Changes, Changes...

Well, I was driving the car home yesterday and a huge thunderstorm hit us - probably one of the top 10 downpours I've ever witnessed. The previous owners stressed that the sunroof of the car leaked sometimes when I was buying the car, and I have noticed some dripping from time to time. Last night, I would have had less rain on me if I had the thing open! I had to take my wallet out of my pants pocket for fear of it being ruined, and I was soaking wet when I got home (the rain had just stopped) and got out of the car. First things first: Today, I had to fix the Monsoon brand sunroof. I popped it out and used some 3M Windo-Weld (from the roll) that I had left over from a buddy replacing some window glass. The stuff is really easy to use, and stays pliable and sticky for a long time. I just use my hands - I don't know that the warning on the label is about. Hopefully the sunroof will leak no more.

I had some spare time this morning, and I was in the mood to change the car. Low-hanging fruit, as many of the guys on ecomodder say, were the roof racks, passenger mirror, and passenger wiper. I started with the wiper, then decided to adjust the drivers' side wiper to rest in the lowest possible position:

Above: Before (pass wiper already deleted) Below: After

Next to go was the passenger side mirror. I need to go get a small convex mirror to mount inside.. will do that this afternoon. I replaced the mirror with a piece of coroplast.

I didn't like how the top was sticking out away from the car a bit (see above) - for drag and for rain purposes, so I fixed it with the ever-handy Windo-Weld!

Next came the roof rack. I'd been delaying this because I didn't want to re-do it later for official testing, then take it off again. I was also concerned with filling the big gaps in the roof trim for the mounts:

I decided to use some pieces of scrap Coroplast (that stuff is handy too!!) and duct tape over the top. If I like this method, I'll use some high quality duct tape when I make my permanent version.

Partial Belly Pan Complete!

I worked most of the day on the grill block, air inlet, and belly pan. It took some time to get things going, but once I did, everything went fine. I'm thankful for the creator of self-tapping screws, and I'm glad I had the drill-tip type and the pointy-type. I incorporated some 45 degree air dams in front of the tires similar to those I've seen on other ecomodder rides and many new production cars. I test-drove the car in the alley briefly today, and I found that I should only scrape when I take bumpy turns quickly. I know of one such turn I'll scrape daily; the entrance to the high school where I teach. I'll have to be cautious elsewhere I'm sure; I know Linda will appreciate the extra slowness going into and out of bumpy driveways where I usually get yelled at.

Here are some pictures of the progress. I won't have the grill block totally done until later this week - I have to finish the sides right in front of the wheels and reduce the wheel well size a bit, but that won't take me more than 30 minutes to fabricate, attach, and paint.
New air inlet - note the coroplast ductwork - it extends through the original bumper, so air has no way around the radiator.

"frame" for belly pan, made from drop ceiling material scavenged from dumpster.

Unpainted belly pan - I painted the wheel air deflectors (front and back) green after I took photos. I don't think I'll waste paint on the underside seen here.

Tire Air Dams/Deflectors - they are held at an angle by a piece of the metal I was using - crimped around the outside edge, screwed to hold tight, then taped.

New grill block - work in progress

I removed the old grill block completely, and made a new one with a new purpose in mind. Rather than direct air below the car where I'm unlikely to make it really aerodynamic, push air up over the car and to the sides. I did some reading on the ecomodder.com forums and decided to go for it, using a higher point of attachment on my bumper (the furthest forward part) and having the grill block hang straight down and slightly forward at the bottom, like I suggested in my "new idea" post, but not as extreme. Best would be to have a low, pointy nose. There are three reasons I'm not doing this. First, it would scrape on the ground EVERYWHERE. The one I designed will do that enough. Second, it would be forcing a lot of air upward when traveling on the highway. Newton's second law, F=ma, shows that a large force would be required to make a large mass of air accelerate upward, which would likely wreak havoc on my poorly constructed grill block frame. Third, (and Newton's Third - it's a good thing I did it in this order!!) the large force imparted upward on the air would be pushing downward on the block and my car.
A long lever arm in front of a lightweight car with some force on it could make the 'scort do funky things at highway speed by taking weight off the rear tires. Too much to worry about.
I used more free parts here: coroplast campaign signs for the flat stuff, and the frame that goes around the whole bottom and also attaches the center to the bottom of the radiator support is made of some drop-ceiling metal trim that I found in the dumpster by my house. I'll have to be careful; Linda will want to take out the trash to prevent me from finding more stuff if I'm not careful!
Here's progress so far; you can click on images to enlarge them if you wish.



I still have to do some work on the underside, to make my front belly pan, and on the air intake portion to keep air from just shooting down around the radiator.

BELOW: Shot from in front of air intake, looking slightly downward.

New idea...

In response to cooling issues and aerodynamic theory (I didn't study enough before hastily starting the grill block), I'm changing my plan a bit..

Preliminary aero mods data is in...

This isn't scientific (not enough miles), but I made a repeat trip to my friend's house in St. Peters, approximately 30 miles from home, mostly highway. On the last trip, I was able to get 45.5 mpg. I figured this might be slightly elevated by pump error, as this is incredible economy. This trip differed in two ways: it was hotter outside today, and this time I had my wheel skirts and grill block installed. 47.2 mpg is my new high; although the results aren't conclusive, they do suggest a gain of ~2 mpg at 55-60 mph. If this is correct, they will be most useful when traveling on faster highways to and from Kansas City (70 mph).
A side note regarding recent sensationalism in the news and AAA's press release denouncing hypermiling...
Some people might point out here with my 70 mph comment that they've heard that hypermiling involves driving slower on highways. I don't EOC or coast, etc. on highways except on offramps. My highway hypermiling is to drive at the speed limit (which does end up being slower than traffic), in the right lane with the windows closed. If I can find a large vehicle to follow, I do so from at least 5 car lengths.
Hypermiling has gotten a lot of bad press recently, and I make sure that my driving doesn't overly annoy other drivers or pose a safety concern. My EOC driving is on city streets when approaching stoplights/stop signs or when on a long downhill. I don't camp in the left lane and "police" other cars to drive the speed limit, and I don't EOC to speeds more than 5 mph below the speed limit if there is a car behind me on a two lane road. Doing so is counterproductive to the fuel economy movement, and I'm hoping to get more people on board.

Air to cool the engine? Who needs it?

Well, I was a bit overzealous in my grill block. I originally had a small opening just below the license plate. This afternoon I worked to trim the grill block top to fit flush with the bumper, and I re-taped and re-installed before Linda and I went to the doctor (weekly ob checkup; our little one still isn't coming out!)
Linda was warm in the car so I turned on the A/C once we got on the highway. I noticed engine temps at the hot end of my gauge shortly after... I cracked the windows and sunroof and shut down the A/C for the rest of the drive and on the way home, but the engine temps stayed too high. I know the A/C will push the cooling system's capacity with a grill block, but I need to at least get to where I can drive the car, A/C off, without overheating. I trimmed it a bit tonight and made the opening about 2.5 - 3 times the original size. Tomorrow morning I have a 30 minute drive; we'll see what happens.

Added a little EcoModder Bling

My wonderful wife found my lost ecomodder.com window cling decals this morning, and I installed them right away. I wasn't getting a whole lot of contrast between the white letters and the gray interior, so I painted the paper backing from the decals black and taped it on as a background. I put one in the passenger rear window and one on the drivers side of the hatch glass.