When's the track day? Let us know how it goes. Your setup is probably good. I would experiment with the things you can do, like removing that front air dam and see what happens, but that probably won't be better.

 

Day after tomorrow….Thursday

‘Normally’ Mosport can be very taxing on cooling because it’s got so much WOT…fast track. I’ll post back.

 

It’s better than nothing but you have two air dams essentially fighting each other.

move the factory air dam (or a proxy) in front of the oil cooler and you’ll retain the advantages of both.

 

I get it and agree, and thanks for your thoughts…

the problem is the factory air dam is only 1.75” from the ground.
Unfortunately, it’s already a PITA and dragging often on our awful roads here.
Speed bumps are not fun.
Moving it further forward would further reduce the breakover angle and make it that much worse.

Also, it’s attached to a very solid section of the radiator support…and there’s nothing solid to attach it to further forward.
My splitter’s undertray is just thin carbon fiber and besides two fasteners holding its undertray section to OE points, is pretty flimsy.
I mean the undertray section…the front is very solid, but, I even have it’s rearward edge gorilla taped to the existing outboard sections of the base of the OE airdam.
This closes it off and helps ensure there’s no flutter at speed.

Having said that, I think the placement of the OE airdam is beneficial for creating low pressure with regards to cooling and extracting engine bay heat at speed (I don’t have hood vents).
And as discussed, for the aero benefit. I touch over 150mph on track, often cresting rises at close to that speed.
I’d be very loath to do anything to negatively affect that stability

What I can experiment with is reducing my small flap ahead of the new opening from 1” to 1/2” (already have one made up), or removing it altogether.
There must be a great deal of high pressure coming through the grill opening forcing air through it. Perhaps I don’t need it at all

 

Air acts similar to water in many ways. The way that stock air dam creates the low pressure behind it is by creating a high pressure area in front of it - right where your oil cooler is. Picture water hitting that dam. It would get pushed forward and need to escape. Usually out the sides and below, but now it has a path up as well.

so the dam will basically try to push air up into your cooler and the high pressure air above it is trying to push the air down through it.

this is why the other set up that has been referenced saw such an improvement when he moved the air dam to in front of the cooler.

look at extraction hoods - a rise in front and smooth, lower in the back. Ideally you want to recreate this, only upside down on the bottom. (More ideally is to keep as much air out from underneath as possible but that’s not always feasible or possible without a LOT of work.)

Certainly do whatever you want, and I’d expect it would be better than no cooler but it’s not ideal.

unfortunately it sounds like there is currently no easy way for you to move the dam.

for you, if driving it on the street with the dam forward is not feasible I would remove it and see if temps stay in check around town and just add a dam in front for the track. Obviously this would require some fabrication on your part.


who knows - maybe the efficiency you get from the current set up will suffice. But if not, there is definitely room for improvement.


edited to add:
looks like you have a track day tomorrow. You could bring some zip ties and tie the oe air dam up after you do a session and see if there are any improvements.

i have mine tied up to help reduce the front end lift (at the expense of evacuating the engine compartment).

 

So, I’m at Mosport. Very cool day
…water stays 210f. Great!
…but oil still climbs up 245f. and it’s only 54f ambient here.
unfortunately removing the OE airdam is not feasible at the track.
it requires removing the spitter undertray to access it…I’m not really interested in spending my afternoon under the car.
so, for today, this is now manageable.

Thing is, I’m touching 156mph on the back straight and the yumps on the way up are not something I’d want to approach with less stability (on tippy toes now).

So, the experiment to remove the oe airdam will have to wait till next year I’m afraid.

 

245F is better than most people can get and should be fine. Just make sure you're running the right oil viscosity, probably a 40 weight at those temps, to maintain good oil pressure.

 

Just wanted to add something I just stumbled on!! GREAT news!!
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...n-a-z06-2.html

Bottom line, Katech wind tunnel test confirms that the airdam can be removed off C6 Z without negative effect!
It actually causes drag and lift!

The side pieces ahead of the wheels are for beneficial for brake cooling, but my inlets under the bumper are blocked off anyway as I have 4" brake ducts routed from the grill, as well as ZR1 defectors on my control arms. So, the side pieces are coming off too!
This is a double win, because the car will be more enjoyable on street too, without the constant scraping.

Too bad I can't really test it out this year...coolant was already way lower....now if oil will come down a bit, it'll be great!

BTW, in the cool weather, car topped out faster than ever before...156mph on the back straight

 

Yeah, you could definitely try running without either air dam. If your temps are still good enough, then why not run without them. It would for sure reduce drag and front lift.

 

Got home and after cleaning the car up, swapping back to street tires/brakes, I pulled the splitter/undertray off and removed the airdam.
BUT this leaves a 1" gap under the radiator support where air coming in through the grill would escape under the radiator...not go through it by following the path of least resistance.
I'm not speaking of the small OE flap that closes the gap between the stock bumper and the airdam (that's where my laid down oil cooler exits)

So, I reinstalled the airdam, but then cut the bottom off completely. In other words, I wouldn't have had to remove my undertray, etc
I could have just sliced off part hanging down.

It was a real pleasure driving the car last night and not scraping over every speed bump and road undulation...it felt almost like a normal car!

BTW, now, I'm also mulling extending my undertray a bit further back (it stops at the radiator support). I may be able to extend it back on a few inches under the rad.

 

Let us know what your temps are like with this setup once you're back on track.

 

I would love to have one of those brackets. This your guy would make one for me?

 

me2

 

I emailed Improved Racing to ask about the bracket, let's see what they say

 

OK they got back to me, they said they're still working on the new brackets to mount the cooler horizontally and that they are hoping to have them available by the end of the year.

 

I bought a kit from you and I love it! It did way more than it thought it would.

 

Can you tell us more about this kit? Is it just the side cooler? Is it available on the website yet? What were your results?

 

Yes it is just the side cooler behind the fog light. Last summer I was seeing oil temps around 265 just cruising with the AC on, no hard driving or anything. With the cooler put on this year I am consistently seeing 205 to 208 degrees under the same weather and driving conditions. I also added a vented hood at the same time but I believe most of the added cooling is from the cooler. The cooler and lines added about 1.5 quarts of oil which is also a good thing in my book, the kit they put together for me was great and I was very impressed with the quality of the parts. The only thing I had to fab was the 1x1 angle I used for the vertical supports.

just a tid bit about the car, it’s a base model that makes 818 rwhp with a very tight bottom end, unfortunately she makes a lot of heat.