[s-cars] Belly pans, do they really help our intercoolers work better? Any sources?

[The CyberPoet]

First question first:
Audi's engineers decreed that the engine would warm faster
and run cooler with the belly pan in place. Not to mention
the advantages of not spraying cold salt-strewn snow-slush
up onto the hot exhaust manifold and other corrodible parts
by accident :)  As for whether it improves the
intercooler's operation specifically, I can't say, but I
suspect it would, since by it's design, it creates a
partial vacuum for the engine compartment while in motion
due to the trailing edge's location and placement (the same
degree of vacuum would not be present with the engine bay
exposed openly to the high pressure area under the car).

As for where you can get them: call around to various junk
yards, and search the net. Most junk yards these days
belong to one of a number of networks of junkyards (barely
used auto parts is one of the more well known of these
networks) and can get an item even if they don't have it in
their yard. Or wait until someone else on the list wrecks
their car and then buy it from them before they get it
towed away after the insurance company totals it out.
Personally, I'd call around to the junk yards and any
mom/pop audi-specific auto shops before plopping down
anything at the stealer's (and before waiting for someone
else to sacrifice their S4 so I could have a spare belly pan).

Cheers
=-= Marc Glasgow

Mac Consultant Tampa Bay Tampa Plant City Brandon FL Florida since 1990
www.cyberpoet.net


Chris Wrote:

All this talk about dyno's, intercoolers, and heat sink has got me
thinking. I don't have a belly pan on the silver S4. Does it really
make a big difference on how well our wimpy little innerfender mounted
intercooler works?

Is there any place that I can get a belly pan for my 93 S4 other than
the dealer?