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Do I need a "Winter Cover" for my grill?

Even if it's below zero outside and you are driving 60 mph down the highway, there is simply not enough cold air moving through the engine bay to disipate all of the heat. If you don't believe me, get somebody in a Northern state this winter to disconnect the radiator and see how far they make it down the freeway before the engine blows up.

Air blowing around the outside of a normal car engine (i.e. designed to be water cooled) is simply not an effective way to cool the engine. Water transfers heat way more effectively, and the water is being run a lot closer to the cylinders and other heat sources of a water cooled engine. There is not enough heat transfer area on the outside of the block to get rid of the heat, plus you can't disipate the heat generated away from the outer block surface effectively.
 
That would be correct. The problem I was having was the water in the radiator was cooling down enough to make significant temperature changes when returning to the engine. A bra would limit the amount of air cooling the radiator. It would allow enough air to cool the exiting water, but not enough to bring it back to a cold level.

Without my thermostat the engine never warmed up at cruise, due to the water constantly being cooled. If I sat at idle it would warm up fine...eventually. That was w/o thermostat. With a thermostat it would just drastically change temperature every time the thermostat opened.
 
Water won't return to the engine. The thermostat prevents this if it's working correctly. Closed t-stat=little to no water circulation.

You'll get some due to heat transfer through the liquid in the hoses that is connected to the heat, but not much at all.

Thermostats should not be something you can see change positions on a temp gauge. They should only open enough to cool the engine back to rated temp, closing slowly as the outlet temp goes down, not simply popping open at a certain temperature. Sounds like yours was faulty.
 
dyeager535 said:
Water won't return to the engine. The thermostat prevents this if it's working correctly. Closed t-stat=little to no water circulation.

You'll get some due to heat transfer through the liquid in the hoses that is connected to the heat, but not much at all.

Thermostats should not be something you can see change positions on a temp gauge. They should only open enough to cool the engine back to rated temp, closing slowly as the outlet temp goes down, not simply popping open at a certain temperature. Sounds like yours was faulty.
Click to expand...

Ditto what was said above.

If you were seeing "drastic" temperature fluctuations that were in conjunction with the operation of the t-stat something was wrong.
 
My Thermostat stuck open last winter. Decided it was to cold to fix, so went the cardboard route. Worked until the thermostat broke loose and then stuck closed. Would have cost $5.00 and 20 minutes to fix, now I'm look'n at replacing a head gasket at best. You can come up with your own conclusion.
 
We used the cardboard thing in North Dakota but we also drove 20 to 25 miles each way on the frozen tundra (Interstate). It helped the heater blow warm air quicker and also it kept it warmer inside the truck. Not sure if that had anything to do with less frigid air coming thru the radiator and hitting the firewall or just less air taking the engine heat away?

Anway I'm a believer but you do have to watch the temps on the warmer days. We would somtimes use thin metal to make tabs to hold the cardboard in place and it was easy to remove. by the way if you have a pickup then the cardboard goes behind the seat, not in the bed where it can blow away. So my dad said many times, along with several expletives!!
 
Yes, that may be the reason behind the somewhat "mesh" style covers. Didn't really think about that, but any reduction in radiator efficiency increases in-cab heat, so if you slightly decrease the radiator efficiency, then the temp should be pretty consistent and not get dangerously high. Something like tight mesh would probably do well to reduce the amount of cold air the radiator sees, but not stop it.

Not sure if they make something like a 220* thermostat for a small block, but that would do the same thing, without effecting aerodynamics (whatever little there is) and making the fan do work it doesn't need to. :)
 
Anybody who thinks that you don't need a winter cover has not been driving in cold weather. What happens is exactly what has been discribed the radiator gets so cold the operating tempeture can never be maintaned.
that is why semi trucks run them.
Watch Ice road truckers this next year they will explain it to you.

I built a 88 Astro Van with a high flow water pump and big radiator and a 350. Had a high flow thermostat to match the pump, I had to get a winter cover, I was living in AZ at the time.
 
Ice road truckers are physics experts? I've seen the show, I beg to differ lol! I don't see any reason that they don't do it simply to heat the engines up a bit more, to get more effective heat in the cab.

As mentioned earlier, high flow coolant system is likely prone to cold weather issues, since coolant flow is not nearly as restricted when the t-stat is closed, as "stock" ones are.

What kind of ambient temp are we talking about here?

