Ok, so it's about 32 degrees outside and after about 5 mins on the interstate doing 65, my needle was reading 220, for my car thats very high for this kind of weather. In the summer that's about what it runs with the air dam on (That little black piece under the car that scrapes every damn thing you go over). I removed it a couple of days ago because I was really tired of it scraping on every speed bump, and getting out of my driveway, and any time I went from a flat surface to an incline. Do you guys think that temp is normal for it being so cold out, and do you think that air dam is a necessary piece?

 

Yes, it is necessary. Put it back on and see what the difference is.

 

The factory put it there for a reason.

Its a must have.

 

turn in at an angle and this will eliminate a lot of the scraping.

 

i dont have the air dam. its really not needed. The car runs at 210 on the highway. the city runs at whatever you have your electric fans set at

 

imagine what it would be on the hwy if you had the dam!

 

it really doesnt need to be any colder. 210 is a great operating temp for a 350. i get great power and close to 30mpg on the highway so i think i have it set up just right

 

The 1988 manual says that the computer will set a Code 14 if the temperature sensor tells it that the coolant temp in the V8 Camaro is in excess of 275 degrees for longer than two seconds.

 

200-220 is the "Factory" operating temp of our cars.

 

My car wouldn't run over 50 mph without it,temp would head for the redline.

 

Gator, I think you have some cooling issues if you can't go on the interstate without overheating. I'll put it back on I guess, but man it gets annoying have to almost stop and creep over every speedbump and hill, haha. Thanks for the info guys!

 

New struts will get rid of about 98% of air dam scraping. I used to dread going over a short stiff speed bump because although it wouldn't rub going over the bump, the drop down after the bump would scrape the front end.......New struts made a world of difference.

 

If the car is running about 210* under low load on the highway imagine what temp it will get to if you ever put it under a load like say full throttle for 15-20 seconds. Yeah, then it won't cool down becuase it won't have enough air flow to overcome the heat saturation the block has.

Put the air dam back on and let the thermostat do its job of regulating the cars coolant temps to where its supposed to be.

 

I'm surprised that your car can handle Florida climates without an air dam. You have the same front end as me (later Firebirds having less opening than the Camaros, which only makes cooling worse)

It was 90° last week in Houston. Even with the 3 core aluminum radiator, both fans on, and the air dam on, the car still wanted to run 190° on the freeway.......The fans on our cars shut off at 40+ mph, making the cars rely solely on air flow to keep the car at temperature. Taking off the air dam removes the only thing we have to send that air into the radiator.

 

i agree

i agree on that to im in cali and with my last camaro i didnt have a air dam it would run on the hot side as soon as i put airdam on notice a drop in coolant temp

air damn is a must unless your running fans "Dual Fan" on constantly then you can prob get away with it

 

I wish I had never taken mine off...it got tossed along the years and now they're hard to find.

 

local junk yards or hawks

 

A car will only run as cool as the thermostat allows in normal situations. If someone has a 195* thermostat installed then cruising on the highway no matter what the outside temp is it will run about 190* because air is constantly moving over the radiator. This assumes that its not so cold that the system can't even build any heat and saturate the coolant.

If its -20* out, well, getting to 190* would take quite a while.

 

you sure your gauge is accurate?

 

Cooling 101.

The "coolant" is a storage medium for heat. Its circulated through the engine to keep the heat as evenly distributed as possible. When the coolant reaches a specified temperature a thermostat opens allowing hot coolant to flow into the radiator where the heat is transferred to the air.

As long as the heat generated by the engine does not exceed the cooling systems ability to dissipate it the temperature will never exceed the thermostats opening temperature by a measurable amount. This is because the thermostat will stay partially open allowing just enough coolant to flow through the radiator to keep it at the proper temp. A 195* stat fully opens by 195*.

Normally, the engines heat output is well below the cooling systems ability to dissipate it with a Air-Dam installed on a thirdgen. However, if you remove the air-dam you eliminate the forced airflow through the radiator. This means heat builds up in the system and the car will overheat at highway speeds because the heat generated by the engine exceeds the radiators ability to dissipate it with poor airflow due to the lack of a air-dam.

If you think you can build a fan system that can keep enough air flowing over the radiator without the air-dam then go ahead. But its just wasted horsepower and the fans will wear out that much more quickly.

With a 160* thermostat my LT1 NEVER got above that on the highway. And this temp I read from the datalogs on my laptop. The engine coolant was almost always at 159* or so on the highway.

 

That's kind of what they're made for. Put your air dam on and take bumps at an angle.

 

Never had a issue with bumps, and many people on these boards have lowered cars and don't have issues with the air-dam.

But its kind of a required thing, especially with Birds as they have no nose openings.

 

I go slow over speedbumps and never have a problem, even with extremely worn suspension. My biggest problem is driveways, but taking them at an angle works wonders.