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Gas going up..and quality going down?

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How far south do the winter blends go? I really haven't noticed a difference during winter, though the car leaves the garage which is around 55F. During the day, it is typically around 50F when I leave work for home.
 
desy said:
I do know what he means by idling not seeming to warm things up. A really efficent car like a Corolla has trouble generating enough heat to trip the thermostat for the heater core.
Its why we Canadians like our cardboard on the grille. I don't on my Versa cause I can't slide a peice in front of the radiator easily.
When I bought a Cvic new in 95 the dealer told me to shove some in there because the horz opposed 4's have a tough time with our wicked temps and windchills
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HO 4 in a Civic?

The coolant doesn't get routed through the radiator until the thermostat opens...so the cardboard on the radiator should have zero influence on the opening time of the thermostat. Until the thermostat opens, the coolant is just bypassing the radiator.

Once the thermostat opens, then the cardboard on the radiator would have some influence on the temperature of the coolant.
 
LTC8K6 said:
HO 4 in a Civic?

The coolant doesn't get routed through the radiator until the thermostat opens...so the cardboard on the radiator should have zero influence on the opening time of the thermostat. Until the thermostat opens, the coolant is just bypassing the radiator.

Once the thermostat opens, then the cardboard on the radiator would have some influence on the temperature of the coolant.
Click to expand...

The cardboard does keep cold air out of the engine bay, cold air that will cool off the engine.
 
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JCH13 said:
The cardboard does keep cold air out of the engine bay, cold air that will cool off the engine.
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What cold air? The fan won't be turning at all on a modern car and turning very little on an old car with a working thermal clutch thingy...

Just forming a "box" to hold the outside air out? The cardboard won't do much about that, imo. I can't imagine there's any sort of seal just from putting cardboard in front of the radiator.

I can't imagine the effect of the cardboard at idle during warmup is very much at all until that thermostat opens.

Maybe a little more effect if you start driving right away. I suppose it is directing some of the frigid air around the engine compartment instead of through it.
 
horizontally opposed 4 cylinder and yes in -40 weather, winter fronts keep a lot of air flowing through the engine compartment, the cardboard goes in the grille area. It isn't intended to warm your car for idling its purpose is for actualy driving to stop the -40 60 mph icy blast stripping away all the heat from the engine bay.
My old bronco 2 temp gauge wouldn't come off the bottom without a winter front 'bought at cdn tire' but would move up to 1/3 on the gauge
A frigid -25C daytime high today, yay. . . . -33 C tonight
Its also why I like E10, built in gas line antifreeze
 
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I know a lot of cars that wont warm up at idle in cold weather. its usually the small engines. its inconvenient, but nothing out of the ordinary. sort of what you get when you make a gas sipping car on the cheap.

and im sorry einsteins, but its a fact. i work 70 miles from home (69.8 excuse me). on straight gas, i can make 2 trips (there and back twice. 280 miles). on ethanol mix, i cannot get home the 2nd time. it does not happen. all other variables are the same, and this has been proven dozens of times.

i understand thermodynamics. by that argument, i can just shove switchgrass down my tank because it too has some nice potential energy. leave it to a college physics nut to understand the workings of every car made (because they all run the same right?) sheesh....
 
Maybe gasoline and ethanol turn to shit when mixed together. 100% gas good, 100% ethanol good, mixture of the two = shit?

It might also have something to do with what they put in the gasoline part of it. Things can be added to gasoline to change the octane rating - how much you can compress and heat it before it explodes without a spark. Straight chain alkanes like n-heptane and n-octane have extremely low octane ratings. Branched alkanes like iso-octane or aromatics like benzene have high octane ratings. Ethanol has a very high octane rating, so having 10% ethanol in the fuel means they can remove things like branched alkanes, aromatics, ethers, and various other octane boosters while still keeping the same 87 octane rating.

Changing a bunch of things in the fuel can change how fast it burns, how much oxygen it needs to burn, how hot it burns, and various other things. Some newer vehicles make specific mention that they are designed for "flex fuel" or they can run E85 without fucking up. Generally that just means the hoses and gaskets won't dissolve, but it might also have something to do with timing and other stuff.
 
desy said:
horizontally opposed 4 cylinder and yes in -40 weather, winter fronts keep a lot of air flowing through the engine compartment, the cardboard goes in the grille area. It isn't intended to warm your car for idling its purpose is for actualy driving to stop the -40 60 mph icy blast stripping away all the heat from the engine bay.
My old bronco 2 temp gauge wouldn't come off the bottom without a winter front 'bought at cdn tire' but would move up to 1/3 on the gauge
A frigid -25C daytime high today, yay. . . . -33 C tonight
Its also why I like E10, built in gas line antifreeze
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I am not familiar with this horizontally opposed ('boxer') 4 cylinder Honda Civic engine... 😕

Subaru, yes.

ShawnD1 said:
Generally that just means the hoses and gaskets won't dissolve, but it might also have something to do with timing and other stuff.
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Yeah, just a little bit..
 
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ShawnD1 said:
Maybe gasoline and ethanol turn to shit when mixed together. 100% gas good, 100% ethanol good, mixture of the two = shit?
Click to expand...

If that were the case no one would use it. The two chemicals don't damage each other. In fact, they are quite miscible. Miscible, there's a good sciencey word to learn.

ShawnD1 said:
It might also have something to do with what they put in the gasoline part of it. Things can be added to gasoline to change the octane rating - how much you can compress and heat it before it explodes without a spark. Straight chain alkanes like n-heptane and n-octane have extremely low octane ratings. Branched alkanes like iso-octane or aromatics like benzene have high octane ratings. Ethanol has a very high octane rating, so having 10% ethanol in the fuel means they can remove things like branched alkanes, aromatics, ethers, and various other octane boosters while still keeping the same 87 octane rating.
Click to expand...

Do you have any background in chemistry or science? I'm curious... it sounds like you read this article. :sneaky:

ShawnD1 said:
Changing a bunch of things in the fuel can change how fast it burns, how much oxygen it needs to burn, how hot it burns, and various other things. Some newer vehicles make specific mention that they are designed for "flex fuel" or they can run E85 without fucking up. Generally that just means the hoses and gaskets won't dissolve, but it might also have something to do with timing and other stuff.
Click to expand...

D:

Generally this means wildly different fuel maps, different timing maps, and in the case of forced induction engines the increase of boost pressure to take advantage of the higher detonation resistance of E85.
 
LTC8K6 said:
No. Stop digging. 😀
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Just for kicks, I ran it through Google...and this thread is at #4. 😛

W9SST.jpg
 
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