Wind reflectors removal

[Table Lamp]

So I was wondering next time I take my bumper off I was going to remove those ugly wind reflectors and I was thinking that once I remove those cool air will be rushed into the engine bay, hopefully cooling it down a little and my turbo i know that the right side is to direct air flow to the intake but I was just wondering if this would improve cooling overall

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[MattMPA]

Probably not. Ford designs the grills, etc for a reason. Unless you know better than the engineers at Ford....

 

[Boyd]

Those are there to improve engine cooling by channeling air into the radiator. With an opening for intake air.

If you want to reduce underhood temperature, install a hood vent. Proven to work and even increases downforce at high speeds.

 

[rocsteady]

Probably not. Ford designs the grills, etc for a reason. Unless you know better than the engineers at Ford....

This ^^ . I've learned not to mess with stuff like this that big time engineers have decided is necessary on their vehicles. This isn't something like exhaust tuning to get past some federal regulation. The hood venting is the way to go, leave the airflow into the front end alone, IMO.

 

[Cobra Jet]

No, do not remove those…

The purpose of any such deflector around the front core support is to direct incoming air to/through the A/C condenser core and through to the radiator core. When such deflectors are removed, the air flow goes “around” where it’s no longer being directed properly and you will loose cooling efficiencies.

Sure you could say “well, my daily drive is on open road at 75mph”, but that doesn’t mean deleted deflectors is a positive change for “more air” to get through the front of the car.

The other thing too - removing engineer designed items such as those also does change the aerodynamics of the vehicle at speed as well as how the air flows through the front end of the vehicle. There are reasons that there are deflectors, hood/core support gaskets, belly pans, and a cowl under the windshield….

It’s the same concept as those who think trimming their radiator fan shrouds down to nothing “to save weight” is such a fantastic idea… No, no it’s not, simple minded sheeple…. When one removes shroud material or factory deflectors, again you’re defeating the sole purpose of that design - it is to direct air flow TO and THROUGH the A/C condenser and radiator cores for the absolute best cooling efficiency by design.

I laugh when going to car shows and these folks have and are like “see my $500 fancy 4-core aluminum radiator, them thar does me some cooling”… and they have 1 or two small circular electric fans with NO shroud covering that fancy radiator…. So all that $$$ spent is worthless because (1) the fans are only cooling the area of the core rows where they sit which is ineffective because there isn’t uniform cooling of the rad core and (2), the airflow coming in isn’t being directed to and through the cores at all, it’s just blowing everywhere else….

Leave the deflectors as is. If you want better cooling for a modern vehicle:
- Upgrade the electric fan(s) to a unit that is higher CFM than stock (and make sure it has a similar shroud as stock to cover the radiator core).

- With a modern vehicle, the fan “on/off” temp is controlled by the PCM. If you can access the data tables for the fan or coolant temp parameters, you can modify the table data to have the fans kick on sooner (but not too much sooner as you don’t want overcooling). If you get an aftermarket electric fan, there are also aftermarket electric fan controllers sold separately where you can install it and totally bypass the PCM’s “control”. You can set these controllers to also turn on/off at your desired temps.

- If there is a higher flow water pump available than factory, swap it in

- If you’re in a State or geographic location where exterior temps do not ever go below 40*, change your coolant mix to be 70% distilled water and 30% coolant. The higher the water content the cooler the engine will run. The rad coolants sole purpose with the glycol is to prevent freezing, then of course it provides lubrication and corrosion prevention.

- There are Snake Oil products available that claim they can lower coolant temps by just dumping the bottle in the rad. Some don’t do crap, while others do work. Redline’s “Watter Wetter” has been on the market longer than some on here have been alive… LOL. It’s a proven product that does work and many race teams have used it. Aside from that single brand, IF you decide to dump any such product in your rad, always make sure it’s compatible with the fluid in the vehicle…

- Do NOT put an “underdrive” water pump pulley on. MOST “underdrive” pulleys EXCEPT a crank pulley are designed to slow down the other FEAD accessories (water pump, alternator etc). The ONLY underdrive pulley for a water pump that would be any benefit is one that is SMALLER than the factory pulley. The smaller the pulley, the faster the pump will spin. This is the sole concept of the underdrive crank pulley, to spin the rotating mass of the engine faster than it would using a stock crank pulley.. Ford did a smaller water pump pulley on the 1993 Cobra, which spins the pump faster for greater cooling efficiency. I’m sure Ford also may have used smaller WP pulleys on other Mustangs at some point too, but not as well known.

Lastly and I saved this for last…. the thermostat. Many people with As Built stock modern day vehicles (such as the S550) think that dropping in a lower temp thermostat will cool the car better. Nope, it will NOT and don’t be a sheeple…. You can drop cooler stats in all day long and guess what - your cooler stat isn’t doing diddly. The PCM is still going to have control AND the parameters for the stat will still be the engineer coded stat temp. The only way to have this be beneficial and work PROPERLY is the vehicle would need a “tune” or revision of the thermostat/cooling tables. Along with that being said, anytime an owner installs a lower temp stat into a COMPUTER CONTROLLED vehicle (since about 1986…), they run the risk of other parameters being whacked such as air/fuel ratios. Long term (or even in some cases short term), you can run the risk of washing down the cylinders … as well as poor fuel economy and many other negative impacts to the health of the engine. Supercharged/Turbo and heavily modified N/A vehicles do benefit from a cooler stat BUT those vehicles are also properly tuned to fully operate best with that lower temp t-stat. Don’t be a sheeple….unless you’re doing it right.

