My car is missing the radiator support to hood seal. I am still running the original radiator and fan with no cooling problems so far. Does this seal really make much difference in the running temperature?
mine ran cooler after I made one and installed it but I did some other things to it also. I made it from a older ford running board rubber. I flipped it over so the flat side was up and the ribbed side was down.
Good info. My car was equipped with the seal but it was in sad shape. It is a factory 302/ac car but the ac was not connected. I recently installed a new sanden style compressor with new lines and filter and wondered if I needed to reinstall a seal. I guess the factory must have put it there for a reason.
Many of the rubber air dams installed to the bottom of the radiator support on cars of the 70s, 80s, and 90s were put there to keep air from recirculating forward under the car and being sucked back through the radiator. Radiator fans can be surprisingly efficient in that regard. I once worked at a place which had a 370HP diesel generator because electric service wasn't always reliable at their address beyond the edge of town and to get them a reduced electric rate for interruptible power. These things pull cool air in through the sides over the electric components and blow it out through the radiator. It was placed within a brick enclosure without a roof and there was a radiator-sized opening for the hot air to blow outward. Despite the fact that enough hot air made it out the opening to make an ornamental tree drop its leaves, it also recirculated enough to overheat and shut down within a short period of time. You wouldn't think it would be a problem, but it was. The solution was to build galvanized ducting to fill the roughly 24" gap between the radiator grill and the hole in the wall.
Did yours fit? The one I ordered from AK did not line up with the factory holes on my radiator support. I will have to modify it some for proper fitment.
All you have to do is mark and drill a couple new holes for the replacement piece. The existing holes won't show under it...