If I lived somewhere cold enough, I'd love to go "test" this. I know for a fact +19* is nowhere near cold enough to keep my SBC with an intact "normal" cooling system overcooled, so I'm not sure how cold it needs to be that an engine capable of reaching 260*+ with lack of cooling, won't warm up. I know 19* isn't that cold, but sorry, it doesn't get much colder out here.

Even at 0*, assuming air cooling was extraordinarily effective, if my truck can maintain 195* at 20* ambient, then at 0* ambient, at best, all else equal, engine temp could be 165*.
 
Wind chill at 60 mph ?

It was in the forties or so in AZ and my heater would not work :rolleyes:. Did I need it no not really did I need it to have a heater yes.
 
Of a funny thing of sorts, if you block your radiator, but use a lot of heat, your all set, because your heater is just like a radiator, but inside. :)might as well use it to keep your butt warm. :)
 
When it is -40, my truck's thermostat never opens, nor does it ever heat up enough to produce any real heat out of the heater ducting, just warms the air enough to de-frost the windshield.

My 96 recently has always run excessively cool, around 160F. I'm thinking it might be time to replace the thermostat, gonna buy a new 195F and put it in before it gets cold :P
 
Now -40*, (ambient temp, not wind chill I assume) thats cold. :)

I'm not surprised that low of a temp is an issue. I knaw the military ran CUCV's in Alaska, I wonder if there is any military literature out there for extreme cold weather operations...
 
I grew up in Wisconsin driving small-block-powered gasoline pickups. I never had a need for a radiator shield, and neither did enybody I knew. The older diesels all used them, however.
 
Something to consider about the reason your engine won't come up to temp when it's -40 is because it's breathing that -40 degree air into the intake, not because the radiator has -40 degree air flowing through it. I grew up in Montana and still live there, and the 1 winter I ran a radiator block is when I really needed to change the thermostat. Changing that thermostat eliminated the need to run the radiator block, even in sub zero temps.
 
MTMike said:
Something to consider about the reason your engine won't come up to temp when it's -40 is because it's breathing that -40 degree air into the intake, not because the radiator has -40 degree air flowing through it. I grew up in Montana and still live there, and the 1 winter I ran a radiator block is when I really needed to change the thermostat. Changing that thermostat eliminated the need to run the radiator block, even in sub zero temps.
Click to expand...

Kinda explains the heat riser....
 
I still don't understand some of these comments....if the t-stat is actually fully closed why does it matter how much cold air blows over the radiator??? There is very little to no water / heat transfer going on with the radiator!

I dd'ed by diesel powered Blazer for years and saw sub-zero degree weather many, many mornings and it would always heat up to the point that I eventually had to turn down the heat settings on the controls. Granted, it may take a long time to reach this point but that's to be expected when it's below zero outside. I also do automotive testing for a living, which includes putting hundreds of thousands of miles on different types of vehicles including class 8 semi's, and we have never had to put any type of radiator block on them.
 
winter cover

What he said^.I don't understand some of these comments myself.I used to live in Las Vegas never had any issues,Now in West Virginia It's getting around 26* no heat in the cab.

I have a manual temp gauge it never gets to operating temp I run a 165* thermostat.

With that said If the engine don't reach operating temp and will not open the t-stat(165*) How will it make any difference if I went to a 195* stat.

I can't see that it will reach 195* when it will not open at 165*.:confused: I run a 4 core radiator and a k&n air filter so it is pulling in the cold air in to the motor also.

The reason I posted is because I also was thinking to go a winter cover:crazy: So now I think I will go and try a new t stat to see how this plays out.

Any more comments????? Thanks Mike
 
Mike,
I think in your case the thermostat may be stuck open and it's running like there is no thermostat. A new one should fix your problem. With that said, I never had a thermostat in mine until I wintered in CO. It gets in the teens here in OK and I never had a problem with it warming up w/o one. Are you running a high flow pump too?
 
Your thinking is definitely logical...if the engine is not even getting up to the current t-stat temp of 165 (assuming the t-stat is actually closing), then it won't get any higher with a 195 t-stat. Of course you also need to consider where the temp sending unit is located.

Overall a 165 t-stat is pretty low. The heater will only blow air into a cab that is a maximum delta (temperature difference) as compared to the coolant temp. Obviously if you have an engine running at 200 degrees you don't have 200 degree heat blasting out of the vents! The heater core and blower fan are both really small (compared to the radiator and engine fan) therefore it really limits the heat transfer efficiency.
 
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