Non A/C front bumper grill what to do with it?

[t-tony]

As long as your heater gets good and hot I don't think a little extra cooling would be a bad thing in the hotter weather.

Tony.

 

[oldcarman]

I agree @t-tony as long as the temp is high enough to promote clean burning during winter. Over here we have specially made pads that will clip on our grill area with a few flaps that can be used to regulate the temp during warmer days.

 

[t-tony]

On my mini I just used a rubber floor mat, also great for keeping the ignition system dry to stop misfiring.

tony.

 

[windym]

Was not sure what to expect with this grill, being a 1.9 the grill aperture is smaller than other Z,s. But with no rad cowl in front of the rad the airflow is straight on to it, although I had not had any probs in summer with heating issues I could not see the point in leaving it blocked. I know the stats will take care of heat and cooling, I figured though it can't hurt to help the engine out also looks were a factor as well.

Andy

 

[windym]

As long as your heater gets good and hot I don't think a little extra cooling would be a bad thing in the hotter weather.

Tony.

Not today unfortunately, went for a open top forest drive and the temp did not get above the blue, so not much warm stuff. Will have to modify the grill for winter and one for summer.

Andy

 

[t-tony]

Well at least you know now mate before it gets really cold.

Tony.

 

[windym]

Well at least you know now mate before it gets really cold.

Tony.

Yeah, quite surprised by the engine temp it was between 4 & 5 deg outside so not really winter cold. I may have been somewhat hasty in doing this mod but heyho, I have the original grill so will modify that. I am convinced this will make a difference in summertime but was also wondering if I can plumb the cold air intake into this grill somehow.

There is enough room in front of the rad to house an air box and Im sure I can get silicone hoses up into the engine bay, this may be a viable option. Will have a look and a measure up at some point this week Im sure worst case I can get an air box custom made and split the new grill 50/50 air intake and cooling.

Any ideas or suggestions

Andy

 

[oldcarman]

Perhaps @Rha could come up with a design using the versatile kitchen trash can. Worked out nicely for his project. JIM

 

[littlefeller]

why not leave the blanking plate there and put the mesh in front?

 

[littlefeller]

why not copy the kidney grills like this, actually looks quite good.

 

[Rha]

Hi windym, sounds like you may need that OEM blanking grill, you see all the tests carried out by BMW would have taken in all variables as regards the Brit Summer/winter and therefor put in a thermostat to cover these, if you remove the OEM grill your asking the thermostat to do something it wasn't designed to do which in my opinion would more than likely mean slower opening to get to normal working temp(not good if your late for work) and then slower closing when engine gets too much cooling. A different thermostat would be needed to keep things right in the cooling system and goodness knows if there's one available. However all is not lost cos I believe you could buy some real nice S/Steel mesh (Halfords do it £25ish) and mount it in front of OEM grill blank. You'll have to remove grill blank to mount it in front and that would be the time to make 70-80mm hole in it to take air trumpet for hose up to your filter, I did this on my 2.8 home made grill but unlike you I was unable to get air pipe to connect owing to bottom of 2.8 rad in the way. Would love to come down there and help you but don't know where in Essex you are.

The S/S is a pig to cut but it's worth the effort as you can see if you enlarge the above pic. Re mounting the grill was done with cable ties because the metal clips and plastic lugs all but one broke off when removing the original grill. I did mine about 5yrs ago before joining .org or I would have taken some pics. Good luck and let me know if you get stuck. Rha, Roy.

 

[windym]

Hi Roy thanks, must say I love the look of your car and the air intake is what I was trying to figure out. When I thought about removing the blanking plate I was concerned about the extra air flow, my car is a non a/c car and as such the rad is exposed. Being the first coldish day I have driven it I was quite surprised at the lack of temp, the car drove fine but only came out of the blue when I was stationary.

Getting back to the intake did you mount an air-box behind the mesh or keep it in its original place, I was looking at a custom carbon 3inch cylinder to mount at low level then run silicon pipes to join in the engine bay. I figured by keeping the air-box behind the grill and running an intake like yours I would have the benefit of cooling the air-box as well.

This would allow some more air flow to the rad to aid summer cooling but it would be restricted due to the air box and plumbing. I would appreciate a couple of pics of your engine bay and the pipe route from grill to the box/original piping. One last question does your system act like a ram air intake at speed and have you noticed any problems with the debris getting into the filter?

Andy

 

[windym]

why not copy the kidney grills like this, actually looks quite good.
View attachment 24015

Hi thanks for the PS pic, I had considered this but getting it to work would have been a pain, I would have had to build a housing for the fins which is why I went for the mesh in the end.

Andy

 

[Rha]

Hi again windym, my front air cone/scoop is not connected to the plumbing to the air box I couldn't connect it and so the hose finishes about two inches below the bottom r/h corner of the rad, just couldn't get the room to connect the last 4inches but it does pick up some nice fresh air from the grill. If you read my write up in kitchen wast bin under performance you'll have a better idea what I've achieved. I believe you have more room to pipe some good cold air to your filter than the six pot models do, as for where to mount your air box/filter that's something only you can decide, but you'll have a lot more work to mount it in the front and if you go for air ram you'll never be able to go into deep water if your pick up is lower than your h/lights, just an observation cos again it's your choice. Leaving the filter in orig position will save you a lot of work,will give you shorter induction tract from filter to ind manifold and should be fairly straight forward in pipeing air from the lower grill to a shielded air box filter. Again that's only IMO.
As for my diverted air from kidney grill I believe you should be wary of this as your model relies solely on them for rad cooling.
No probs with debris getting to filter but it is a little more venerable to normal road dust and flies in summer.
I Would have to be careful of water depth of 9ins or more (which is quite normal in and around country lanes after heavy rain fall road flouding) because of the height of my secondary (just below rad)air intake hose.
Really like your idea of keeping front mounted air box cool, but IMO thinking if extra work would actually be worth the small benefit in performance.
Maybe mine does benefit from a ram effect but must be negligible and then only in the three figure speeds if at all, however I do feel the engine runs smoother and seems a little less hesitant. Rha, Roy.

 

[windym]

Hi I was thinking of using one of the kidney vents for air flow to the box and modifying my lower mesh mod to compensate. Have to do something for winter as this morning was quite cold.

In fact it was that cold I thought I was in bed with my ex wife.

Andy

 

[Rha]

Think your on the right track and you sound quietly confident, keep us all in the loop and don't hesitate to ask for help, I'm in Hemel not a million miles away and could help if we're not all snowed in. Go for it. Rha, Roy.

 

[windym]

Think your on the right track and you sound quietly confident, keep us all in the loop and don't hesitate to ask for help, I'm in Hemel not a million miles away and could help if we're not all snowed in. Go for it. Rha, Roy.

Hi thanks will make a start this weekend on the intake. Going to try to modify the blanking plate today. Rough calculations on the air intake give me a 40_50% reduction on the meshgrill. Add that to the potential loss of area for the kidney grill around 25% for air intake, so with the total area that leaves about a 30% gain in cooling. Which I'm hoping will be an improvement in summer and not too much in winter
Andy