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Do you think it's time for a Grill Block?

Discussion in 'Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications' started by boxer93, Oct 6, 2008.

  1. boxer93

    boxer93 Psyched for PHEV

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    I haven't been sure about doing this mod or not. Today when I parked at work the Water temp was 109f. This about as warm the temp reading was in september before I started in the morning after the coolant thermos dumped back into the ICE.
    For the trip it's my normal 10Mi. Ambient temp from the MFD was 43F. I usually only have the ICE run once or twice during the last 2 Mi. of the commute. Today I was following a Suburban at 30MPH for the last 3.5Mi. I don't think the ICE ran during that time. 111MPG for the trip and I do not have the EBH connected, YET.
    How many of you with the L5 have the grill block? And how much blockage, upper, lower, both, 90%?
    Thanks
    Chris
     
    #1 boxer93, Oct 6, 2008
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  2. boxer93

    boxer93 Psyched for PHEV

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    my observations of grill blocking with Hymotion.
    About a month ago I did the simple pipe insulation on the upper grill and have a homemade lower block. I think it made a small difference but nothing too sigificant. After reading Tony's thread with pictures it shows to completely block the upper.
    last weekend I installed a larger pipe insulation and then filled in the gaps where air could still get in, blocking it 100%. At 32f when starting out my MPGs were back to ~100. Today at 50f ambient the MPGs were 138. This is more than I ever saw back in September. The water temp only reached the 160s today and was down to 145 when reaching my destination.
    My feeling is if you choose to grill block, do it 100%.
    YMMV
    Chris
     
    #2 boxer93, Nov 5, 2008
  3. ibcs

    ibcs New Member

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    I blocked 100% last week. I twas 65f over the weekend and the water temperature showed 174. Mileage is showing in the 140-160 around town. The nice part is once the engine does run, it seems to stay warmer much longer.

    ---Kent
     
    #3 ibcs, Nov 6, 2008
  4. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    WAAAAY past time... when OAT starts hitting the low 60's you should be blocking...

    i have done it 3 years now in pretty mild winters and found that even in temps to the mid 60's on extended highway trips (more than 50 miles at a time...longer does not seem to make a difference, have gone as much as 300 miles without stopping with no differences) will only bring temps up to a max of 207ºF which wont even boil water.

    now i block with individual strips which im sure lets a small amount of airflow in, but as i have mentioned before, i 4+ years of driving a Prius, i have only heard the electric fans run one time and that was after a 75 mph trip across the Cascades (+/- 4000 ft elevation change and temps at 102º F OAT and A/C set to 72) after i parked, i heard them running so hung out to see how long they would run... only ran less than a minute. they shut off for about 2 minutes, then came back on for about a minute again, then shut off and stayed off.

    didnt have any monitoring system back then so dont know what the temp was.
     
    #4 DaveinOlyWA, Nov 6, 2008
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