Am I missing an air dam or deflector?

[Toronado3800]

Now that we are getting into the low 90's my car runs warmer.  My fans come on, my oil and coolant levels are good.  Still my car works itself up to right under 220 and then the fans must hit high gear or something because it cools down more on the highway and just holds that 219 ish idling on the driveway.

Before we get our 100 degree days and I was stuck in traffic I'm wondering if I'm missing an air dam or something.





Thanks in advance.

[rorafan]

Yep, looks like your air dam is gone as it seems to be on 90% of Classics. What's more important is the "belly pan" that closes off the space between the bottom of the rad and the engine subframe. It looks like yours is there but hard to tell from the angle. It's held on by ~10 of those plastic retainer clips. Mine was missing and the car ran way hotter on the highway without it.

The good news is the belly pan is still available. Bad news is the air dam is not, or at the very least is going to be REALLY hard to find. I run without it.

My car also sees ~220 after a hwy drive once I get home or if sitting in traffic.

Some pics from an old thread:

Air dam


Belly pan





aurorah.proboards.com/thread/2108

[RCA1186]

I run mine without the belly pan, it's sitting in my garage. My car next to never comes near 200 on or off the highway, in fact I was running it in 90 degree weather, AC on max on the highway yesterday and it hovered around 190ish on the gauge. I don't think it has a large effect on cooling, the piece that has the most effect is the curved one up inside the opening for the radiator, the one that directs the air up into the radiator (which seems to be present on your car) Once that was bent out on my car and caused a 10 degree spike in temperature.

[Toronado3800]

Thanks guys for taking the time. I can see how part of my air dam piece is missing. May as well hunt it down. After taking a couple more pics I think I have the bellie plate. In fact it has some scribbles on it I associate with junkyard markings. Hmmmmm...maybe my car went off road sometime and that is why they paint is all scratched to shucks.

[Toronado3800]

At the pick n pull there were 4 Auroras right wherr the computer said they were but none had the air dam.

Heck, I also have a MarkVIII and so did they. It and all their big Lincolns were missing the driver's door puah button for the fuel door too!

Makes me realize my problems aren't all that special.

[freebird5049]

Man.... My car normally ran 250-260, right below the orange lines in heavy traffic on hot days (85' in western ny). When I read that was really high I took out my hood insulation and weather seal that ran between hood and air vent so air could flow freely and give it a cowl effect, has consistantly ran 200 and under since I did that, amazing difference. I might add, I was getting 28 mpg hwy at 72 and 32 mpg going 55 on back roads, now that it's cooler I run 25 hwy and 30 back roads, non ethanol 91 octane helps too, gets better mpg than that 10% ethanol crap, I ran the numbers and it costs the same to pay 4.60 for non ethanol cause of the mpg increase