VegasJen

we all know the corvette is a bottom breather. so what happens when you remove that air dam underneath? well, last year at buttonwillow i managed to catch air over 'magic moutain' and when i came back down i folded the air dam under the car. the mile back to the pits rubbed a nice, big hole in it. so this weekend i decided it was time to fab my new one out of sheetmetal. i pulled off the old one and got to work. well yesterday i needed to make a run and decided i would take the vette since i was only looking at about 14 mile round trip and my truck is about out of fuel.
so i roll out of my neighborhood and the car still hasn't warmed up. full throttle acceleration on the freeway and wattaknow, i'm up to 190*. that's not too bad, i'm thinking. get off the freeway after a couple miles and it's at about 205. at this point, i really should have gotten the hint and turned around. i keep going the rest of the 4-5 miles to my destination and the temp is ~230* when i get there :eek: since i didn't need to be long, i just killed the engine with the kill switch and let the electric fans run. when i got back in it, it had dropped back down to 210*. i'm thinking i'll be o.k. if i make most of the lights back to the freeway since it's down hill. of course, i didn't doing alot of short shifting and i still got on the freeway at 240* :eek: this is where things go real screwy. even on the freeway i apparently go NO airflow. the temperature didn't come down at all.
when i got off the freeway it's about 1.5 miles to my house, mostly residential, but uphill. i pulled in the driveway at 260*+. HOLY CRAP!!! so i left the engine running and sprayed mist of water on the radiator slowly for about 5 minutes until the temp stablized at about 210 when i shut it down.
hope i didn't hurt her. i haven't restarted since because i was doing an oil change. i'm about done with the new air dam and hope to have pics before and after. she's been a damn good car so far. i just hate when i screw up like this. :bb

72GACRZR

Thanks for the information. I will take good care of mine. :seeya

Rockn-Roll

When you shut off the engine you also shut off coolant flow, thus the 210* was just the temp of the coolant in the thermostat housing...the coolant in the engine would be way higher...perhaps 260*, while the coolant in the radiator was probabbly like 180*. When you started it back up the coolant would mix a bit...the gauge would probably show a quick jump up, then down, and then keep increasing. You should have kept the engine running after you got there, but of course that would mean waiting like 15 minutes until it cooled down. Spraying a mist of water into the radiator would help quite a bit actually...perhaps taking a squirt bottle with us might help in the coming hot weather.

I don't think you damaged anything too bad...I hope. 260* is way up there, and that's just the temp at the thermostat housing...the temp around the cylinder walls would be higher. If it was boiling then you would see air in the system...the presure relief valve would let out the air...signs of this would be left in the coolant reservoir showing where bubbles had splattered foam around inside, and possibly the cap would get blown off. Be sure to check inside the radiator itself when it's cool, to make sure there isn't a lot of air in the radiator...fill to top with 50/50 coolant/water or whatever you are using.

Aluminum air dam would be helpful if you get towed too...I had just painted mine and had to get it towed...it was a flatbed tow vehicle, but the tow chains pressed up against the air dam and cracked it down the middle.

71roadster

Thats weird. I don't have any air dam and my electric fans don't even come on when on the freeway. Temp hovers right around 180 when on the freeway. Nor do I have any of the rubber moldings around the radiator either. I would suspect other things as well as the air dam. Especially having the radiator re-cored of 'rodded'. Especially important before you install that new engine I know you are building.

Chris

turtlevette

quote "catch air over 'magic moutain' "

holy crap clutch. you are radical.

this brings 2 words to mind.

THEM DUKES! THEM DUKES!



[Modified by turtlevette, 4:55 PM 4/7/2003]

StarLord

@71roadster: Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's because your car wasn't designed with an air dam. You have the grills/vents in the front which catch and funnel the air. On the 78-82 Vettes with the intigrated front air dams, the front is different. (Look at the picture of Cluch's Vette. No big grills/vents on the front, so the source of air to the rad is through the dam.)

spinedoc

I often wondered about the airdam. I have owned my 80 for one year and never had an airdam on it. I noticed at highway speeds and up, my engine temp would rise. I have a fresh radiator and a rebuilt motor. I thought could this be happening just because I am missing 2 rubber pieces below the front end?

So over the winter i picked up the left and right rubber spoilers and put em on. I hope this cures my overheating problem.

VegasJen

rockn-roll, fortunately, the radiator is a newer griffin so i'm not worried about that. i do need to insulate around it though because the temp would still get up to 200-205* even on the freeway before i removed the dam. before the dam came off, it was pretty consistantly running ~200* which is a little higher than i want but acceptable.
i'm not too concerned about the temp readings being accurate as my temp sender is in the head and not in the thermostat housing. i am still concerned about the temperature she reached but if i damaged anything then, well, it's only my fault. she was pretty stable at about 210 for a minute or two prior to me shutting her down. i probably should have let her run even longer but i figure at what point is it just no more of a problem.
wish me luck guys. i'll keep you posted.

VegasJen

hey jim, man, trust me, it's not something i'm proud of. it was truely one of the less spectacular exibitions of my driving prowess. when i get air, i'm more like a 'cleatus' than a 'luke' duke! :lol:

adam

Sounds similar....

My car doesn't have an air dam on it either. It also doesn't have the rubber strip
across the front of the hood. Without this rubber strip, the temps stay okay due
to the drawing action of the air.

When I bought a rubber strip and applied it to the hood, my temps began to rise
and the engine was significantly hotter. So I ripped it back off, until I get the air
dam (now in my possession) put on...

Not the best alternative, but better than burning up the car...

Yes, I know this doesn't help the air conditioning, cooling effects, but until you get
there....

StarLord

I'm scared. If everyone is adding air dams to their cars, I'll never find that damless car I want. I already figured out that there's probably about 4000 79 Vettes I would find acceptable in the world. If people are doing this, maybe that number is more like 2000. :eek: Those of you adding a non-integrated dam to your cars, is it removable afterwards? Or is this more like a permanent improvement.

PROSOUTH

"catch air over 'magic moutain' "Holy crap clutch. you are radical.

this brings 2 words to mind.

THEM DUKES! THEM DUKES!

Turtlevette you outta ride with with ol' Clutch Duke sometime, he'll give you your moneys worth, I guarentee ya!........ I got my moneys worth!:yesnod:

Clutch, I wonder too if you didn't have a thermostat stuck on your car. Jim

Shark Racer

78s are also "damless". The pace car spoiler is removable with no visible bolt holes. Not sure if the stock setup had these holes. All the holes are up underneath the body, out of sight to anyone unless you crawl in.

However, I really think the dam is worthwhile... the stock pre-80's had a small dam anyhow, to funnel air in. It's necessary for cooling! The one on the pre-80s was not noticeable, maybe like half an inch to an inch tall?

-Steve