Questions about Grille Inserts.

I've always wanted to use them because we get alot of gravel dumped on
the roads during the winters and have already found small pebbles
lodged between the fins of the radiator. Also, my car has a
relatively hug gap in the lower bumper area and it's big enough for a
good sized rock to pass through. I'd hate to think what could happen
enxt if one of those fly through the gap.

But my main concern with grille inserts is that they may restrict the
air flow to the radiator too much, thus increasing the temperature in
the cooling system.

I'm looking at Cloud Rider grille inserts with the mesh type. The
size of the holes can be viewed here,
http://members.shaw.ca/steve.lee/tmp/

What do you guys think? Are those holes too small and just might
affect the cooling system operating temp? Thanks for your time and
courtesy.

 

If you are the DIY type you can get some mess grill from home depot and
attach it by yourself. There are a lot of websites out there describing the
procedure and if done correctly it looks same as the ones you purchase.

As far as air flow goes, on my 98 accord there are two openings--top and
bottom. If I were to put grilled mesh I'd put it on the bottom and leave the
top open. Actually the top is slightly covered with the front bumper sticks
that go across horizontally. They are also bent slightly to bring the air to
the top of the hood straight into the engine compartment area thus allowing
to cool the engine in addition to the radiator and fans.

--Viktor

 

Anything you stick in there will decrease the airflow somewhat.
As a general rule;The smaller the holes,the greater the restriction.
(more connecting web blocking airflow.)

 

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The CRV is also bad for that. You could roll up a sheet of aluminum
window screen material and put it in there. Bugs and (smaller) rocks
would bounce off. Airflow wouldn't be compromised.

If I ever buy a brand new Honda, that's the first thing I would install.

'Curly'

-- ==============

 

Do you think that the aluminum window screen material would provide
more airflow than the inserts shown in the pics? Do the holes in the
insert shown in the pics look too small and probably will restric too
much airflow? Cloud Riders have been around for quite sometime, but
who knows...

 

FYI in my experience, cars in general usually have way more grille area than
they need to run well. I've experimented with blocking off grille area in
the search for more speed or mileage on cars since the late '80s and have
never run into a situation where the temperature gauge even budged higher
than normal, even in traffic, with the exception of with an '87 CRX Si
(which lived to 233,000 miles before it had to be retired due to chassis
rust) that I kept adding tape to until I had probably less than a square
half-foot of total air intake open while on a cross-Pennsylvania road trip.
I've never had a heat-related engine problem with any car I've owned, and
regularly run my cars with about half their grille area masked off
year-round.

I don't think the reduction in airflow by putting a screen or mesh in a
car's grille area is going to affect that engine's cooling at all. I put a
mesh screen in the lower grille opening of my 142,000-mile '92 Mazda MX3 GS
($3 metal rain gutter screen from Home Depot) and never had any adverse
affects from that.