Preparing for winter with a comprehensive strategy to improve MPGs including grille blocking & more

[ptjones]

I'm seeing some benefit with adding the oil pan heater with quicker heat up and 2mpg on short trips. :)

 

Paul

[acdii]

heat rises :)

[hybridbear]

When the HVB is extremely cold your EV power is limited. While the dealer fixed the trunk on our new white FFH today they gave me our old black FFH to drive. The HVB temp when I left the dealer was 4.5 F according to the ScanGauge. The HVB would not run the car in EV mode at all. Any touch of the gas pedal would make the ICE come on. I didn't think to get a pic showing the low threshold. Once the HVB warmed up above 15F I was able to get 1/2 bar of EV as shown in the pic below. Once the HVB hit 20F I was able to get 1 bar of EV. I did not get normal EV operation back until the HVB was warmer than 32F. The HVB fans came on right away and ran non-stop to funnel heated cabin air across the HVB.

[vangonebuy]

HB,

Your topic brings up a question.

Since the HV batteries are temp sensitive.

Does this hybrid system offer any active battery warming?

 

Will a block heating system also warm the pack?

 

 

 

Also, Do you miss old black? ;)

[hybridbear]

The car will use the HVB fans to blow warm cabin air over the pack. This only works though if the cabin is warm... the block heater only warms the coolant inside the engine block. I miss the MPGs of the black one, but not the issues we had with it nor the missing features. It was so strange to get in and not have the MFT screen and to not have the Lane Keep Assist when driving on the freeway.

[vangonebuy]

I guess if you get FFH energi. Set it on prewarm for the car interior from your phone.

Then the battery pack would get a prewarming.

Is this possible???

I want the blueprints on this system. :read:

 

 

I thought that the warming would come from the inverter. Since it has a cooling system.

[hybridbear]

I guess if you get FFH energi. Set it on prewarm for the car interior from your phone.

Then the battery pack would get a prewarming.

Is this possible???

I want the blueprints on this system. :read:

 

 

I thought that the warming would come from the inverter. Since it has a cooling system.

The Energi pack gets much warmer when it charges and also could be warmed by cabin preheating. The battery packs are air cooled. The cooling system under the hood is for the electronics control box and the electric motors.

[hybridbear]

I recently blocked the very bottom small opening of the grille which is way down at the bottom. At the same time I also redid a few of my pieces to try to eliminate all air gaps. This has made a difference for the FFH. Unfortunately, I changed two things at once so I don't know scientifically which change was the source of the improvement.

 

Today it is slightly warmer outside, 36 F, and I saw the coolant temp hit 100 C after a long stretch of running the ICE on the freeway. There is no noticeable difference on the My View coolant temp gauge when the coolant is 100 C versus 82 C. 100 C was the peak today and then the temp began dropping.

[hybridbear]

I should note that the 100C temp above for the coolant was driving with the HVAC off. It was 36F yesterday in Minneapolis so I was driving with the sunroof vented & HVAC off during the afternoon in the sun. Driving at night without the sun and with the heat on the coolant temp still only hit 85C in a short (<20 mile) freeway drive.

[hybridbear]

From the C-Max Energi Forum. A user there bought access to the Ford service manuals.

 

Here's a part of the transmission cooler diagram:

 

The top section of that blue radiator is used for the DC/DC converter cooling.

 

Here's the diagram for the Electric Powertrain cooling which uses the upper half of that radiator assembly:

 

 

This is very useful to know for grille blocking at making sure that nothing under the hood overheats.

[ptjones]

From the C-Max Energi Forum. A user there bought access to the Ford service manuals.

 

Here's a part of the transmission cooler diagram:

 

The top section of that blue radiator is used for the DC/DC converter cooling.

 

Here's the diagram for the Electric Powertrain cooling which uses the upper half of that radiator assembly:

 

 

This is very useful to know for grille blocking at making sure that nothing under the hood overheats.

