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Prius drivers,
My morning commute started out with temps in the mid 30's. My FE has suffered since I can't seem to get the engine temp high enough to get the IGN from swithing back to 10 after long glides.
I have the 2 grill openings blocked (closest to the hood) and i'm about to block the lower openings with the exception of a few to allow for some air movement. Is this worth the effort or will I just be playing this game of IGN 5 glide then IGN 10 idle warmup thing?
oh and I have a ebh and use it every day.

Thanks for your time,
Ryan

Unless the temp outside is above 50F or your doing long highway trips into warm weather then block the whole lower grill now. Don't leave any openings for air, enough air will get in from other areas.

Wayne

My FE was terrible my first winter with it for exactly this reason. The best compromise seemed to be letting it warm up fully before trying any long glides. Once it has built up some heat, it tends to withstand ICE-off time better and you can make up some of the lost mileage. Unfortunately this is what we get for having new-fangled aluminum engines.

The most important risk with a full grill block is the inverter. IIRC you can mitigate that risk in marginally warm weather by leaving an opening on the driver's side and covering the rest. Personally I am holding off on the grill block until I can rig up an X-gauge for inverter temp. It still gets warm enough here that I don't want to risk it without instrumentation.

Youn need to get one of these.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/31.jpg

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/21.jpg

Is that Photo Shopped or is it a real product?

That is the real deal. I have it on the car right now.

bestmapman, where is your ebh plug in?

It is up with my windshield wipers.

I was just looking at the hybrideffects website. I assume from your pics you went with the "no plugs" option? Do you leave it in all year long? If not how is the removal?

I put it on with double sided tape. I took it off for the summer. Right now it 60F temps the water temp never exceeds 185 or so. I leave the top open. As soon as the temp get lower, I will plug the top with pipe insulation.

The double sided tape works perfect, and is easy to remove. I take it off when I get and oil change, or take it to the dealer for any reason.

Looks like they matched the paint very close. Are you happy with the color? Was it worth the $200?

I assume from your pics you went with the "no plugs" option?

Yes, I couldn't see any reason to get the holes, it kind of defeats the purpose of the block.

Looks like they matched the paint very close. Are you happy with the color? Was it worth the $200?

The paint matches almost perfect. It is very well made. Is it worth it, that is up to you.

There's also this approach (http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/heatgames/); look at the last page for grill-block
stuff. I think at this point the warm-air intake thing can be
ignored for the Prius since it seems to make no discernible difference
long-term. The upper smiley has been completely blocked for 2 winters
now, and the bottom flap can flip up or down with a little fiddling.
Since the bottom one isn't all the way across, leaving a little inlet
space at the ends, I'm not worried about stopping all airflow.
.
It's up now, because it's been like 40-50 degrees here.
.
One of these days I'll unlame and build a remote-control version...
.
_H*

Prius drivers,
My morning commute started out with temps in the mid 30's. My FE has suffered since I can't seem to get the engine temp high enough to get the IGN from swithing back to 10 after long glides.
I have the 2 grill openings blocked (closest to the hood) and i'm about to block the lower openings with the exception of a few to allow for some air movement. Is this worth the effort or will I just be playing this game of IGN 5 glide then IGN 10 idle warmup thing?
oh and I have a ebh and use it every day.

Thanks for your time,
Ryan

Ryan, others:

Does the coolant hack that Jay & others have done help here? I was under the impression that the coolant hack basically allows for a "fake stage 4" (I guess fake stage 3b is more accurate) after the stage 1 burn.

Just to be clear in case I'm confused. The low engine temps are preventing long Warp Stealth IGN 5 glides? Yellow EV arrows can't be held, and the ICE takes over and turns the wheels?

I have not done the coolant hack.