Any negative comments about placing a mesh screen by bottom of rad. to prevent debris from blocking the air flow to the radiator. Will the car run slightly hotter? Thank you

 

Hi
I fitted a mesh screen years back after getting all the leaves,plastic bags from between the radiator and a/c condenser. No change in temperature and you wont get plastic bags around your booster fan too
which is an added bonus

 

If the mesh on the screen isn't too tight, you'll be fine. This screen doesn't raise the temps on my car:



Live well,

SJW

 

a mesh screen will not affect airflow to the rad at all.

 

Hey SJW!
That looks like a pretty good junk screen. How is it fastened in there? I can't see any screws or other holding devices from that picture.

 

Thanks for the compliment.

This screen works extremely well, is very easy to fabricate, and can be built for a few dollars.

I fabricated the screen using this galvanized steel expanded-metal mesh, which is available at Lowe's, and is intended for use as a debris guard for rain gutters on houses:

http://tinyurl.com/3vt6fjq

The package includes enough material to fabricate five of these screens. The material width was satisfactory straight out of the package. I trimmed the length to fit. On the prototype unit, I trimmed the ends off square, and rolled the ends inward. On the second-generation unit, I trimmed the ends such that they were contoured to fit better, and did not roll the ends inward.

To attach the screen's upper edge, I reshaped two of the stainless steel mounting clips that came with the mesh, and drilled a hole in each, then secured the clips under the two fog lamp access panel screws.

To attach the bottom of the screen, I drilled a 1/4-inch diameter hole in the black plastic air dam, just inside of the air intake opening, then secured the screen with black zip-ties.

The first two photos that appear below were taken as I was fabricating and installing the first prototype, which worked well but didn't quite satisfy me aesthetically. The photo I posted in my first reply above is of the second-generation unit that I fabricated. In addition to improving on the cuts at the ends, I painted the second one flat black, which, combined with the fact that the screen lives way down under the front bumper, makes it nearly invisible. Nobody has commented that they've noticed it unless I've pointed it out to them.

This photo shows the upper attachment, securing the prototype unit to the car:





This pic shows the upper and lower attachments on one side, securing the prototype unit in place:





This photo shows the second-generation unit installed, before I pulled it back off and squirted it flat black:





And, finally, here's another shot of the second-gen screen after thousands of miles of service:




Note: This screen is custom-built to fit the later C4 intake openings. I have installed these on both my '94 ragtop (pictured above) and my '96 coupe. I haven't studied the earlier C4 intake openings to see what differences they present, but it's probably safe to presume that there would be some differences.

This screen won't stop the smallest of debris from getting in, but it will stop such things as cigarette butts, plastic bags, newspapers, birds, large insects, leaves, and even most small stuff like grass clippings. After nearly 70,000 combined miles, the condensers and radiators on both of my C4s have very little foreign material visible up in there.

Live well,

SJW

 

I used a different mesh (1/4" screen) and mounted it a bit differently as well. The bottom of the screen folds in, and has two clip-nut on it that line up with existing air-dam attaching screws. Those original screws are long enough to catch the clip nuts. The top of the screen is held to the air-dam brace with a tie-wrap.

 

Nice. that looks like those mesh screens sold at Home Depot for gutters. I`ll have to look into that.

 

Great ideas guys!
I definitely need to do this...found a piece of tire rubber......about a foot long up in there the other day. Damn thing is a freakin' vacuum cleaner I swear!

 

My screen did raise coolant temps a couple degrees, especially during low speed cruising. Here are are photos of a recent trip through some buggy country. As you can see, some bugs got through the screen and the device I used on the vacuum to remove them.

 

thank you guys for the great info and installs

 

That's what it is. Here's a link to this item on the Lowe's website:

http://tinyurl.com/3vt6fjq


Live well,

SJW