front air dam effect on cooling...
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From: upstate ny
front air dam effect on cooling... well, after 2+ years of owning my car, I have noticed that it does not have the front air dam on it. I have heard that without it, your car will certainly run hot. Thing is, my car has NEVER ran hot, and that includes 90+ temps with the a/c on..I have an aftermarket temp gauge as well, so its not because I am looking at the dummy factory gauge. Car does not go over 205ish. 210 is the middle of the dummy gauge, so I would assume that is not too warm, or is it? Any comments would be welcome. And yes, I will be ordering one anyways.
It's supposed to help with directing the air upwards toward the radiator while at highway speeds, FWIW I've never seen one fail to overheat if the air dam is gone (except of course yours)
205* is within factory specs for the car, so it's not too warm, got me stumped, that's one of the first things you check if the car is only overheating at highway speeds
205* is within factory specs for the car, so it's not too warm, got me stumped, that's one of the first things you check if the car is only overheating at highway speeds
you cant use the factory gauge as a gauge of your temp.Unless you have efi live or hp tuners you really have no idea what its running at.205 and 230 is the same on the factory gauge..And if you dont have an airdamn then its definitly running hotter then normal.With the ac on the fans automatically turn on,which will cool things down a bit.
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Joined: Apr 2005
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From: upstate ny
Originally Posted by redtail2426
you cant use the factory gauge as a gauge of your temp.Unless you have efi live or hp tuners you really have no idea what its running at.205 and 230 is the same on the factory gauge..And if you dont have an airdamn then its definitly running hotter then normal.With the ac on the fans automatically turn on,which will cool things down a bit.
Originally Posted by nasty99WS6
..I have an aftermarket temp gauge as well, so its not because I am looking at the dummy factory gauge...
well beats me, i always thought it would run hot...even if its not id still get one....i saw a metal one on ebay once(i dont suggest u buy that though... one parking curb and its done..and looked tacky) id stick w/ a stock plastic one, they are prolly super cheap at a junk yard
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Well here's some food for thought.
If the car can sit still and idle for hours without overheating (I've done it at Taco Bell
), why do you think it would run hot otherwise? The engine will be producing more heat with greater RPMs, but it's nothing the fans shouldn't be able to handle. If you idled the car at 2000rpms in the driveway, the fans would come on more often, but I doubt it would overheat. Now I haven't crunched the numbers on the CFM pull of the fans and the heat tranfer from the radiator, and I'm probably not going to, so this is just a guess. 
The fans should control the engine temperature. The purpose of the air dam is to relieve some of the cooling duty the fans will need to provide while driving around.
If the car can sit still and idle for hours without overheating (I've done it at Taco Bell
), why do you think it would run hot otherwise? The engine will be producing more heat with greater RPMs, but it's nothing the fans shouldn't be able to handle. If you idled the car at 2000rpms in the driveway, the fans would come on more often, but I doubt it would overheat. Now I haven't crunched the numbers on the CFM pull of the fans and the heat tranfer from the radiator, and I'm probably not going to, so this is just a guess. The fans should control the engine temperature. The purpose of the air dam is to relieve some of the cooling duty the fans will need to provide while driving around.
I know a guy who reinforced his air damn by putting some aluminum/metal behind the air damn to keep it from bending back at high speeds. He swears it helps the Fast toys and cooling.
I'm about to pull mine off and trim it a bit, because I'm tired of it scraping in a few places out where I work. If it doesn't overheat while parked, I can't see how it would overheat while going down the road. The fans are what keep it from overheating, not the air dam, it only deflects air into the radiator. Hmmm..maybe pulling it off will help with aerodynamics
Originally Posted by TheBlurLS1
Well here's some food for thought.
If the car can sit still and idle for hours without overheating (I've done it at Taco Bell ), why do you think it would run hot otherwise? The engine will be producing more heat with greater RPMs, but it's nothing the fans shouldn't be able to handle. If you idled the car at 2000rpms in the driveway, the fans would come on more often, but I doubt it would overheat. Now I haven't crunched the numbers on the CFM pull of the fans and the heat tranfer from the radiator, and I'm probably not going to, so this is just a guess.
The fans should control the engine temperature. The purpose of the air dam is to relieve some of the cooling duty the fans will need to provide while driving around.
If the car can sit still and idle for hours without overheating (I've done it at Taco Bell
), why do you think it would run hot otherwise? The engine will be producing more heat with greater RPMs, but it's nothing the fans shouldn't be able to handle. If you idled the car at 2000rpms in the driveway, the fans would come on more often, but I doubt it would overheat. Now I haven't crunched the numbers on the CFM pull of the fans and the heat tranfer from the radiator, and I'm probably not going to, so this is just a guess. The fans should control the engine temperature. The purpose of the air dam is to relieve some of the cooling duty the fans will need to provide while driving around.
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Originally Posted by 2K2WS6TA
It's supposed to help with directing the air upwards toward the radiator while at highway speeds