 

[Table Lamp]

Update I drove it around tonight. I removed all of the wind reflectors and so far I’ve seen a little bit better cooling. It usually stays around 181 cylinder head temp before this it usually would stay around one 185 which ain’t a big difference but still it’s something on my way back home. I got down on it and my cylinder head temps rose to 190 and after I laid off, the throttle it immediately shot back down to 181 everything is so far completely normal, but it seems to have a little bit better cooling and it looks way more aggressive and one last thing it seems to have also helped with the intake temperature as well

 

[Hoofer]

After asking and repeatedly told by some seasoned experts not to remove them, you did.

Then you post a bunch of, “It seems”. Well, FAFO.

Do the Mustang community a huge favor. Don’t waste people’s time and ask anymore questions. You already know the answers.

 

[MarkM]

Just doesn’t look right with the deflectors removed, maybe reflectors removed would look better

 

[RazzaRossa]

So inlet air temp was 57, perhaps when you tested it before, air temp was 64? Get back to us when it's in the 80's/90's.

 

[Table Lamp]

After asking and repeatedly told by some seasoned experts not to remove them, you did.

Then you post a bunch of, “It seems”. Well, FAFO.

Do the Mustang community a huge favor. Don’t waste people’s time and ask anymore questions. You already know the answers.

I completely understand maybe it is a dump idea but so far I love it looks better and no overheating or any other problems but once it gets into the hotter months, I’ll update y’all

 

[Table Lamp]

What do you guys think?

 

[Cobra Jet]

Do what you want, you already have and think it’s best.

looking at your pic:
- The deflector on the LEFT keeps the incoming airflow at the opening of the nose cone going to and through the A/C condenser and radiator.

- The deflector on the RIGHT does the same BUT is also directing air flow into the air box.

By removing both, the incoming airflow through the nose cone via aerodynamics is now “all over” and is not being directed anywhere specifically where it should have been by design.

But hey what does anyone on here know…

The (2) metal bars you removed are there for crash reasons.

Everything is made with a purpose, function and by design. What you do with your car is your choice, just be aware though that the thought process to removing XYZ isn’t always best, even if it’s thought to be better via seat of the pants or a quick dash readout…

Research cylinder head temps before correlating them to plastic air deflectors you had removed and what you see on a 2 second capture of the dash gauge.

 

[Jaymar]

I'm thinking you pulled off a bunch of structural and functional parts just to dress up a part of the car nobody cares about.

 

[Table Lamp]

Do what you want, you already have and think it’s best.

looking at your pic:
- The deflector on the LEFT keeps the incoming airflow at the opening of the nose cone going to and through the A/C condenser and radiator.

- The deflector on the RIGHT does the same BUT is also directing air flow into the air box.

By removing both, the incoming airflow through the nose cone via aerodynamics is now “all over” and is not being directed anywhere specifically where it should have been by design.

But hey what does anyone on here know…

The (2) metal bars you removed are there for crash reasons.

Everything is made with a purpose, function and by design. What you do with your car is your choice, just be aware though that the thought process to removing XYZ isn’t always best, even if it’s thought to be better via seat of the pants or a quick dash readout…

Research cylinder head temps before correlating them to plastic air deflectors you had removed and what you see on a 2 second capture of the dash gauge.

I completely understand, but I do have a programmer and I read all of my data log files, and so far so good i’m not very worried about aerodynamics, but I didn’t get rid of anything. I didn’t break anything and I still have e

Do what you want, you already have and think it’s best.

looking at your pic:
- The deflector on the LEFT keeps the incoming airflow at the opening of the nose cone going to and through the A/C condenser and radiator.

- The deflector on the RIGHT does the same BUT is also directing air flow into the air box.

By removing both, the incoming airflow through the nose cone via aerodynamics is now “all over” and is not being directed anywhere specifically where it should have been by design.

But hey what does anyone on here know…

The (2) metal bars you removed are there for crash reasons.

Everything is made with a purpose, function and by design. What you do with your car is your choice, just be aware though that the thought process to removing XYZ isn’t always best, even if it’s thought to be better via seat of the pants or a quick dash readout…

Research cylinder head temps before correlating them to plastic air deflectors you had removed and what you see on a 2 second capture of the dash gauge.

I completely understand, but I do have my own programmer and look at every single one of my data, log files, and so far so good it seems to have helped and I’m not very worried about aerodynamics. That’s one reason why I did take that stuff off but I never got rid of it. I still have everything so if I run the problems down the line, I can always put them back on but so far I love it.

 

[Table Lamp]

I'm thinking you pulled off a bunch of structural and functional parts just to dress up a part of the car nobody cares about.

THANK YOU

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