Cooling radiator shrouds 4K turbo MC conversion.

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Elliott:

By no way am I an expert.
But I'll bet my last $ that the bottom and side "shrouds" are THE most
important.
While my 4K stock, functioned without the bottom one for years after it fell
out,
I noticed higher water temps.

Since I didn't run the A/C in high heat in stop and go traffic it worked
fine for me.

There's been discussion on the 20V 200 lists about eliminating the second
raditator that car has.
Opinion is that the second is there for a reason and only those in desert
California who like to
run up long grades beyond 80 MPH with the A/C and other accessories on would
utimately benefit,
but the engineers in Germany did it for a reason and I'm sure the Autobahn
and mountain
passes are part of the environment they designed the system for.
The Audi brochures brag (in the past) of having the car in African desert
with the A/C on
idling for hours as a test to assure proper cooling in the rest of the Audi
markets.

The most vented air throught the radiator (as opposed to ram - air,
leaking past the cooling fins of the radiator by path of least resistance
because
the "shrouds" are missing, is how the radiator can transfer the maximum heat
out of the coolant.

Remember, the 4K mil was 110 HP and had no additional heat from oil and
water temps
forced from the super hot turbo charger.........so, a 4K modified to turbo
is beyond the design
characteristics of the cooling system.
AND that assumes your radiator cores are as clean / unplugged as new.

IMHO
-Scott in BOSTON



Anyway, the 4ktq seems to run a bit warmer than I'd like (runs 1 or 1.5
lines higher than half way on the gauge at the highest, slightly cooler on
the highway) and I'm wondering among other things how important the cooling
shrouds are to the radiator on the 4kq. Are these essential to the cooling
of the engine?