I got the manuals on CD for CMAX Hybrid and Energi. I don't this is an issue for Hybrid as I have felt the cooling lines and there was no heat there. I don't have an Energi so I don't for sure. It would be nice if an Energi member would check and comment. :)

 

Paul

[Jamone]

Today I blocked my upper grill with the pipe foam method. Granted it was warmer today (55F), but I still noticed a drastically faster warmup time, and on a trip that normally gets me 45 MPG, I got 58. Now I'm excited about getting some lower temps to see the difference then.

 

 

Update:

With temps in the 30s-40s the past few days I'm now seeing 41-45 MPG instead of the 37-40 MPG I had been getting on most of my trips the last few weeks.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Jamone

[corncobs]

Thanks to acdii's skills I now also have my upper grill block.

 

 

Sorry for the dirty car it's too cold to give her a bath. Just the little bit of front cleaning the water starting freezing before I could wipe it dry.

[SteveB_TX]

Sorry for the dirty car it's too cold to give her a bath. Just the little bit of front cleaning the water starting freezing before I could wipe it dry.

 

 

What? You don't have a heated garage? For shame! ;)

[acdii]

At least he has it in a garage! :) Mine is in a carport!

[BlueZips]

Thanks to acdii's skills I now also have my upper grill block.

 

 

Sorry for the dirty car it's too cold to give her a bath. Just the little bit of front cleaning the water starting freezing before I could wipe it dry.

 

You could have a heated garage, it looks like you have a fireplace in there. Hook it up and turn it on! ;)

[corncobs]

 

You could have a heated garage, it looks like you have a fireplace in there. Hook it up and turn it on! ;)

I was just waiting for someone to notice and making this suggestion. ;)

[corncobs]

Tomorrow I'm going on a trip to Detroit and I'm wondering if I should remove the grill cover.

 

The reason I'm a little concerned is that every day I'm driving to work I can feel the car opening the outer cooling system because the air gets cold about half way thru.

Any suggestions...

[GrySql]

Use the Engineering Test Mode while driving and monitor the ICE temperature?

[corncobs]

Use the Engineering Test Mode while driving and monitor the ICE temperature?

That's not a bad idea just too bad you can't activate it while driving to see the actual temps.

[hybridbear]

Tomorrow I'm going on a trip to Detroit and I'm wondering if I should remove the grill cover.

 

The reason I'm a little concerned is that every day I'm driving to work I can feel the car opening the outer cooling system because the air gets cold about half way thru.

Any suggestions...

I don't understand what you mean...What air gets cold about half way through? Highway driving will likely actually keep things cooler under the hood than city driving since there is heat soak in city driving.

[ptjones]

That's not a bad idea just too bad you can't activate it while driving to see the actual temps.

The SmartGauge Temp Gauge is good enough for what you need as long as you keep it between the white lines. It would have to get real hot before you need to take the cover off. :)

 

Paul

[corncobs]

I don't understand what you mean...What air gets cold about half way through? Highway driving will likely actually keep things cooler under the hood than city driving since there is heat soak in city driving.

Once I'm one the interstate after a while I can feel a cold stream of air coming in. From the past I know that this is the case when the water starts flowing thru the radiator you can feel that in the air coming into the car.

 

Anyway the temp gauge didn't move away from the middle between the two white lines.

[hybridbear]

Once I'm one the interstate after a while I can feel a cold stream of air coming in. From the past I know that this is the case when the water starts flowing thru the radiator you can feel that in the air coming into the car.

 

Anyway the temp gauge didn't move away from the middle between the two white lines.

I think that the cold air happens because it's wintertime and the door seals aren't airtight. I feel cold air coming in there long before the ICE is warm enough to start opening the thermostat at all.

[corncobs]

Mmhh it's coming from the dash vents.

It did it today maybe 4 times on my way to Detroit. Every so often I noticed a rush of cold air getting into the cabin. It was actually so uncomfortable that I adjusted the left center vent so it wouldn't blow on my knee.

 

The climate was set to all auto at 69*F it's really odd.