybe inside but outside for sure.

 

I picked up the Polycarbonate Plastic (Lexan) yesterday and should have finished sets ready to ship tomorrow. I will see if I can get a picture of complete set posted.

[plus 3 golfer]

I think they can be mounted on the cover, maybe inside but outside for sure.

 

I picked up the Polycarbonate Plastic (Lexan) yesterday and should have finished sets ready to ship tomorrow. I will see if I can get a picture of complete set posted.

Paul, I tried to PM you yesterday and looks like I need 50 posts before given permission to use (afraid of SPAM).  How are you handling the sales of the covers? If you are doing it by PMs, maybe if you send me a PM, I can respond.  Otherwise, I'll just have to "spam" about 35 more posts today. :)

 

Thanks, Ken

[ptjones]

Paul, I tried to PM you yesterday and looks like I need 50 posts before given permission to use (afraid of SPAM).  How are you handling the sales of the covers? If you are doing it by PMs, maybe if you send me a PM, I can respond.  Otherwise, I'll just have to "spam" about 35 more posts today. :)

 

Thanks, Ken

Did you get my PM? If not I will post my #here.

[plus 3 golfer]

Did you get my PM? If not I will post my #here.

Got it but can't reply until 50 posts.  I'll contact you later - going out to lunch.

[bymaine]

Paul, you will like this...

 

I installed temporary foam grill covers last night and went for a 20 mile test run in 1 degree weather. Got 41.4 mpg.

Removed the foam this morning, and repeated the identical course, and only got  35.7 mpg without the covers in place! The temp was 1 degree again. Big mileage gain with the 'covers' - and they match the sterling grey CMax color!

 

Both tests were done with a cold car, sitting outside for hours prior to the test. It was very noticeable how cold the cabin was, and how much the ICE had to run without the covers in place. I was watching "my view" and had power and coolant temp on the screen. Every time the temp hit the lower hash mark, the indicator turned blue, and the ICE started...regardless of battery charge. Cabin heat was set to 72 degrees and slow fan speed for both trips. As many have reported, the longer the trip, the better the mileage. As the trip went on, the engine obviously warmed up, and wasn't required to start due to cold temps, but rather battery charge level.

 

I know Paul is working on a grill cover design. 2 concerns I have - my front license plate sits in a bracket that protrudes out about 1/2". There are some weird bolts attaching the bracket that appear 'unremoveable' - so maybe there should be a cutout for the front plate?

Also, at what temperature do we want to remove these covers to prevent overheating?

 

I am convinced the grill covers are the way to go, especially up here in the New England winter! I gained 57 mpg with this test!

 

Thanks for all your research. 

 

 

[ptjones]

Paul, you will like this...

 

I installed temporary foam grill covers last night and went for a 20 mile test run in 1 degree weather. Got 41.4 mpg.

 

Removed the foam this morning, and repeated the identical course, and only got  35.7 mpg without the covers in place! The temp was 1 degree again. Big mileage gain with the 'covers' - and they match the sterling grey CMax color!

 

Both tests were done with a cold car, sitting outside for hours prior to the test. It was very noticeable how cold the cabin was, and how much the ICE had to run without the covers in place. I was watching "my view" and had power and coolant temp on the screen. Every time the temp hit the lower hash mark, the indicator turned blue, and the ICE started...regardless of battery charge. Cabin heat was set to 72 degrees and slow fan speed for both trips. As many have reported, the longer the trip, the better the mileage. As the trip went on, the engine obviously warmed up, and wasn't required to start due to cold temps, but rather battery charge level.

 

I know Paul is working on a grill cover design. 2 concerns I have - my front license plate sits in a bracket that protrudes out about 1/2". There are some weird bolts attaching the bracket that appear 'unremoveable' - so maybe there should be a cutout for the front plate?

 

Also, at what temperature do we want to remove these covers to prevent overheating?

 

I am convinced the grill covers are the way to go, especially up here in the New England winter! I gained 57 mpg with this test!

