There is an important thing to consider when you are trying to figure out what's wrong with your car and someone suggests "Is your Air Dam intact?"

When you look for yours what are you looking for?

A lot of people think this is the wide strip that runs across the front bottom of the car. This one is the least important. The most important one is the one that hooks to the radiator.

When you go to order one you may or may not encounter a problem. The reason is there is no such thing "technically" as an Air Dam for our cars. They are called "officially" Air Deflectors.

Bad news is there can be up to about 7 of them. Listed from most important to least important:

1. Hooks to Radiator (2 styles that I know of)
2. Strip across front (single piece or 3 piece)
3. Some cars have an additional deflector in the nose cone (trust me I ordered one by mistake - now my car has one).

Make sure you are ordering the right piece. Take a picture, swing the parts man's screen around, take him out and point..... whatever you have to do to get the right part.

If you lose that curb scraper across the front or if it's torn beyond recognition..... your car will still cool.

 

ummmm, yeeeaa.


and FYI for all camaro owners.


you only have one airdam aka air deflector aka piece of plastic under the radiator that creates a high pressure spot when moving to force air into the radiator.



its low... its black... its plastic, and its mounted directly below the radiator... what else is there to know?

 

Firebirds and Camaros ARE different! They have different systems (air deflecters). The birds are much more elaborate than the 1 piece Camaro.

 

the one hooked to radiator looks like an air scoop, technically it does kinda scoop air into radiator, correct ?


radiator air scoop

 

The one most often missing is the Air deflector (aka air dam) located under the car at the bottom of the radiator. One piece for the Camaro and three pieces for the Firebird.

 

Yes DJ but not on all years. My 86 T/A has 2 Deflectors both 1 piece. The big wide strip and the one on top. Not all years have the 3 piece hence "mucho" confusion.

GM Part # 10020322
Deflector - Panel Ctr Air - Bolts to Lower Radiator - Critical for proper cooling.

GM Part # 10017673
Deflector - Rad Lwr Air - This is the one you knock off on the curbs - Important for proper cooling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Red 86 T/A 5.0 TPI (LB9/WS6)
~HyperTech Cap/Coil/Rotor/AFPR
~Derale Adjustable Fan Switch ~ 170° Stat
~Flow Matched Injectors ~ K & N Air Filter
~Ported Plenum ~ Pirelli 245/50/16
~SLP TB Airfoil ~All Else Stock

 

i just checked it out under the LG4 82 T/A out here and its one piece curved air damn with scoop curve molded part of it, one piece two functions damn/scoop, kinda funky looking, but i suppose its technically three piece if you incluide the huge flat panels up under neath under both fenders, but still is nothing like camaro setup, at all.

 

My car originally had a 4 or 6 piece air dam. It had a rail and then the defletctors bolted to the rail. The new design I got from the dealer a couple of years ago was a 3 piece with no rail. The deflectors just bolted to the bottom of the radiator support and the lower ground effects.

This pic shows the center piece. the side peices got torn off by road debris and animals,