Normal Prius operating temp.

just to be on the absolutly safe side of it, leave the bottom 3 inches of the rad not blocked as that is the portion with the inverter cooler. Like Dave said get a CAN-view or Scangauge. For other reasons as well as temps.

 

Time for confession. Frank is right! I don't think you can over heat the ICE in the mild climate of the PNW. This is classified as "marine climate" The ocean heat pump goes up to the arctic then comes down to us. In England it is the Gulf stream, here it is the Japanese Current. It tends to cool and moderate our climate. With my radiator blocker I can not get the Prius above 207 or so. In a colder climate, in winter, you are home free. As we get warmer in the spring I hope to watch how things change. With my present set up I can stop and modify the air flow as needed to keep the ICE temps in a narrow range. In the south land the radiator blocker will have a short half life, and further north longer and longer. I wish I could monitor the MG2 and Inverter temps as well.

 

yahoo lips win!

 

@hdrygas
What setup do you have for blocking the radiator?

I’m in Pennsylvania and I’ve been monitoring my Prius with a very detailed UltraGauge with a lot of custom gauges I created from the scangauge spreadsheet.

I watch my ICE come on regardless of outside temp, force an engine warm-up and then shut off just to do it all over again in a few miles. I’ve had the dealer ‘check’ the radiator thermostat which they say is ‘ok’ (I’m not so sure).

I’m a mechanical engineer by training so very comfortable with thermodynamics and heat transfer or should I say thermal engineering. It seems Toyota spent all their money on the hybrid electrical, ECU, toque summing gearbox and autostart technologies and have almost entirely neglected the one component that significantly degrades MPG - engine warm-up. On one assignment, I drove 1-1.5 miles in subzero temps and got a whopping 17 mpg WITH THE HEATER OFF! The prius mandated it run the engine to warm it up despite the fact that I could have driven the whole distance on electrics only. Even with the ‘EV’ switch on, under about 140 degrees engine temp, it mandates a ‘warm-up’ run.

So, I’m thinking of significantly trying to conserve thermal energy on my Prius 2013 to see if it will improve my winter driving. At this point, I could be driving a gas guzzler in the winter time and get the same mileage.

Anyone out there with radiator baffles or blockers or whatever to retain some engine heat, I’d love to know what you have and any pos/neg aspects.

Thanks in advance.

 

@EngMarc member hdrygas was last on the site in 2008.

 

Ok thanks, any others out there with radiator baffles or something let me know.

 

Here's some info:

https://priuschat.com/threads/2010-prius-grill-blocking-strategy.62556/

I follow a simplified version of the above: block 50% of lower grill below 10C (one 1.5" dia x 4' slitted pipe insulation tube, pushed onto grill slat and secured with velcro straps), and 100% (a second tube), when temps stay consitantly below 0C. I leave the upper grill open. Our winters on the coast are mild; it's not that critical

One other thing I do, is to push similar pieces of tubing onto the seams at engine bay sides, to close the gap between fender top edge and hood. This was a suggestion by @Ferls80. That I leave in year 'round. That holds the heat in better, and I think has a side benefit of keeping the engine bay more dust-free.

 

I was looking for information like this one.Found it here and now I'm confident that my Prius is fine.
In summer, 42 Celsius outside, the engine dosent kick on because he think is already warm , but short kick on gas pedal and start and run for 1 minute or so, just to be sure that is pump oil and make the grease inside the engine.
I use the Torque to watch the engine coolant , in normal use in city is like 87-88 Celsius and a high to 90 Celsius when driving more agresive.On highway is like 90-92 Celsius.I though is something not ok with the engine cooling circuit based on the fact that on hybrid motors the revolution for engine are lower than a normal engine wich stays at 90 Celsius, and look at the coolant level, leakeages, if bubles in the coolant recipient when engine is running ( you now why , I wash with water the radiator of AC and engine coolant.
So, I think that values are normal since other users reported same values here on chat.
My Prius 3 2010 got 235k , and I intend to replace the water pump preventively since I want to keep another 6 yrs till I get enough money to buy a new one for the next 15 yrs.