RE: Shrouds

["Steve Schaeffer" <borrani@domain.elided>]

My hundred lire:
My 1600 GTV has the old metal shroud.  I think the shroud is needed in
idling and traffic conditions.   The shroud provides a better duct to pull
air thru the radiator.  I noticed a significant improvement in traffic
conditions with the addition of the shroud.  Being a close fit, it surely
does reduce accessability when doing simply chores.  Removing the radiator
is far more difficult now.  If it were a dedicated race car, the shroud, and
probably the fan would be gone.  The stock radiator works exceptionally well
on this car.

Steve S.
NWARC
Seattle, WA

   << Greetings.  Just wondering how necessary the shroud is, for all the
trouble it can cause.  I've run 4 cyl Alfas for years shroudless w/o any
overheating problems.  Removing it greatly increases accessibility, and
avoids the common problem of the fan hitting the shroud, disintegrating, and
taking the radiator with it.  Sure, there's some marginal improvement of
cooling capacity with one, but if everything else is in good shape, they are
unneeded for normal driving conditions in my experience.  Maybe it makes
enough of a difference at the track when running 10/10ths,  but otherwise
no, IMHO.  Thoughts?  >>

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