Here in Florida its not to long until we are into love bug season. Anyone that has not seen it would never believe it. A couple hour drive on the interstate and the entire front of the truck is covered.

My concern is the inter cooler on my 2011 ecoboost. Theove bugs are enough to completly clog the fins on the heat exchanger. Are there any products or ideas out there to eliminate this? Thought of making something out of screening but i am concerned about the reduced airflow.

 

That's a catch 22.....

use a cover to block bugs so intercooler stays clean, the cover plugs up....thus airflow is blocked...

or use nothing and the bugs plug up the intercooler.....thus the airflow is blocked.....

 

I would think leaving it and checking it every so often is your best bet. Im sure it was designed to have some restriction and still work. but by you putting another barrier up could make it worse.

 

I know.when figuring ventilation for an attic the calculation of the opening is reduced by 50% of screen is installed. I wohld assume the same in this instance? I was thinking of at least spraying the fins with silicone to reduce the sticking.

 

I am thinking of using hardware cloth the stuff with the 1/4 inch mesh across the hole in the bumper. Thinking that should help.some.

 

My last diesel I had came from florida and behind the grill they had zip tied a tight wire mesh behind the whole grill. It was fairly clean and in good shape. First trip to the dealer they called me out and said what is this, and I said IDK must have been from last owner for bugs in florida. They said you have two options, well cut it out now or leave and risk over heat issues and not be covered because we documented this mesh.

I wouldnt mess with it, when you cover grills and such you have to be careful specially with engines with forced inductions. Even diesels its supposes to be a certain temp before you throw the grill blanket on. I think your over thinking it and would just let it be.

 

That's what I'd do.....and have

Around here out west the grasshoppers are a PIA.....their guts clog alot of fins....

 

This is what my dad has done on all of his trucks...and something that I'll get around to doing eventually.

 

The F150 with EcoBoost has been selling well, and customers are accumulating significant mileage on the EcoBoost trucks in a large variety of operating environments. We have been closely following customer feedback and have found no evidence of damage to the Charge Air Cooler (CAC) due to impact damage. This customer feedback matches our experience in developing this truck. When developing the EcoBoost, we ran the truck through our full truck durability route and the CAC emerged undamaged and fully functional. The durability route included stone impact evaluations and is much more rigorous than typical customer usage.Due to the design of the cooling system and the performance requirements of the CAC, we estimate that blockage of less than 5% of the open area would still provide adequate cooling performance. Blockage of over 5% of the area would impact the performance of the engine. A screen that will block 25% of the CAC opening area is something we do not recommend.Again, all of our testing and customer data to date gives us confidence that a screen is not necessary. Thank you for your question, and we hope you are enjoying your F150.

Jackie Marshall Di Marco <BR itxtNodeId="87">Chief Engineer - F150/Expedition/Navigator

 

an hour drive down rt 75 during the lovebug season would block nearly 100% of the area. drove it last year in my 05 and you are unable to see the paint thru the bugs. i am thinking that the 1/4 inch screen would catch some and breakup the bugs, slow them down so they dont stick as bad.

 

Get a Db bug screen. Easy install, easy to remove and clean, reasonable price. I just installed one on my radiator & intercooler and it doesn't seem to restrict air flow. http://dbugscreen.com/

 

Thanks for the link hrdude. Looks like it would keep the bugs off the radiator and intercooler but the screen itself would cut airflow by at least 50% due to the material present.