Challenger Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 Well Im going to be working on closing off the radiator opening this winter. Sadly Ive never driven my Z over 30mph or in traffic so Im not sure how much of the radiator will be needed to keep it cool. I know the weather, engine specifications, radiator type, and fans all are variables but Id just like to see what everyones opinion was. Ill try to get some picture of the design up later. Have a pretty good plan on how it will be made. The car will have hood vents, fender vents and has a front urethane air dam so hopefully the air going in will get out pretty quickly (better cooling). Thanks Heres Proxlamus's thread on this subject: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=122197 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted December 3, 2007 Author Share Posted December 3, 2007 No ideas? My plan was for everything below the bumper to be open. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1 Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 There are a ton of variables here, so it's hard for anybody to make a solid reccomendation. My personal, undocumented opinion would be for the area of the opening to be 25-35% of the area of the radiator. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hughdogz Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 I seem to remember that somewhere in that Aero forum it stated that a 2 inch by 8 inch opening is all you really need to supply air to the rad / intercooler / oil cooler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted December 3, 2007 Author Share Posted December 3, 2007 I seem to remember that somewhere in that Aero forum it stated that a 2 inch by 8 inch opening is all you really need to supply air to the rad / intercooler / oil cooler. Yeah I had seen that but couldnt find it. Isnt all the data down right now? Like I said Ive never really driven the car and have no idea if it runs hot or cool. Im thinking of leaving below the bumper open and then set it up where I can just block off the radiator with sheet metal however much I need. If it runs cool, block off a few inches, etc. Im having to consider how an intercooler would come in to play also. Im hoping to turbo the car in the summer. Any thoughts? Could the intercooler sit in front of the radiator? Wouldnt an intercooler need more then a 2x8 opening? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1 Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 The comment about the very small radiator openings was made by Bob Smith, the operator of the tunnel. I think he was correct, but at the time he was discussing 200mph super speedway cars with highly designed cooling systems, not street driven Z cars. jt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 ^ Very important in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hughdogz Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 This probably should have been posted in the Aero forum...I don't see anything wrong with with it, the data isn't down. I was about to say the same thing but jt1 beat me to it. I looked again and I saw 2x6 being mentioned, but I don't want to take it out of context. It's okay to have a small opening like that when you're at speed (NASCAR) and there is a LOT of pressure that is forcing through the small opening. I think it would be totally different if you're idling in rush hour traffic and your fan is pulling air through that little opening at ~15 MPH. Im thinking of leaving below the bumper open and then set it up where I can just block off the radiator with sheet metal however much I need. If it runs cool, block off a few inches, etc. If I'm reading this right, I wouldn't block off the radiator at all...instead block off more of the grill. Im having to consider how an intercooler would come in to play also. Im hoping to turbo the car in the summer. Any thoughts? Could the intercooler sit in front of the radiator? Wouldnt an intercooler need more then a 2x8 opening? What I've taken away from that thread (someone please correct me if I'm wrong here). 1) You want downforce (and lower drag). You do this by not letting a lot of air come through the grill and out below in front of the radiator or from under the engine bay. You do this by sealing off the area around the front of the radiator, and only let enough air into the engine bay needed to cool the radiator, etc. You can do this by blocking off portions of the grill. This will direct the air over and around the car instead of below it. 2) You want air to flow through cooling components, not around them. Since there is less air coming in, there's less to flow through the components and air will tend to go around the coolers if they can. To direct (force) the air through them, you want to seal with a box like Dragonfly and the others did. The way I'm approaching it is first seal it up to increase downforce. The cooling components will do their job just fine, but maybe at a lower efficiency since air can still go around them. Next, I want to seal them so that whatever air goes into the IC and oil cooler is also forced through the radiator. Finally, I'll try and seal it so that all the air that comes in is forced through the IC and oil cooler. This may require blocking off more of the frontal area for an S30 but maybe not for my S130. Again, it is totally different if you're building a track car versus a street driven car. Anyway, I hoped this helped and I'm not mistaken. There is so much Technical information in that forum that it almost it hurts my head trying to soak it all in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 Yeah I debated between the aero and fab. What I got from reading the data was that you need to let as little as possible air go into the engine bay. By opening only the bottom I was hoping to grab air that would have gone below the car, and the rest would go over or around the car. The less air that goes into the engine bay the less lift on the front end. If your able to create lower pressures in the engine bay the front end will be "sucked" to the road. I will also have a ledge that sticks out below the air dam to route more air into the radiator, like 240hokes. That was my backing for my idea. Hopefully someone that was there will chime in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hughdogz Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 I forgot to add...ever since I added the horizontal piece that goes between the bottom of the air dam inlet and below the front of the radiator, the car seems more stable at high speeds. It doesn't seem to want to wander as much. Also, I think it directs much more air through my radiator (better downforce and cooling). Even on the hottest days, my temp gauge stays between 3/8th and 1/2. Stock, my temps would be 1/2 -> 5/8ths. Of course a giganto-sized aluminum radiator helps too. I might even be getting a teeny bit more power with the engine running cooler! I think you'd want to block off using horizontal pieces before (or at least at the same time as) the grill piece or ledge piece. Hopefully one of the experts will chime in... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proxlamus© Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 since you mentioned my thread... and my car is a daily driver.. I dont have any overheating issues.. the car runs cooler then it did before.. as long as you have a fan you should be perfectly fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 Proxlamus- Do you have a stock radiator, and whats the thickness on the IC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proxlamus© Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 Radiator is stock my intercooler is a Isuzu NPR intercooler.. so I want to say 2-2.5" thick i believe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted December 14, 2007 Author Share Posted December 14, 2007 This is what I have so far. It will block everything off above the bottom of the headlight bucket (aka above the bumper). This weekend Im going to work on removing any brackets (turn signals, etc) from the radiator area to make room for it. Right now Im just making templates, when I get them all to where I think itll fit Im going to make it out of the pressboard wood and then stretch felt over it and make it out of fiberglass. Fiberglass will be new to me so any suggestions are welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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