jvanbrecht

Heh no. but with a large format printer, and a digital copy with dimensions, can just print out a large template on paper and trace it onto whatever material (I was thinking Phenolic High Density Plastic but that is made with carcinogenic stuff so maybe not best in an engine bay heating up)

BLKROKT

Finished the blockoff plate

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...ll-review.html

BLKROKT

Ok. I can report back a few findings on the radiator blockoff plate. In short, IT WORKS.

Went out this morning for a Cars & Coffee meet out in Ramsey NJ. Met a couple of MBWorld AMG guys in the area which was cool too. Lots of great cars there blah blah blah.

So, going out, and coming back into the city, I do a bit of spirited driving. A few side roads, a few highway pulls, some traffic light launches, and a lot of traffic. Here are my quick observations:

1. In normal driving, my water temps are basically the same, maybe slightly cooler. Not a big difference. Oil temps were much more stable, never going above 217 in normal spirited driving with good airflow, versus 225+'ish before.

2. The big difference, huge actually, is in the STABILITY of the oil temps. In areas and hard driving conditions where it would normally be up above 225, it was still 217-219. And the best part is that it's STABLE - no wild fluctuations.

3. The most apparent where this was the case today, was in slow air, or getting to heavy traffic after really beating on it. Whereas before, a situation like that would have put my oil temps up into the 240+ range, now my oil temps didn't even go above 220. After sitting in miserable traffic for 10min, the temps would creep back up like usual to the 235-240 range, however it took a very long time. AND, when the aux oil cooler kicked on at 240, within 15sec the temps had dropped 10-15deg. Or when I got moving again, same thing. THIS was different too.

The way I see it, this plate works by insulating your intake from all that hot radiator air stacking up in front. It creates a much more stable oil temp (the oil temp, as it turns out, is correlated to the intake air temps). Under normal conditions and speeds, where there is sufficient flow, there really isn't a huge difference as all the front coolers are well-ventilated, and your intake just sucks in fresh air. However, when the air flow (speeds) slows down or stops completely, the plate no longer lets all that superheated stacked-up air up into the intake. When the plate and front end heatsoak after being in those conditions for awhile, the temps creep up more slowly, however the big difference is that the aux oil cooler no longer has to do all the work! It works far more efficiently now, and cools the oil down immediately. It's amazing, I never would have believed it unless I saw it myself this morning.

So, the real test will be Limerock next weekend, but I'm pretty confident that I'm not going to see any heating issues or limp mode.

This is a must-do as far as I'm concerned. Amazing what a little plate does to change the cooling efficiency of these cars. Many thanks to the AutoTech Racing guys for thinking this up, because it definitely does the trick.

mr747

post up the measurements for us

BLKROKT

Will do soon.

Spazdoc

Looking forward to seeing a template, at least to see the basic dimensions.

BLKROKT

Basic dimensions? Just stand in front of your car and look down behind the grill. It's not hard to visualize... I posted pics in the other thread.

Spazdoc

Agree it's pretty straightforward, and I have done similar projects on other cars. You just mentioned posting a template, which would make life easier. Regardless, the CF looks great from the pics.

jptaylor

Hope this helps someone....it's intricate if you want it just right but still not that hard at all

BLKROKT

Awesome! Beat me to it haha.

The FL cars are a bit different, plus you need it to be flat in the front and ~6" wide in order to fit snug behind the grille. Am taking measurements today...

jptaylor

good catch, i thought that i put that the template above was for PFL cars....

BLKROKT

Ok, this should get you FL guys started. It's not perfect (no ****ty comments), but make a template out of cardboard to test the fit and then go from there. Good luck.

SaphGreyC63

What type of materials can we use for this? or where can we buy a carbon fiber piece like that?

BLKROKT

I ordered from here:
http://www.rockwestcomposites.com/products/403-648

SaphGreyC63

Thanks. That's the one company I found easily by googling "Carbon Fiber Plate", figured that must be it, just so many damn options!

Also, thanks for all the work in this. If all it takes is a simple part and some manual labor to control our temps, you'd think MB would have just issued a recall for their "track car". Woudl cost them under $100 a car to finish and earn them big time brownie points. (doesn't even have to be CF in that case)

mr747

thanks guys

BLKROKT

Anytime man. The AutoTech Racing guys figured this out, all I did was take it another step. Any way I can contribute to the forum, and to people enjoying their cars more, I'm more than happy to try out new creative thinking/ideas. Used to do this all the time in the DSM and 996TT world (kinda lost my passion for making things when a cheesy spammy vendor rhyming with "Livid" took one of my ideas, and my pictures, and my instructions, and tried to peddle one of my designs on their website and in forums for $$$ ), and made some great friends as a result of the forum participation. Not interested in making money obviously, just interested in more technical interaction here.

Takes $100 worth of material (less if you use plastic) and a few hours to get the fit right, and makes a massive difference. Cheap and effective, I like it.

By the way if I had to do it again, I'd add a thin layer of some type of foam insulation taped to the underside of the panel. Further reduce the area above heating up. I still might.

zcct04

What do you use to cut that stuff - is just a standard x-acto knife sufficient?

jptaylor

Ok, I'm officially impressed....

Prior to this $60 project my water temp ran around 200-205 at idle and at steady 70mph it would dance between 220-225....

Now.....


....and even though I'm in P I had literally JUST pulled in from about a 40mi stretch of 75mph with cruise on....very simple and I'm a believer.....good find guys!!!

SaphGreyC63

That looks great!!!

$60 hmmm, where did you find a CF plate for $60 if you dont mind?

jptaylor

It helps to have friends at the DoD...

BLKROKT

Looks great jptaylor! Told you guys... I wouldn't have believed it either if I didn't see it make a huge difference myself. Mods should make this a sticky - it's a gamechanger.

jptaylor

Agreed

Ezec63

Awesome Great job on this and the instructions after glad to see some people here are still interested in performance over group buys of red carbon fiber start/stop buttons. How do you think reflective gold would work on the bottom of the block off plate facing towards the coolers?

Thrilla

That would be a good idea and should only help. I was planning on doing the same when I get around to making this.
Thanks for posting he template fellas!