2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission radiator or grill cover???

[dahowerig]

im looking for suggestions if any for getting my truck to get warm in the cold winter months. is it normal for the needle to barely move on days 30 or below? highway or city doesnt matter, never really gets warm. is the best thing just to strap some cardboard onto the radiator? are there any do's and dont's about this kind of thing? awaiting your input!

 

[JGK]

I slip a piece of heavy duty cardboard (with about an 8 or 9 inch hole in the middle centered on the fan clutch) between the radiator and the intercooler. Lets air flow over the intercooler yet reduces the cooling of the radiator. I can usually get 2 or 3 seasons out of one. A real savings considering the expense of cardboard



I put it in when daytime temps drop into the 40s and take it out when they get in the 50s or higher.



Cheap and effective, and nobody sees it.



-Jay

 

[LandShark]

I do what JGK does. Works great... ... . However; you state that the truck "never really gets warm", so I believe that you may have other problems. Maybe the thermostat? Even at 10 degrees (F) my truck will blow hot air after driving about 8 miles.

 

[SSolderitch]

I bought these and they fit nice.



View



I think my thermostat is bad, I average 160-165 degrees at 20 miles.

 

[Freidhof]

I do the same cardboard trick that you all have done. Has anybody noticed a huge difference in this versus covering the grill with the same hole in the center? The reason I ask is it seems to me that my mileage has dropped considerably more than I remember it doing last year. Last year I covered the intercooler and the radiator. It might be that we now have completely gotten the ULSD blues here in wisconsin, but just seems more of a drop that I recall. I went from 19. 5-20 daily drive and 21-22 hwy during the winter, to around 18. 5 no matter what I do.

Just fishing for opinions I guess. Thanks,

 

[SRath]

I use a black plastic pallet slip sheet. Very thin, extremely tough and unaffected by getting wet, so it is better than cardboard imo.



I actually have two "stages": The main piece has a 6" to 8" hole cut in the middle. If that is still allowing too much cold air to hit my radiator in really bitter conditions, I slip another piece down in front of the hole in the first one. You could also cut the hole leaving the cut out piece attached as a flap which you can open or close. I cut the size so that it protrudes a couple inches above my radiator to be easy to get ahold of. The extra inches just fold down when the hood is closed. You can easily tailor the amount of the hole the second narrower sheet covers to fine tune the temperature the engine stays at.



These work great installed between the radiator and intercooler. I think the intercooler should be left exposed to the cold air. After all, colder, denser air is what the intercooler is all about.



The slip sheets roll up and store handily, weigh nothing, and they last year after year. They are also free if you are around pallets, warehouses, semis, etc. Handy for lots of things such as a lightweight rollup creeper mat to keep in my crossbox.



Edit: I wanted to add a related tip about foul weather driving: I drove my semi all night this week in a really bad freezing-rain. When I hit the transition area where the rain changed to sleet and finally heavy snow, my semi was running very badly. No power (not that I was going more than a crawl anyway, but I could not pull hills very well grossing about 78,000 lbs). My fan clutch kept kicking in and my engine was just slightly warm, like on a hot day running the a/c. My fuel gauge started dropping fast, too.



Behind the plastic grille on the tilt frontend is a hardware cloth bug screen. The wet freezing rain and then snow had clogged the screen and then the grille very badly. No air was getting through. Worse yet, the louvers on the passenger side fender where the engine air intake is was also covered with a sheet of thick ice. So the engine was struggling badly for air, too.



The only hard part about correcting all of this was trying to remove the ice from the plastic grille with it's deep eggcrates without breaking the cold, brittle plastic. And finding a safe spot to pull over and do it. But this situation is one that you should keep in mind in such miserable conditions and watch out for.