Nomex Honeycomb Radiator Protector

[bkaser90]

I installed the protector on my '13 and did it from underneath. took about 10 minutes. all I had to do is drop the plastic shield under the rad. and slide it up in front of the condenser. there are about 10 small metric bolts and the whole underpan drops out. real easy.

 

[ace72ace]

PERFECT TIMING!! I had put off my install until this weekend, but was reluctant to be pulling apart the front bumper cover. This should do the trick, will post pix when done later today.

Ok, so I was 2 weeks late getting this done, but finally finished. I wanted to do the install from underneath approach as I wasn't too keen on taking apart the bolts for the front bumper. And yes, that's an old rear seat bottom from a '77 Thunderbird parts car I had over 20 years ago. Hung onto it as it's a lot easier to lay on that when working under the front end.

So I had my sheet of nomex, and was ready to cut it to 24" as mentioned before. I get underneath the car after unbolting the plastic under body panel and measure. Soooo, the radiator gap is 24", but that's behind the A/C condenser in front of it. That makes me wonder, did the folks who already installed this remove their condenser? Cause looking down through the hood latch opening, it appears as if it's mounted to the radiator but not the condenser? Hard to tell depending on the angle. If it's supposed to fit in front of the A/C condenser, you have to reduce the width about another 1 3/4"

So I went ahead and trimmed some more, and now the condenser is fully protected. However the very top of the radiator behind it is still exposed, so I saved the trimmed out piece as if I really want I can install that piece on the top of the radiator so that the exposed vertical surfaces of the condenser and radiator are covered. I did try to see if the full sheet would fit in front of the radiator, but installing from below the sheet didn't quite have enough clearance to slide in between the gap of the radiator and the body of the car at the very top.

Before;
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Checking clearances;
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Installed;
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[ace72ace]

Bump, modifying last post from August 19th leaves it buried.

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

Bringing this back from the dead...just ordered two sheets today. One sheet for the radiator, and the other to cut to-size for the oil cooler. Don't want rocks puncturing either of those bad boys!

 

[PeteInCT]

Don't leave home without it!

 

[boss man]

do you guys have a link to where you are buying this Nomex. Also what material and size and a part # if that applies. It sounds like Great Cheap Insurance for our radiators.

 

[PeteInCT]

do you guys have a link to where you are buying this Nomex. Also what material and size and a part # if that applies. It sounds like Great Cheap Insurance for our radiators.

I forget the size I ordered but I think it was the largest - here's where I purchased mine:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Honeycomb-Radiator-Protector-22-X-31-Inch,29469.html

-Pete

 

[Boss_302]

Guys I'm no Engineer...............

This might protect a radiator/condenser = Good

But this should increase engine temperatures = Not Good

Airflow is inhibited by boundary layer drag on the inside surface of each orifice. Therefore more orifices in a given area = more drag which = less airflow.

If someone's an Engineer here or knows one ask.

If I'm right or wrong, I'd like to know.

 

[PeteInCT]

the actual surface areas of the walls of the honeycomb in the direction of the air flow is extremely small. If anything, the average Channel 10 more of a straight direction before it hits the radiator so it possibly to actually be increasing airflow no I don't know that to be true. The bottom line is I use one of these for over 2 years and have never seen an increase in engine coolant temperature is whatsoever.

 

[Grant 302]

Guys I'm no Engineer...............

This might protect a radiator/condenser = Good

But this should increase engine temperatures = Not Good

Airflow is inhibited by boundary layer drag on the inside surface of each orifice. Therefore more orifices in a given area = more drag which = less airflow.

If someone's an Engineer here or knows one ask.

If I'm right or wrong, I'd like to know.

The loss from a flat plate parallel to the direction of air flow is very small. The protection from rock strikes which smash/bend the condenser fins that really do block airflow to the radiator far outweighs the negligible loss from the nomex grid. Think of difference between the effort to swing a fly swatter versus a fan or paddle.

In technical terms, the drag coefficient of the flat plate parallel to air flow is only 0.001 to 0.005. A perpendicularly bent fin can have a Cd of up to 2.0. Depending on the fin size model, the drag from one bent fin can equal the drag from 4,000 to 20,000+ straight fins. The nomex grid is just like adding a lot more straight fins.

 

[PeteInCT]

The loss from a flat plate parallel to the direction of air flow is very small. The protection from rock strikes which smash/bend the condenser fins that really do block airflow to the radiator far outweighs the negligible loss from the nomex grid. Think of difference between the effort to swing a fly swatter versus a fan or paddle.

In technical terms, the drag coefficient of the flat plate parallel to air flow is only 0.001 to 0.005. A perpendicularly bent fin can have a Cd of up to 2.0. Depending on the fin size model, the drag from one bent fin can equal the drag from 4,000 to 20,000+ straight fins. The nomex grid is just like adding a lot more straight fins.

Isn't that what I said ? ;D. Lol

 

[Grant 302]

Isn't that what I said ? ;D. Lol

Yessiree! Just supporting your empirical data! Frankly, I was a bit surprised by the numbers after typing out the first part of my post!

 

[steveespo]

I'm going Nomex mod just because it looks cool!
Steve

 

[WinterSucks]

I had seen and forgotten about this stuff last year, thanks for the reminder and data. I, too, was worried about air flow. And looking like a ricer...

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

My panels (and tether kits) arrived today. I should get around to installing them...sometime.

 

[YellowJacketBoss302]

Don't know about the boundary layer drag, but the nomex material blocks about 10% of the area. However, as a previous poster mentioned, bent radiator fins could block much more than that. Someone posted a picture showing a radiator blocked much more than 10% by bent fins.

I can also say that I have noticed no increased coolant temps after installing the nomex.

 

[Grant 302]

Don't know about the boundary layer drag, but the nomex material blocks about 10% of the area. However, as a previous poster mentioned, bent radiator fins could block much more than that. Someone posted a picture showing a radiator blocked much more than 10% by bent fins.

I can also say that I have noticed no increased coolant temps after installing the nomex.

The website product data says the openings are 0.110 to 0.125 and that the wall thickness is 0.001 to 0.002". My worst case calc assuming the 0.002" thickness is 3.2%.

I'll try to verify with measurements when mine come in next week.

 

[Grant 302]

Confirmed their dimensions. The area blocked is between 1.6% and 3.2%. Probably closer to the 1.6% side as most of the sample measurements were closer to .001" thick.

 

[YellowJacketBoss302]

That's great news.
I looked carefully at the honeycomb and now see why my calculations were high. I photographed the material and isolated a singel cell. I then used Photoshop to count the pixels of the "walls" and the opening and from that calculated the percentage blocked by the walls. The problem was ...... there is much fuzz on the face of the material. I think that's where a slab of material is sliced into the finished items. In the photograph some of the "fuzz" looks like little hairs and it is easy to digitally remove. But much of it just looks like part of the wall and makes the wall look much thicker than it really is. I now think, too, that there is a kind of parallax error in the photograph that would make the wall look thicker even without the "fuzz".

I don't know how much resistance the "fuzz" offers to the air flow, but I think your blockage numbers are closer to reality than mine. Thanks for posting.

 

[So Boss]

Thanks for all these tips.
I just ordered Nomex because here in Europe we can enjoy Autobahns. Protection is noce to have.