i've been hearing about these for a bit, im sure i have one but what do they look like, kinda new to this....kinda curious...thanx...dont laugh

 

the air dam is the black/dark gray plastic air deflector that mounts below the radiator, and it's about 3" high and runs the width of the car on some with ground effects, and at least under the radiator. it's responsible for A LOT of the cooling, so if you don't have one, get one.

 

how much is one of those little guys?

 

for the 92 i just bought, i think it was $21 from the dealer. 5-6 bolts right into the radiator support area

(you really only need the center section. the outside parts are nice to have and probably help aerodynamics, but the center does 80% of the cooling)

 

yeah a good air dam is needed for cooling on the highway...

 

that air damn is the thing that always scrapes when you come into parking lots or whatnot.

 

i never even heard of one until a friend told me.. once i got one car ran like new! i got mine from a scrap yard for 10 bucks but the dealers in NJ wanted 35 for it

 

They are also good for plastering random animals that happen to run under your car while your driving (ie groundhogs, cats, etc.). Mine was pretty ragged and torn, so I took it off, havent had any heating problems as of yet, but who knows, its not summer yet.

 

Patrickm00 says his is about 3 inches high. On my 86 TA,it is very short. And it was rounding back at the bottom edge so I knew it wasn't pulling enough air through. I went to the junk yard and got an air dam off a Chev S-10 pickup. The bolts are on the outside and is easy to remove. It also has bracing at the bottom edge on the back side which will help. I just laid it over the one on the car, drilled some 1/4 inch holes, and bolted it on. Total cost, $5.00 for the air dam, and $2.00 for the bolts. I adjusted mine down closer to the road since I have a 406 and needed more cooling. Works well but I havent had it out in real hot weather yet. I used a jig saw to cut it the same width asthe radiator.

 

going closer to the ground won't necessarily make for better cooling. it not only deflects air upward, but this causes a low pressure and turbulent area behind it, which causes some air to swirl upwards into the engine compartment.

i've got a 92, so the length may be a bit different than yours, but the stock heights should be ok. another inch or so probably won't hurt, but just don't go too far.

 

They suck though when u have to crawl under your car to look at something and its in the way or you coming out from under the car and it catches ya and wont let yua go...AHHH...but still good though

 

Took mine off of my IROC as well for the same reason and left it off for 2 years straight and never went past 195* ever; even on the hottest days.

 

dont laugh but i thought that was a scrapeguard or sumthin haha. well it does serve its purpose as that as well. how talented the air dam is

 

I still look at mine and think... how the hell could such a little minute piece of PLASTIC be the solution of my seemingly never ending overheating problem

 

honestly, i didn't know what a big difference it made until i disassembled the body of my car while painting. well, that part ended up getting misplaced, and i didn't think it'd be a big deal w/2 big fans there. well, 7 miles later, things were getting a little to hot under the collar, and i've never driven w/o one since.

 

out of fear of getting it ripped out from under my car i ALWAYS back in. If i pull in i'm about 5 feet from that stupid parking bumper!

 

Actually, if used in conjunction with side air skirts, it helps KEEP turbulent air from under the vehicle. I noticed an immediate improvemewnt in "stick" over 90 MPH with the lowered nose and side skirts:



You'll see most F1 and NASCAR bodies have almost NO clearance between the air dam, shirts, and ground. The rear is left wide open to help create a vacuum under the body to help hold it down even more. The turbulent air left behind isn't your problem, but could be an issue for the guy on your bumper. They've been on my car since 1995, and I haven't wiped them off on ramps or curbs yet.

 

belive me, i'm an aerospace engineer, so i understand turbulent and laminar flows

what i was talking about was the turbulence caused by vortex shedding in the flow up towards the radiator/engine, not really under the rest of the car.

part of the reason the back end of race cars is left wide open is also for reduced drag. most cars leave lots of turbulent air behind them, that's why drafting works, since the reconnection of the top/bottom flows doesn't happen until later, so there's less of a loss to the front car and back car, since they're only taking about half each, as the flow stays mostly laminar between them.

 

in english please. j/k.


so having your car higher off the ground or lower to the ground is better for cooling? Or does it even make a difference?

 

I'd like to try Vaders side skirts!, but in the meantime I made up an Ally air dam.

 

Just a note while we are on the subject of "air dams". There can be much confusion and margin of error on this topic. It starts because we call them air dams. GM does not.... they're called "deflectors" or "baffles".

Also there are several baffles and several styles depending on the year. Some people speak of the "3 piece" strip whereas my 86 has a 1 piece strip. Using the drawing below for reference this is my humble opinion.

All of us Firebird (T/A) owners because of the lack of a grille suck up airflow from beneath. We all have some type of strip like part number 11. Some of us have 1 piece, some have 3. Some of us check under our cars and say "yep" it's there.

However: there is a much more important baffle and that would be part #10. The part that bolts to the bottom of the radiator and that part #11 bolts to it.

While it is possible to be without part 11 and not overheat, should you have part 10 missing or damaged you most definitely will overheat.

Both of these parts are air baffles sometimes called "air dams".

<img src=http://www.gmtips.com/3rd-degree/pix/post/arc/airdam-2.gif>

 

i made up one out of metal that looked really good until i caught it pulling out of a driveway, it looked clean but naturally was sharp as hell i had a squirel go under one time and i thought he had ducked down enough to clear i got to school and a squirrel head fell off that little ledge in front of the radiator. ooops

 

That is sick.......

I heard a story where a dude driving a big lifted 4x4 hit a dog. By the time he got home he had to "pick" out the dog from his suspention parts under the truck. uke:

 

Is there something else you can do to cool your engine down so you can take the deflector off? that thing is just a PITA. Im on my second one already.

 

Mine was held in with 2 zipties in each hole, but they just aren't strong enough. I'm going to order one from the damn dealer. A few of the bolt holes are broke

 

if you really had a lot of time on your hands, you might be able to rig one up that can bend in half when necessary. the idea would be to cut it in half or so horizontally, and use some kind of hinges with springs to keep tension. that way, if you drive over a rock or a speed bump, the mechanical force would bend it backward, but not rip it off. but you'd have to keep the springs strong enough to stand up to the aerodynamic forces. in fact, you could probably even hinge the mounting brackets, now that i think of it... but in any case, i'd just keep it down there, and buy a new one for $10 from a yard if you ever rip it off...

 

I have been making my own aluminum air dams to replace parts number 10 and 11 above for 3 years now and I am sick of them breaking (al. sucks for cracking).

What you would want to do is make your own chin duct that goes under the front of the bumper and mates to the hole the air gets "deflected" into by the stock dam.

I am going to lay one up out of glass and see how well it cools. then I might sell them if it works well.

The only problem with having a real DUCT is that the aero loads from going fast could rip it off whereas the air dam from the factory just bends back. So it prolly will weigh more than the stock dam.

 

those air damns are so annoying
i took mine off cuz it scraped going over just about everything except a perfectly flat road....
then the engine started running really hot....
and i think my dad threw it out so i have to buy a new one
they really are necessary for cooling though

 

umm, theres a reason the factory air dam is made of plastic....

it flexes...
if you want to make one out of alum or fiberglass, you'll need to put it on a hinge of some sort..

id reccomend a double spring loaded hinge... that way it stays still but can still fold forward and backward... C5 corvettes have somthing very similar.