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engine side valances-yes or no ?


alarmman49

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says it all really,  if you remember the air cleaners with a thermac vacuum valve to operate a flap to pull some flow from the exhaust this little t temperature device made a constant mix of air at around 70f it wasnt for cold starts or winter running ,it just modulated the temp to be sort of constant 

 

quite an important little device in its day  (70s & 80s )  Stags have one , and later dolly, Tr7 etc 

 

Pete

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Lack of valences and the boards in front of the radiator reduce its effectiveness significantly.

 

Removing the cold air feed on a straight six and breathing in hot engine bay air will cost you @ 6BHP - its the laws of Thermodynamics and no marketing about 'free flow' can change it.

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Macandy

 

Sorry I have to disagree.

I've found that the biggest single aid to under bonnet temperature control is the hessian type exhaust wrap. This has a truly remarkable effect especially on a tubular manifold. Couple this with a set of decent carb heatshields and you shouldn't have any worries.  

My stage 2 tuned engine was dyno'd at 135bhp a few years ago without the valances. The bonnet never got more than warm to the touch at any time during the rolling road test.

The main side valances main job (I believe) was to shield the engine and ancillaries from flying road muck.

 

I also have a two speed electric fan-a Vauxhall pusher unit rescued from the local scrappies-in the days when you could do that sort of thing. It's the biggest fan that will physically fit between the chassis rails and partially sweeps the adjacent oil cooler as well. It very rarely kicks in and never switches to the high speed mode.

 

As Pete has said everyone has there own views on this-just what this Forum's about really.

 

Cheers

 

Alan

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  • 1 year later...

I read that the side shields were originally installed on another model Triumph car to keep the dirt and gime off of the engine. This was a side note that I saw in a publication where the engineer that made these side shields said they did nothing to cool down the car. In fact he stated that is made the car run hotter as the air had nowhere to escape and tended to end up around the air filters. He also noted that the powers to be at Triumph loved the idea of the side sills and ordered them to be installed on all model Triumphs.

 

I ran them on my 1972 GT6 this past spring after doing a full restoration. I had installed a 160 degree thermostat. The cars temperture gauge stayed at the 6:00 o'clock mark up until summer when it was hotter. At this time the needle was creaping up to the 4:00 o'clock mark. I took off the side panels, as the cardboard ones are just anyway and lo and behold the temp gauge never went above the 6:00 o'clock mark again. The side panels are holding in the heat. I will agree that during the winter they would be helpfull in retaining emgine heat. I will therefor run these in the non summer onths only.

 

A better idea would be to box in the radiator and fan assembly completely and duck the hot air from the radiator under the car in front of the engine. This is what we do on our NASCAR Modifieds to control the heat. I will be building one this spring to try out along with an electric fan.

 

Robbie

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