Radiator opening screen

[Norsky4360]

Being new to the C4 world I've read where a lot of "stuff" finds its way up into the radiator cavity. M.A.M. has a screen that blocks off the opening preventing the "stuff" from getting up in there.

I'm curious to know if anyone has installed something like that and if they have had any cooling issues as a result.

Thanks!

[tomtom72]

Well I can tell you for sure that over at the Net Reg site in the maintenance section is where I saw the tale about the "home made" rad screens. I was reading up before I even got my Z. So when it arrived that was the first thing I made using the info in the "How To" section.

In a word I'm sooooo glad I did that before I started using the car. You should see the stuff that screen collects! I feel it is sooo worth your time to do because....well it just collects all those leafs and paper. I clean mine once a week and never fail to find that it stopped something. My car only had 7700 miles w/no screen and when I pulled the rad to clean it, @ 14,000 miles, there was enough stuff in there to make me glad I made the screen.


Tom

[ZR1 MK]

I made my own screen too from 1/8 inch open area in ss. Doesnt affect coolant or oil temp on my car. What mesh size is the MAD? See pic.

[Z Factor]

http://www.zr1netregistry.com/ZR1_radiatorscreen.htm

[GrayZ]

Although, i've not purchased this item...you might wanna check out
Mercado Industries, I bought their gill covers, and yesterday,
Marc Haibeck said he really liked them, made them unique to the car.
I spoke with Mr. Mercado a couple of different times on the phone,
real nice fella and a corvette owner himself. He told me that his stainless
steel grill, that covers the opening of the air intake area under the license
plate., actually helps cool the air...here is the missing link,

the gill plate pic of the 84 to 90 car is my car...

http://www.c4dhr.com/c4product.htm

[Aurora40]

do any of these require no new holes, etc to be put in the car? That zr1netreg article doesn't seem to have any actual article, just pictures?

[tomtom72]

Re: the Net reg write up.

I took off the spoilers, I think ya can get away with just the center but I don't remember. Anyway I took it off and then I removed the splitter ( that body color thing above the spoiler, the spoiler bolts to it.) Using that bar as my template for width plus a bit to get to the ends of the opening with some fold over. I used a A/C wide mesch plastic screen, the kind ya get in the hdw store. I then took some fiberglass window screen and cut enough to wrap the plastic A/C screen like a gift wrap job.

The hard part is getting the bolts that hold everything together to go thru the spoiler and the two screens and catch the bosses in the splitter bar....it is a bit tedious but ya can get it to work...so the net result is the splitter bar and the center section of spoiler sandwiches the screen ya made. That holds the bottom firm & fast and then I just pushed the screen up into that cavity and it ain't pretty but who sees it....ants on the road? You wind up with more lenght & width than ya need but the excess allows you to sort of force it in place and it covers top to bottom and side to side w/ overlap at the sides. You could do precise cuts and form fit it...it'll just take more time. You could also use radiator box grill as it is rigid and will have a memory for the contours and look better than mine.

But mine, as fugly as it looks, catches everything. The key is the two types of screening material....wide mesch for form and rigidity. The window screen for the road peebles and small stuff.


Tom

[Norsky4360]

Originally Posted by Aurora40

do any of these require no new holes, etc to be put in the car? That zr1netreg article doesn't seem to have any actual article, just pictures?

According to the M.A.M. blurb in their catalog the screen they offer uses existing bumper bolts. Price-wise the other site mentioned above may be a better deal.