Motion Motorsport underpanel rad baffle

[MZ3PO]

Too bad they don't have one for silly M Roadsters.

HINT HINT HINT

[volcanoblack]

Am I missing something here - on a stock motor the thermostat will control the temp of the engine to whatever the computer determines is the optimum operating temp. So if we do lower the temp by adding these baffles, won't the thermostat just close more and make the engine hotter again?

Or do your motors run hotter than the normal temp so that the radiator is not capable of handling the cooling and the thermostat is always full open?

Or are you all running no thermostats?

[bennyfizzle]

The thermostate should be well open by the time this baffle is coming into play.

I think most run an 80* tstat, which is 176*F. Normal coolant operating temp is 200+ on the track.

[Fair]

We've never noticed overheating in our 340 whp hp BMW E36 using the stock BMW 325 radiator, stock 325 aux cooling fan (only), no shrouding, and no underpanel whatsoever. Still, when I had some after we installed the new 490 whp motor a number of weeks ago I went ahead and installed a Motion Motorsport underpanel, new radiator and made some shrouds. The MM panel is a great kit, good price (not worth fabbing your own and sourcing all of the fasteners), excellent fit.

We installed an aluminum radiator at the same time, just because it added a lot of coolant to the system. There was always a pretty sizeable gap between the aux cooling fan shroud and the radiator, so I went ahead and fabbed this little aluminum deflector for the bottom, similar to the stock plastic piece (part #14 above).





Its dead simple and made with thin aluminum sheet that I just sheared with aircraft snips and bent on a sheet metal brake. Took 20 minutes and mounted with some self tapping screws (into the bottom of the plastic shroud and a flange sticking out from the bottom of the radiator). Added the factory plastic side shrouds and added the plastic stock upper shroud back, for a ~100% sealed perimeter between the fan and radiator. No more electric fan airflow pushing around the radiator.





The Motion Motorsports underpanel is a great piece to replace the stock plastic junk. I've installed several now and love them. To make the car easier to load onto/off a trailer I made brackets to hold the front of the brake ducting hoses so that they don't attach to the bumper (saw this trick on BF). This allows us to get the bumper cover assembly off easily and quickly, with the Motion panel still attached to it (4 bolts for the bumper, 4 for the two lower Motion body brackets). The brake hoses line up with the factory brake cooling duct openings and route around and mount to the Motion body brackets.



Lastly, using this same sheet aluminum I made some simple air/rock deflectors for the fenderwells. The plastic fender liners are long gone (the tall 275/40/17 tires would eat them to bits) so there used to be a big gap that led into the car, and little rocks and brake dust that would come in at your feet. Not anymore.





Lots of fun making shrouds!

[bubela]

Just thought I would update some info. Motion Motorsport now offers the underpan along with the deflector to the bottom of the radiator.

Looking forward to installing this on my car for the August NJMP HPDE. Hopefully this addition will help keep my head gasket in place!

[rs4eva]

How is this any different than the stock $20 plastic piece? The stock piece (that most cars are missing to begin with), completely seals the radiator and keeps the air from the lower grill from escaping.

For $20, it saves you tons of work and bolts right on.

Part #15: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/i/a/218.png

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...48&hg=51&fg=75

Getbmwparts.com :
17112227690 $19.01
Cooling - Radiator and components - Lower cover - W/sport package
W/sport package - 6 cylinder 1999

Eric I know this is an old post, but can you explain how the OEM piece bolts on?