Cardboard over radiator in winter.............

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If you do, Benzadmiral, remember that many new autos, like your Buick, have cross flow radiators. So you should block off one side, instead of the bottom like in the old days.
 
Also worth noting: never discount the possibility due to lazy thermostats. Recently, I had my fair share of frustrations on my wifey's 93 Camry Vee6, with very little heat and somewhat fluctuating temperature gauge readout (it would register 1/2 way on the scale when idling/running down city streets, drops down to about 1/3 of the scale when flying down highway). While the thermostat seems to be fine during initial warm up phase (it would cut off the cold coolant from entering the block successfully during warm up), nonetheless, it was not meeting my expectations). Turned out that the thermostat became lazy over time (it's the OE one that lasted over 210kms to date), and replacing it with a brand spanking new one from dealership (OE-possibly made by Kuzoh Japan, 82C standard temp0 fixed the problem nicely. As a result: car warms up nicely, register properly on the temperature gauge, never miss a beat when flying down the highway (register 1/2 way on the scale), and most important of all: I get some serious heat inside the car in the midst of winter!!!)

Whenever in doubt, check the thermostat first.

Q.
 
I noticed the other day when it was in the mid 30s that if I have the heater on in my 06 TL, the engine fan will never come on at idle. I've let it sit for well over 30 minutes and no fan even though the idiot guage shows normal temp. Luckily the heater still puts out plenty heat. I've become spoiled with a modern ULEV car. If I start it and drive easy, the water will hit full temp in a little over a minute. The GN takes 10 minutes to warm up which was usually about the time I was getting to work.

In my old Celica I could cool the engine nearly to ambient with the heater on high.
 
Thermostats open over a range, NOT like an on/off switch.
The specs are given like as an opening temp, and a fully open temp. Like 194F and 205F
 
as I corrected myself earlier, the range is very small, maybe 10* between fully closed and fully open. In the overall operating range of the engine that is nearly an on-off switch and during normal operation it is near full open.
 
Depends too on the type of fan you have. The with belt driven older fixed fans I would remove them in the winter. Don't know about the belt driven clutch fans.

Electric fans are great. :)

On my Festiva the entire grill area is blocked. This leaves about an inch of gap between the blocking plastic and the radiator. When the fan comes on it pulls in air from around the sides of the radiator and maintains a nice 205F. Great when he temps are below 20F.
 
i would be cautions about putting cardboard directly on the radiator and/or AC condensor. It puts a lot of force on the tubes when normally the air would flow directly through. Probably not enough to break it though.

I used to put winter fronts over the grill back in ND. Usually could keep them fully closed until about 30F.

Yes, I agree, thermostats get lazy over the years and don't warm up as well as when they were new.
 
People see these things on big trucks and think they're missing out on something. When I block off my radiator its for one reason only... to capture as much heat around the block to prevent fuel gelling and I need to perform this ritual when temps approach ZERO F. If you choose to do this, and it will be all winter, keep it concentric to avoid off-center loading of water pump.
 
BE warned, if you have a belt driven plastic fan, leave an opening right in front of the fan clutch so it doesn't heat up and engage and if the hole is off center it can set up a vibration in the the fan and cause the blades to flex repeatedly till they fail.
Ted
 
I would rather block the grill instead of the radiator; should it get too hot, the fan still will be effective.

This being said, my lower radiator hose is usually stone cold in 20F weather, even after a 30 mile trip, Mazda 2300 4cyl
 
Going purely off memory here but I read in a textbook a few years ago that in the order of 70% of an engines cooling is due to the incomming intake charge. This is why diesels struggle to stay warm in the winter and also why it is possible to have purely air cooled engines.

As others have stated, the cardboard really isnt doing anything for the rad but is keeping the underhood temp up so the block is radiating less heat and the air intake temp is higher.
 
Ah, well -- it's 77 disgusting degrees F. here today, and we don't expect anything like proper winter weather for the foreseeable future. Maybe when and if I move someplace that actually has seasons, I'll give this a try. Right now, though, it's truly pointless.
 
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Originally Posted By: CBDFrontier06
One cold January day in Wyoming, I think the ambient temp was hovering around -30 and the wind was howling. I parked my 86 Civic Si facing into the wind and left it running while I ran into a grocery store. The car had fully warmed up on the trip to the store, but when I got back in the car to leave, the temp needle was back down to "C" even though the car was running, and the vents were blowing cool air.


Your heater core and the losses from the glass house we transport ourselves in provided unregulated cooling at idle. Leaving the blower off may have altered this a bit. If you've ever seen the btu ratings on an older automotive AC unit, it's as big as a decent sized unit for a house. I'll assume that the heating requirements are similar; with the exception that they haven't discovered "radiant cold" yet ..so we don't cope with that.
 
Thread resurrection!

I recently bought a new Honda Accord LX (1.5L). I'm thinking of slipping in a radiator blocker as I did in the past on my other Accord's.

One thing I don't want to block is airflow to the turbo area.

Has anyone done this to a recent car, esp. turbo charged?

Note: I just installed a block heater, so that will help at least with getting going... I want a blocker to reduce the heat loss...
 
Originally Posted by mechtech2
Thermostats open over a range, NOT like an on/off switch.
The specs are given like as an opening temp, and a fully open temp. Like 194F and 205F


This is exactly what Stants webpage says.
Also exactly what my 1995 Escort's Factory Service Manual says
 
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