Hi All,
I have been driving my car a while without a front air dam. I live in Texas where it gets hot. It has been 92* F already. I used an infrared digital temp gauge to see how hot the car gets. I aimed for several places and the hottest spot I could find was 186* F. Is this reliable? The hottest place was the thermostat housing the overflow tank and directly on the radiator. They were pretty much the same. Is this reliable and how important is that front air dam?
Thanks

 

The front air dam is probably not super critical, Unless you are running a low temp. thermostat though, when idling in the heat I would be surprised if you do not hit at least about 200 F on the internal coolant temp. sensor which you can monitor with a real time OBDII scanner or RealGauge. This wouuld be normal, and not considered a problem.