i don't have an air dam on my car right now, which is the reason for nor driving it right now since i live in texas. i know that it prevents overheating, but i was under the impression that it was one piece. at hawks, it's a three piece set up. how does that work?

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/air_dams

 

ill take this one , the stock one was a rubbler like 1 piece one and the new ones are a hard plastic and 3 pieces. It just bolts in . Only took like 10 min to install if that . very easy to do .And it sounds awesome when it scrapes the ground since its hard plastic .

 

I believe (though may be wrong) that the 1 piece is for Firebirds without the TA ground effects package. Mine is an '86 TA with the 3 piece one pictured. The two smaller pieces connect to the sides of the longer piece under the larger TA front bumper cover (which blocks more air from the radiator than the Firebird bumper does, hence the bigger dam).

My friend's TA had this same three piece plastic dam stock back in '87, so I assumed it was stock on my '86 too. I remember because we replaced it in auto shop class after he broke it running over a racoon...

 

my 85 trans am only had a 1 big piece that curved around . But as many people know 85 was a wierd year .

 

thanks for the info...looks like i'm going to have to rig something up to hold for about a week. my other means of transpertation decided to quit tonight (fuel pump). tomorrow morning, i'll be cruzin' the bird again...with some sort of temporary air dam.

 

My '89 GTA had the 3 piece style.

 

my 88 GTA has the one pice.

 

I have a 88 GTA with a one piece too, seem to be the original... I had a 89 Firebird with a 1 piece too...

 

my temporary solution works as long as i dont get stuck in traffic. i put a piece of cardboard where the air dam should be and i can make it to work just fine (20 miles away). before, i couldn't even go 3 miles before overheating.

 

the prior owner of my car removed the air dam. he said it caused the car to overheat. i have never had aproblem with it off. i have an 86 2.8L

 

i had mine removed before i bought the car. seems to hold up im guessing since he jimmyed the fan to run constant. ive only had to replace the rad. because it rusted on the bottom on me. i got the 305

 

got the three piece in yesterday. only took about 6 days to get here. i'll be putting it on today, and no more cardboard.

 

I doubt not having the air dam is what was causing your over- heat problem. They only work when going at higher speeds anyway. In traffic an air dam does nothing. It just captures the air and pushes it up toward the radiator, and that can only happen when the car is moving.

I have a 90 Firebird with the trans am ground effects and I have a 3 piece air dam. One side broke and was haging so I just un-bolted both sides and just left the middle.

 

what i ment was i could start my car and drive my car to work without it overheating....the cardboard just delayed the fact that it would overheat on the highway...as long as there was no traffic, the car didn't have time to overheat, but if i got stuck in traffic, my car would naturally get hot and then overheat when i got going again. the cardboard helped delay it enough that i could make it to work.

 

you also might check into the thermostat (might be flaky) nad also burp the coolant system ( may have some air pockets) ...just my .02