Plug-In Prius grille-blocking

In for pics too.....is there anyway to block it behind the front facade of car so it looks decent? I assume cardboard would fall apart from wetness quickly...are you using some sort of plastic coated board?

thanks
Dan

 

Search grill blocking on Gen 2 or Gen 3, or wait for John.

 

Normally use foam pipe insulation.

 

In completely unrelated news:
I worked until about 8:30 one night this week. I left work with a depleted EV battery, and I needed gas. I filled up, noted my 77 MPG in Fuelly, and hit the freeway.

For the trip home, I set the cruise control to 48 MPH. The car-reported stats were surprising:
Time: 50 mins
Avg speed: 36 MPH
Mileage: 71 MPG

The car never used EV mode. At this point, I think it's safe to say that this car gets better HV mileage than a standard Prius.

 

I've just completed my grill blocking for the winter. I don't have a PiP, but the concept is quite the same.

I used 1 1/8" ID A/C pipe insulation. It is a closed cell foam "rubber" that is a dark charcoal in color. I bought one 6' section and cut it in half. I split each half length-wise. Each piece is pinched and pushed into the grill. The foam's expansion is enough to keep it in place.

The picture below is enhanced a bit to show the foam. It really is much more difficult to see, and most people won't even notice it.

 

looks great! thanks.

 

no question, very nice!

 

Here's the poor man's grill blocking - posted here on PC a while back . . . it made me smile

 

I like the little "louver" at the bottom!

 

That's a hand hold to pick the car up! Crude but effective.

 

I use pipe insulation as well blocking both upper and lower grill. A bit of air can pass by upper grill but lower is blocked completely.
Currently is only -5C (23F) and making 16km (10mi) trip the coolant temp hardly goes to 70C (158F) the heater is ON.
Looking at the coolant temp gauge, when I stop on a major intersection when ICE is OFF the coolant temp can drop by 10C (18F)

 

I have a 2010 Ptius III & if I set my CC to only 48 MPH I can get 71 mpg too but that is unrealistic for my area. I've even experimented with my 09 Corolla a few years ago when I was driving through a 50 mile stretch of construction zone in the middle of New Mexico. I set my CC at 48 MPH for those 50 miles & I averaged 54 MPG! If you drive slower at that speed you can achieve very high MPG numbers.

 

Oh fudge.

 

PiP weeds out the short trips so the overall gas MPG will be higher.

 

Perhaps, the extra heat is from the exhaust. It'll be nice if we have a custom PID to monitor that coolant loop from the exhaust. We may already have it but I have not explored yet.

 

John,

Did you also block the upper grill?
Did you detect ANY drawback in Blocking the grill or grills?

Did any of the pre-production drivers mention Winter Grill Blocking to the Toyota engineers?
Any concern?

 

I found this message from Ken1748 of Japan for the Gen3.
He confirmed the HV inverter/motor coolant radiator is located at the top of the radiator.
He believed we have to leave open the upper grill on the for better cooling of the inverter coolant during hot summer.
Should be the same for the PIP.

His Table listed:
Celsius - - Fahrenheit - - - lower blocking - - % upper blocking %
below 5 - - - -below 41 - - - - - - -100 - - - - - - - - - - 50
5 - 18 - - - - - -41 - 64 - - - - - - - -75 - - - - - - - - - - 50
18 - 30 - - - - -64 - 86 - - - - - - - 75 - - - - - - - - - - - 0
above 30 - - - above 86 - - - - - - - 50 - - - - - - - - - - -0

Therefore, the upper grill should only be 50% blocked when the OA is below 64 DegF and to remove it above 64. Also some of the lower grill blocking should be removed above 41 DegF.