Cardboard In Front Of Radiator

boogieman

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 3, 2008
Location
Lewistown, MT
TDI
'04 Jetta TDI, Gray, Completely stock(unfortunately), including the gay hubcaps, 138,000miles
Is it ok to put cardboard in front of the radiatior in cold weather to try and keep some heat in my TDI:eek:
 

Joe_Meehan

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 3, 2005
Location
Ohio USA
TDI
NB TDI, 2002.5, Silver
Do some searching. There have been quite a few threads on that including some with some very good suggestions for how to do it.
 

rodejetta

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2006
Location
South Rawdon, Nova Scotia
TDI
Jetta2001
Do not use cardboard, the first day when there is slush on the road it will disintegrate into a brown mess. Use a piece of vinyl flooring or something else that does not suffer from moisture. Guess how I know....
 

dr.zed

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
I've never had to use any method to keep heat in my 03 TDI. Saying that I can idle and reject enough heat through the blower motor on 4 on a cold day so after about 10 minutes the temp gauge will go from the middle down to the first few bars.

The car still has enough heat to be comfortable.
 

honda_vtec2

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2008
Location
Toronto
TDI
2000 Golf ALH tdi, 1997 Jetta 1z tdi
Have you guys tried using duct tape. I did my A3 upper grille and lower passenger vent on the bumper with black duct tape. Can't notice that it has tape until you are looking at it from within a 2 foot radius. I ran out of tape while doing the lower grille. I'm not sure how well it works as my car is running without the lower and upper engine covers at the moment. It seems to keep the slush/dirt out a bit.
 

whatnxt

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2003
Location
Lk Stevens, WA
TDI
2015 Q5 TDI Premium +
I tried the pipe insulation trick to increase the heat in the engine. At only 35 outside temp, the maximum oil temp that I could get was 135F. At an outside temp of 70, it would run at 170F. With the insulation, the oil temp came-up to 155-165F while driving. The issue was if I got stuck in stop and go traffic after being on the freeway. The oil temp shot up to 235F. It dropped to 210F once I started to move. That is way too hot, even with 507 oil. Removed the insulation. Water temp remained 175F-185 on a ScanII and 190F on the stock gauge. Not much difference with or without the insulation in place for water temp.

Just be careful as the indicated temp on the water temp gauge did not change in both cases. There was a great change in the oil temp. The VW winter front might be different.
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
Allways leave a space/open for air to be drawn by the radiator fans when the motor gets hot...

If you are going to use a VERY inexpensive covering, then use WAX cardboard box(the stuff that cabbage/carrots and other perishable veggies come in.
This WILL work for ONE season unless you drive behind a semi and get the slosh onto you directly.

A longer lasting manner is to use shower curtain(s), the good thick kind. These will last way longer and you can actually move them around for the proper fit!

I live in the cold Colorado mountains(@ 7.300"), I know cold(brrrrr)!
 

sqhschief

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Location
Tennessee
TDI
2000 Jetta TDi, 1981 Chevrolet LUV Diesel! Non-turbo :(
honda_vtec2 said:
Have you guys tried using duct tape. I did my A3 upper grille and lower passenger vent on the bumper with black duct tape. Can't notice that it has tape until you are looking at it from within a 2 foot radius. I ran out of tape while doing the lower grille. I'm not sure how well it works as my car is running without the lower and upper engine covers at the moment. It seems to keep the slush/dirt out a bit.
Heck yes I just slapped on some duct tape a couple days ago and wow what a difference. I will be removing the tape for something that wont hurt my eyes when I look at it. I just did the tape to see how well it would actually work for me ;).
 

nokivasara

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Location
Sweden @ Lat 61N
TDI
Tiguan 4-motion, Golf mk7
How does a bit of cardboard heat up the engine quicker? The t-stat is there for a reason :D



I have always used cardboard infront of the rad to prevent the coolant to feeze when driving at -30C...The coolant turns into slush and the flow decreases which further drops the temp of the coolant inside the radiator. When it gets bad enough the engine gets overheated because of the restricted flow of coolant through the rad.
That´s why I use it, not to heat up the engine quicker.
 

Bob_Fout

Oil Wanker
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Location
Indiana
TDI
2003 Jetta - Alaska Green (sold) / 2015 GTI 2.0T
nokivasara said:
How does a bit of cardboard heat up the engine quicker? The t-stat is there for a reason :D



I have always used cardboard infront of the rad to prevent the coolant to feeze when driving at -30C...The coolant turns into slush and the flow decreases which further drops the temp of the coolant inside the radiator. When it gets bad enough the engine gets overheated because of the restricted flow of coolant through the rad.
That´s why I use it, not to heat up the engine quicker.
Your coolant should not be doing that:eek: Wrong coolant or wrong ratio?
 

eric_x

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Location
Minnesota
TDI
'96 TDI Passat Wagon
I cut up a plastic lawn sign and coated it with black duct tape, then put it behind the front grille. There's still space on either side for some circulation. Is it OK to cover parts of the bottom vent, and if so, how much?
 

nokivasara

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Location
Sweden @ Lat 61N
TDI
Tiguan 4-motion, Golf mk7
Bob_Fout said:
Your coolant should not be doing that:eek: Wrong coolant or wrong ratio?
No, but a 50-50 ratio is good down to -35C and if it´s colder it will freeze. 60-40 = -40C.
I don´t live upnorth anymore and haven´t used a grille cover for years, it only gets down to about -25C where I live now, summerlike temperatures :D
 

nokivasara

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Location
Sweden @ Lat 61N
TDI
Tiguan 4-motion, Golf mk7
compu_85 said:
It makes less air flow over the engine. At those temps that's enough to cool it off.

