2010 Prius Grill Blocking strategy

You are right, thanks for the correction!

 

Here's a pic of that insulation of the engine bay I was talking about:



(pretty much center of pic, approx 1 foot length of foam pipe insulation, for keeping engine bay warmer when parked short term)

Also: I pulled of the plastic trim above the radiators, but it's really hard to get a decent pic. Basically though, from what I can see, at the back (engine bay side) there's a large radiator, full width and height, for engine coolant, and at the front there's the AC "condenser" (sic) radiator, almost the same dimensions as engine coolant radiator, except for the narrow zone at the top that's the Inverter coolant radiator.

 

OK that side insulation is interesting ... I will do that for next winter... simple enough.

Now, I just inspected my car and I think I was wrong the upper smaller rectangular IS the A/C heat exchanger it is diretly connected to the container shown on your last picture on the left hand side which IS the A/C coolant ... also could trace the high pressure part to the A/C pump .... so yes the upper cooler belongs to A/C again it substantially smaller then the engine cooler ... but bigger than I thought...

I do not see two but just one ... hmmm

So the final answer is upper blocking will 100% affect A/C only lower possible will affect A/C efficiency ... how that relates to mpg so far a guess my vote probably not too much ... you should be OK with lower only and that will save more on aerodynamic and warm up most of the year ... then what you may loose on A/C

 

I think you are right after all !!!! Thanks the linked manual pictures are make it clear !! That makes me seriously consider to remove blocking for the summer... although I rarely user A/C so far 3 times this year .....

And the answer is positively yes !!! grill blocking will make A/C work harder possible loss of efficiency possible loss of MPG ... but really depends on personal use .

 

Here what I have now ....
As you can see nothing on the upper part but full blocking the lower .... it works for me so far ...

I made the vertical cuts so the tubes fit pretty well in the whole lower grills.... nice and easy

cheers

 

The AC doesn't have coolant. Only the engine and the inverter use coolant, the same stuff. The AC is running a freon-like fluid, at high pressure through the bigger, lower radiator on the front side. The high pressure helps "concentrate" the collected heat, so it can be dissipated.

The container you mention is the coolant reservoir for the engine, and that coolant is running to the big, back side radiator.

The inverter coolant reservoir is more central in the engine bay, just behind the inverter. That coolant flows through the narrow upper front rectangle radiator on front side.

 

This pic is looking in through the lower grill opening, passenger side. The tubes feeding into the radiator are small diameter aluminium AC tubing, running the high pressure Freon replacement fluid. So basically: that large, front side radiator is for AC.

 

Looks like you are right again ... I never owned a car before the Prius .. so I checked under the hood again and you are right ....

Anyway I do understand how A/C works just fine and as I said your concern about it's efficiency is right on.

Grill blocking will effect A/C ... now, can you say that you have some numbers or something concrete to say how bad etc this ....

 

Nothing specific, but just common sense: the big radiator in the front is the way the AC get's rid of the heat. If you have your lower grill 100% blocked, that has got to be seriously impacting AC cooling efficiency. My take: as soon as the weather tips, from heating to AC'ing, I take all grill block out.

That's even with the occasional hot day, interspersed with cool. And that's about all we've been getting around here:

Was up at a local field with the kids and grand kids yesterday: everybody was wearing jackets/coats, you could practically see your breath. Spring was a total no show for us, LOL.

 

OK I took off the grill blocking.... here is my observations. I am looking the numbers on ScanGaugeE... for water temp

Even summer time my warm up time is noticeable... almost twice the time/distance. So definitely a loss there.

Yes in very light load the temp goes up much slower but does go up (I am alone in the car and I do not drive the car hard)

Under, even moderate load the water temp goes up 190-195 stops there and over the week I got no more 202 ... so I think the lower only block is just fine... even summer times. Unless you really need A/C and worried of efficiency of that ... I only used A/C twice when I was going mid-day early afternoon.........

So I am not convinced that I should take the lower blocking off....

Cheers

 

Looks good did u use the 1/2"? Thanks Longhaul

 

Has anyone heard of aftermarket anything for grill blocking? I would think a nice piece of plexiglass with some type of attachment mechanism would be nice looking and quicker to attach and remove.

 

I did see something like that somewhere and I think it was on this site. I think it was fiberglass and was painted the same color as the car and it had a nice flush look. I for one would be interested in buying something like that. I lost one of my pieces of pipe insulation last time I went through the car wash but I have gone through many times and not lost one.

 

There was/is a guy that produces them for the gen II. He was willing to make one for the gen III but nobody volunteered to bring him the car to make the pattern.

 

But not as adjustable? I'm using the foam pipe insulation, secured with velcro wrap ties. They're relatively easy to install and remove, avoid destroying a bunch of zip ties. Typically I use:

Over 18C: none
5C to 18C: 50% of lower (one full width tube)
Under 5C: 100% of lower (two full width tubes)

 

i have installed the foam pipe too,
but there is no way for me to know if they make a diffrence or not..
it feels like it takes the same amount of time for the car to heat up.

 

That has been my observation as well. I was kind of disappointed in a way as my former non-hybrid vehicles had a very noticeable difference with grill blocking. But chock another one up for the Toyota engineers. :cheer2:

 

Well I am monitoring it with scangauge so I can tell by the numbers that it makes a difference... colder the weather the bigger the difference (I only measured this early in the winter but even then it was noticable by the gauge measuring water temp).

And when you need to heat the cabin it is even more noticable ...

 

I am not saying it doesn't make any difference... just not a lot. Now I suppose it would help even more if I did 100% top and bottom. I just don't want to mess around like that.

 

Spiderman: Did u ever find any info about the company in NC that is making a grill blocking item for the prius or any new info? I a using the pipe foam but would like to do something else, Thanks Ron