Front bumper cover is off and before I remove the stock intercooler, I have a question. What's the deal with this rubber flap that hangs down from just above where the intercooler is mounted? It would seem to hinder air flow... Is it positioned properly, or did it perhaps slip down? Should I somehow try to secure it so it stays above the intercooler, or should I just leave it as is? Doesn't quite seem right, as is...
That flap is supposed to be tucked into the area between the intercooler and the radiator assembly to help keep the airflow airflow separated between the two, it is not meant to block the intercooler in any way.
That flap is supposed to be tucked into the area between the intercooler and the radiator assembly to help keep the airflow separated between the two, it is not meant to block the intercooler in any way.
Here's a view from above. There's an electrical connector there, too. Maybe that's for the shutters that the PP cars apparently don't have. Also, some weird straps that seem like they're intended to hold the flap up, although they obviously don't do a good job, if that's the purpose.
And here's the view from the front again. It doesn't seem right that this would hang down partially blocking the intercooler.
I wonder if that flap was specific to cars that did not come with shutters because I dont remember a flap on mine when I swapped out the intercooler, memory can be flawed so I am not certain.
It just doesn't look right to me, like it was installed improperly, or it doesn't fit correctly. I'm leaning towards just removing it. I can't imagine it's critical.
Based on your thread I checked out my 2020 HPP car. The flap was hanging down on my car as well. After looking at the front end for a while and taking off the plastic cover by the hood latch, I believe the flap is to separate the airflow between the intercooler and the AC condenser. The radiator gets air flow from through both the IC and the condenser. I was trying to get the flap to stay up but no luck without taking off the whole bumper cover. I also found the lower plastic tray (see Gatornek's image) slightly interferes with the airflow to the bottom row of the IC. So I am looking to see how to drop the IC side of the tray down about 10mm or so in the future. If I get around to it.
I ended up installing a sheet of metal in mine and modified the duct system to separate the lower grille (highest air level) and the top grille (higher air level) originally. I was having high charge temperatures with the OEM intercooler and it seemed to help.
Changed my grille to the MP Concepts grille a couple weeks ago, to see if it would help with heatsoak recovery times for my Garrett IC. But I too deleted the dangly rubber flap that separates the airflow for the condenser and the intercooler. I get the theory behind it, but I think the execution (the flimsy clips that hold it up) is bad, and it just wanted to flop down and block my IC (which it actually did for weeks before I knew what the heck it was).
Sidenote: the lower grille from American Muscle has the sides filled in. Some older customer pics showed it as opened up, some filled in (like in the product photos), but it was fairly easy to cut open with a hacksaw/jigsaw. I can see that the OEM lower grille was probably designed as a funnel, or filled in on the sides for better aero/less drag, but my commute is 90 minutes for 26 miles one way, so I figured that the funnel concept of the lower grille is probably trapping all the hot backwashed air especially once I turn on my AC.
This is the only picture I have and it's really a picture of my stage 3 mod... If you look, you can see a horizontal sheet of 24 gauge steel below the uni-strut. In my stage 2 mod, this separated the lower OEM intercooler from the upper radiator/heat exchangers.
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