Increasing air flow through grill

[Bossdog]

I recently acquired a 2019 PP2. I noticed that the small area of the grill that the engine air in take ( drivers side) sits behind has a few hexagon shape opening open but also has some of the hexagon shaped closed from the factory, filled with plastic.
any ideas why all those would not be open?
The passenger side seems to have all of these shapes closed/filled. Seems for a track car it may be worth while to open them up with a dremel to allow for more air flow.
We did that with the 2012 Boss faux round lights in the grill when the Boss was having high temp issues on track.
Sorry if this has already been addressed, if so please point me in the right direction

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[steathv]

I dremeled mine out but do not drive in rain. May have something to do with water infiltration.

 

[daSNAK3]

I am pretty sure its easier and faster to sand it from the back to open them up. I'm nit sure why they are closed but I just got my Bullitt style lower grille so once I have time I am going to remove the bumper and sand the upper and lower grille from the back and open them all up.

 

[Biggus Dickus]

I recently acquired a 2019 PP2. I noticed that the small area of the grill that the engine air in take ( drivers side) sits behind has a few hexagon shape opening open but also has some of the hexagon shaped closed from the factory, filled with plastic.
any ideas why all those would not be open?
The passenger side seems to have all of these shapes closed/filled. Seems for a track car it may be worth while to open them up with a dremel to allow for more air flow.
We did that with the 2012 Boss faux round lights in the grill when the Boss was having high temp issues on track.
Sorry if this has already been addressed, if so please point me in the right direction

I would leave it alone and here's why: drilling holes through the area is unlikely to increase air pressure at the airbox, and hence increase flow in to the airbox. Pop your hood and you will notice that the area in front of the radiator and the airbox is one big open space, so all of the air flowing through the center portion of the grill will pressurize the area in front of the airbox. Keeping the barrier intact will probably prevent debris from flying in there.

Open up you hood and I think the logic will be apparent. I don't think it will do any good.

 

[Marketplaza]

Best way to fix that is to just get a jlt cai, I have the open style in mine and it gets all the air it needs. The stock box is pretty restrictive.

 

[stannypack]

idk but I have the mp concepts upper grille which is hollow on both sides. daily drive it in rain everything seems find

 

[WD Pro]

I am pretty sure its easier and faster to sand it from the back to open them up. I'm nit sure why they are closed but I just got my Bullitt style lower grille so once I have time I am going to remove the bumper and sand the upper and lower grille from the back and open them all up.

Yeah I sanded from the back when I added the big mouth :

WD

 

[Bossdog]

I would leave it alone and here's why: drilling holes through the area is unlikely to increase air pressure at the airbox, and hence increase flow in to the airbox. Pop your hood and you will notice that the area in front of the radiator and the airbox is one big open space, so all of the air flowing through the center portion of the grill will pressurize the area in front of the airbox. Keeping the barrier intact will probably prevent debris from flying in there.

Open up you hood and I think the logic will be apparent. I don't think it will do any good.

I tend to agree with your philosophy, generally the part engineer at Ford has/had many design resources, especially what had been done in the past and didn’t choose the current design randomly.

Best way to fix that is to just get a jlt cai, I have the open style in mine and it gets all the air it needs. The stock box is pretty restrictive.

I looked at the performance improvements of the JLT CIA (and others) with tune. Seems most of the Gains are high in the RPM range, even on a road course track, I’m shifting around 6000 to 6300 Rpm, don’t spend much time up there. For the road course I’m looking for Torque gains around 3000 rpm (and up) plus the Lund tube takes 93 octane, that’s a no-go for me as a daily driver. One of the reasons I purchased the gen3 coyote over an M3/M4 or caddy CT4 black wing is the option to run 89 octane. CiA performance gains in the high RPM’s is common for nearly Ann CIA, regardless of brand or vehicle.
If you find one with gains down low, ( on 89 Oct) please let me know, I’d be interested.

 

[Bossdog]

Yeah I sanded from the back when I added the big mouth :

WD

that looks very nice! Is the remaining hexagon structure still stout? Or does it end up thin and flimsy? Last thing I want to do is replace the grill.

 

[WD Pro]

that looks very nice! Is the remaining hexagon structure still stout? Or does it end up thin and flimsy? Last thing I want to do is replace the grill.

Yes, it’s almost as thick as the centre grill area - and that’s much bigger and less supported.

You can’t flex it by pushing on it by hand and it’s been like that getting on for three years now.

Using the big mouth behind it also minimises / eliminates any of the other concerns i.e. there’s no extra air going through the rad and messing up airflow or causing hood lift etc etc.

There’s also no hot air finding its way into the engine inlet and any increase in airflow due to the ram air effect, is directly fed to the filter / air box.

I power wash that area of the grill no problem - I guess any spray that manages to get as far as the filter is minimal due to the (self draining) pathway anyway.

WD

 

[ice445]

The real engineering reason this is done is to avoid excess drag. The available inlets are more than enough to feed the stock engine at WOT, so they model these pieces around this. Drag kills MPG. It's also why non PP cars have the grille shutter assembly. The entire engine bay is a big parachute essentially, so you only want to draw in what's absolutely required for functionality and cooling. These cars also have a lot of hood surface area, and that excess drag creates lift and hood flutter.

Even if you drill out the untapped holes, the inlet size into the airbox is still the same diameter, so you aren't going to get more real flow out of it. The ram air affect is very minimal outside of very high speed operation.

 

[Keeffa]

Yeah I sanded from the back when I added the big mouth :

WD

I don't think this will improve performance but I really like that it can be done. I nearly bought Cervini grill for more air flow. I like that this is a simple mod. I'm addicted to mods.

 

[WD Pro]

I don't think this will improve performance but I really like that it can be done. I nearly bought Cervini grill for more air flow. I like that this is a simple mod. I'm addicted to mods.

Yeah I don't think just opening the grill would do anything alone (other than increase drag lol), I only opened the grill to feed the big mouth.

The theory on the big mouth seems pretty sound, but if that translates into a measurable benefit it reality, who knows ... ?

WD

 

[ice445]

Yeah I don't think just opening the grill would do anything alone (other than increase drag lol), I only opened the grill to feed the big mouth.

The theory on the big mouth seems pretty sound, but if that translates into a measurable benefit it reality, who knows ... ?

WD

The performance benefit is probably some tenths of a percent, but the important thing is that it looks cool! I also think it's a real pain to clean those "blanked" honeycombs.

 

[Dana Pants]

The gt500 has bigger grill openings I’m pretty sure. The best reason to open the grill is to force more air through the radiator at speed, not the air intake.

Maybe I should do this…

Edit: GT500 pics suggest mainly the lower grill is opened up.

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