 

Thanks for all your research. 

The license plate holder takes most of the center area of grill cover. There wouldn't be any machanical strength left working around holder. I just checked the license plate holder in my car and it uses three plastic rivets that can be easily drilled out and then remove holder. Grill cover is 8.25" wide and license plate is 6" wide. 1/4"x20 tapped holes could be made in plasic cover and then license plate could be installed with 1/4"x20 plastic screws. Might be able to only use two bottom screws and plastic nut on backside. It would be nice if you had the new plastic flat license plate. I'm impressed you gained 57mpg. LOL

[Jus-A-CMax]

Don't have a choice, DMV rules says we have to have the front plate. How easy or hard is it to cut that plastic around the plate? 

Edited January 4, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[bymaine]

Just looked at my post. I gained 5.7 mpg....not 57 mpg!!!! Sorry

[Chinto]

I had my first short 20 miles each way trip yesterday since foaming the grill.  The first thing noted was the water gauge maintained the half way mark through out the trip and with my super short drive to work.   Outside temp around 20 degrees.   Since foaming the grill my initial short trips to work are only 6-7 miles one way which I have maintained 38 mpg whereas before was doing 35ish before foaming with temps around 20-25 degrees.     So yesterday with a longer drive my mileage hit 41 for the trip of 20 miles which is an increase compared to what I achieved without the foam.  So my initial conclusions are that restricting cold air to the radiator improved my mpg at least by 3mpg.   I believe the longer the drive the better the mileage gain below 32 degrees by restricting the cold air.   

 

I also have to concluded that the auto shutters are not set to open and close correctly to maintain optimal engine temperature.   Does anyone know how those actually operate?   What is the triggering signal  for  open and close.   Having an auto shuttered radiator should do a better job of maintaining optimal engine temp than foaming my grill.   Can the auto shutters be tune for better performance?    That would be the best way to handle this rather than sticking something on the grill like did in the old days.  Right? 

 

I found a little more info on how the shutters work.  It seems like they are tuned more for aerodynamic function than engine temperature and more applicable at highway speeds than in town speeds.  Ford's purpose and the consumer's needs in cold weather appear to be different.   

 

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1079678_active-shutter-grille-vents-how-they-help-improve-mpg

Edited January 4, 2013 by Chinto

[ptjones]

I had my first short 20 miles each way trip yesterday since foaming the grill.  The first thing noted was the water gauge maintained the half way mark through out the trip and with my super short drive to work.   Outside temp around 20 degrees.   Since foaming the grill my initial short trips to work are only 6-7 miles one way which I have maintained 38 mpg whereas before was doing 35ish before foaming with temps around 20-25 degrees.     So yesterday with a longer drive my mileage hit 41 for the trip of 20 miles which is an increase compared to what I achieved without the foam.  So my initial conclusions are that restricting cold air to the radiator improved my mpg at least by 3mpg.   I believe the longer the drive the better the mileage gain below 32 degrees by restricting the cold air.   

 

I also have to concluded that the auto shutters are not set to open and close correctly to maintain optimal engine temperature.   Does anyone know how those actually operate?   What is the triggering signal  for  open and close.   Having an auto shuttered radiator should do a better job of maintaining optimal engine temp than foaming my grill.   Can the auto shutters be tune for better performance?    That would be the best way to handle this rather than sticking something on the grill like did in the old days.  Right? 

 

I found a little more info on how the shutters work.  It seems like they are tuned more for aerodynamic function than engine temperature and more applicable at highway speeds than in town speeds.  Ford's purpose and the consumer's needs in cold weather appear to be different.   

 

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1079678_active-shutter-grille-vents-how-they-help-improve-mpg

I read that too but the facts don't seam to support it. At 70mph the ICE will get up to opperating temp and any gains after that have too be aero and I saw 4.5mpg at many different temps.

 

Edited January 4, 2013 by ptjones