Scion Xa Upper Grill Block for Improved Fuel Economy

[sunnyjason]

dont really think how this is going to affect your warm up time since its regulated by your thermostat.

unless you head straight on to the interstate every time you start your car, warming up is not affected by the radiator.

[lessdeth69]

@sunnyjason Keeping cold air from blasting the engine block and the engine bay in general even at 40mph should reduce warm up time. I meant to take objective measurements showing warm up time improvement since I have a Scan Gauge, but didn't make time for it. I'll do it before adding further blocking. Even 30 seconds difference in warm up time can make a notable difference in MPG. I'm adding an underbody cover at the front which combined with the front block will reduce warm up time further.

[kleaFIRE]

Completely covering the bottom intake and 75% of the upper intake is going to murder the airflow to your radiator. Also, don't you live somewhere in the southwest as well? They did the same thing you are doing in a episode of BBC's Top Gear to improve aerodynamics, all it managed to do was overheat the engine. Food for thought.

[lessdeth69]

@kleaFIRE I've blocked the grill almost completely from a high powered Subaru WRX , a Honda Accord, and now the Scion Xa. Never had overheating problems on any of them. Radiators are extremely oversized. A car has the cooling capacity to run on a race track during 100 deg days. Nobody drives like that on a daily basis and so cooling ability is minimally affected, especially if you are using hypermiling techniques. On the Accord I took careful measurements showing the aero mods do work.