HISTORY OF GRILLS MANUFACTURED BY MCCUNE TECHNOLOGY, INC. AND MARKETED BY COSTAL METALS.

I bought a Honda S2000 #233 and decided the condenser coil, radiator coil and exposed refrigeration lines should be protected. I designed and manufactured a Grill and tried it on the S2000 #233. It looked great and screened out bugs, pebbles, birds and other flying objects that would have plugged or damaged the opening in the condenser and radiator coil. To date we have produced 300 Grills and these are used in all parts of the United States and Foreign countries. These areas includes from Canada to Arizona and from New York to California. We have also shipped to England, France and Portugal.

The design was similar to the Grill I designed for the Mazda Miata in 1991. Over 15000 Miata Grills have been produced and sold to distributors across the United States and around the world. .

There is a slight increase in temperature with a dirty radiator or a grill. Extensive testing has been done to determine the temperature changes. I drive my S2000 #233 over 250 miles daily in traffic and the open road. I am on the highway 2 hours twice a day using the product you are buying from us. I have not experienced loss of power or overheating. I want the best performance for my car and yours, so I continue to use the product daily. The Grill is my assurance that I will continue to drive and not have my car in the shop to replace a condenser or radiator coil because of a flying object.

We continue to receive excellent comment on the Grill and our other products. We appreciate your comments on how we can continue to improve the product and the performance of the S2000. We are currently testing a

 

hey, i there is another grill that is available that others on this forum have gotten. It is much cheaper and looks different. It looks kind of like wire mesh, with a diagonal criss-cross pattern to it and has much larger openings. What about temperature increase with that grill? I would imagine it to be substantially less if at all, since the openings are bigger. Anyone know which grill I'm talking about?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by redleader
[B]hey, i there is another grill that is available that others on this forum have gotten.

 

The one that redleader is talking about is Dennis's Grill. I have that one on my car....without any scientific way of measuring engine temperature, I can safely say that there is no adverse affects with this grill.

Even the "meshing" is more of a backward and foward design rather than an up and down design.

 

An earlier posting on this subject suggested that if the grill mesh was such that the open space was, say 50% of the total area, it would be the equivalent of taking a solid sheet of metal and blocking one half of your grill opening.

This argument fails to take into consideration that air compresses and while some of the airflow at the grill would be pushed around the opening when confronted by the solid part of the grill, this would more than likely form a compressibility bubble" in front of the grill and not simply blow by the car. A lot depends upon the overall aerodynamic impact of the car, i.e., presence of a spoiler, height above the road, bra, cleanliness of the finish, etc.

Part of the airflow would still go through the mesh, at most likely at pressures greater than one atmosphere and/or at higher velocity than through a "naked" intake due to this compression effect. It is conceiveable that as speeds increase, the size of the "bubble" of denser air in front of the grill would grow to where the path of least resistance was to flow around the car. I have to think that at normal, mortal, driving speeds an equilibrium is reached where, in this example, 50+% gets through the grill and there is no adverse effect on under hood temperatures.

The other aspect to consider is the effect of cramming excessive apparatus under the hood and what that might do to the air flow equation on the output side. If the air flowing through the radiator has no smooth route out of the engine compartment, would you not create the same net effect of restriting flow. Now, instead of starving the radiator, you are stalling the flow around the radiator with no place to take the waste heat.

Just some thoughts from someone who recently bought a Coastal Metals grill and is rationalizing his purchase.

We need grant money to investigate this one.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by KDuke
[B]An earlier posting on this subject suggested that if the grill mesh was such that the open space was, say 50% of the total area, it would be the equivalent of taking a solid sheet of metal and blocking one half of your grill opening.

 

You may be a contractor, but you sound like one of those JPL guys eating at the public trough. Maybe NSF?

 

No, but I used to build airplane models

 

When I picked up my car last October, I made a grill from some mesh I got from a NASCAR team I work with. I did it to keep the road debris out of the radiator and it has worked great. It was easy to make, easy to install, and had no impact on the # of bars. I just purchased the grill from Costal and will install upon my return.

I'll post photos of the one I made plus the one from Costal. Even if I get 4 bars with the new grill, there are so many variables that I think it would be difficult to say whether the new grill is entirely responsible. In any event, photos to come of both options when I finally get home toward the end of the month.