-Jaso
And when it does that the thermostat closes and the engine temp increases, with or without the cover. ;)

I don´t think it´s wrong to cover up the grille, but I don´t think it´ll get up to temp faster. I might be wrong though.
 

compu_85

Gadget Guy
Joined
Sep 29, 2003
Location
La Conner, WA
TDI
... None :S
I said over the engine, not the radiator. There's got to be some direct cooling of air flowing over the engine itself.

-Jason
 

Bob_Fout

Oil Wanker
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Location
Indiana
TDI
2003 Jetta - Alaska Green (sold) / 2015 GTI 2.0T
The engine very noticeably warms up quicker with the winter front on, and also maintains the normal 184 to 186*F coolant temp vs. a few degrees cooler w/o it.
 

sqhschief

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Location
Tennessee
TDI
2000 Jetta TDi, 1981 Chevrolet LUV Diesel! Non-turbo :(
Bob_Fout said:
The engine very noticeably warms up quicker with the winter front on, and also maintains the normal 184 to 186*F coolant temp vs. a few degrees cooler w/o it.
Mine is more than a few degrees colder without blocking the vents.
 

TornadoRed

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Joined
Aug 3, 2003
Location
West Des Moines (formerly St Paul)
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI wagon, silver; 2003 Jetta TDI wagon, indigo blue; 2003 Golf GL 5-spd, red (PARTED); 2003 Golf GLS 5-spd, indigo blue (SOLD); 2003 Jetta TDI wagon, Candy White (SOLD)

Bob_Fout

Oil Wanker
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Location
Indiana
TDI
2003 Jetta - Alaska Green (sold) / 2015 GTI 2.0T
TornadoRed said:
Does this work alone or together with the genuine VW bra?
Not sure TR. Later today I'll try and take pics of how they fit, might able to tell if they would interfere with the bra.
 

SpeedFreek

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Location
Racine, WI
TDI
2005 New Jetta
I was considering replacing the radiator with a hose for the winter, the damn thing wont get warm when its like this. The last few days its been right around 0* to 5*F and it takes about 5 miles on the freeway to feel warm air come out of the vents, thats after about a 5 mile drive to the freeway. If I could plug it it wherever I go that wouldn't bother me much but the never getting warm thing gets old. At an average stop light I can have the gauge drop about halfway for coolant temperature, thats after a 20 mile trip on the freeway.

I have some black corrugated plastic that I was going to put in front of the radiator to see if it helps but cant find a good way to slip it in there.
 

boogieman

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 3, 2008
Location
Lewistown, MT
TDI
'04 Jetta TDI, Gray, Completely stock(unfortunately), including the gay hubcaps, 138,000miles
Well
I am going to order a winter front when I order oil for my next change.

In the meantime I just cut up some hard packaging foam into strips and put it in the slats of the grill leaving the VW emblem uncovered for a little air flow, and then wrapped the bumper grill in some bubble wrap. It makes a huge difference, before id have to run the car out on the highway to warm it up and then it be ice when I came back to town. Now it will usually holds about 120-140 in town and warms up completely on the highway(its been -10 to -20F the last three days). I wasnt able to get cardboard in without taking the front of the car apart so I looked around the bosses shop for anything else that would work.
 
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climbtheplanet

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 22, 2008
Location
Boulder, CO
TDI
2001 Golf
It is now between 0 degrees and 40 degrees F here now depending on weather conditions and nightime/daytime, so. . .

I just installed the "pipe insulation" method and I noticed an immediate positive difference. My engine warms up much quicker, my heater works far faster and does not decrease my coolant temps when driving at low speeds with the blower on high and my SVO fuel temperature increases far faster and stays hotter. In fact, it works so well I am going to keep a close eye on my coolant temps to make sure it does not work too well. Plus it all cost me about 6 bucks!
 

Nevada_TDI

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 17, 2008
Location
Reno, sort of...
TDI
2001 Jetta TDI
I tried the foam pipe insulation fix and it did help a little by blocking the front grille slots, but coming home two nights ago my coolant temp never got above 180F according to my my "extra" temp sender. The dash of course said 190F but it wasn't... I just installed a flexible cutting board to cover half of my radiator to see what kind of numbers I get today. I popped the grille off, cut the mat in half, and installed it in two pieces as the core support members were in the way to use a full piece. I also noticed there was a lip at the bottom front of the condenser, so I set the bottom edge of the cutting board in there and "secured" the top edge in by using more of the foam insulation for spacers. The foam doesn't crack at -5F, so for right now, i'll see how it goes.

EDIT: The flexible cutting board really helped temp wise. I got 191F the other day after approx 30 minutes of driving. It stayed put, and wasn't affected by the rain.
 
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