A question for 1300cc and 1500cc car owners – Does your car have deflector boards fitted and if they are fitted do they help prevent the engine overheating.
My assumption is that all SE may have them fitted what do SE owners think of them?
At the recent Northern Dolly day I noticed that Steve Waldenbergs 1500 SE had deflector boards fitted adjacent to the radiator grill, see attached photographs. I have owned over the years a number of 1500HLs but none of them have had defector boards fitted but today when I looked in my copy of the official Triumph Dolomite Range 1976 onwards Parts Catalogue it shows Deflector boards fitted to both 1300 and 1500 engines, Part numbers XKC 1291 & XKC 1290, on pages 1M 02L &1M 02R.
The official parts catalogue that I have does not actually cover the 1500 SE!
My assumption is that the deflector boards were introduced to force more air through the radiator and so improve the cooling hence should we be looking to fit some?
Looking at my 1500cc cars I consider that fitting some sort of deflector on the nearside might help but I think that the off side with the exhaust being fitted on that side I would still like a good flow of cool air passing down that side of the engine. The near side deflector would also be easier to make but I note that part of the deflector shown does have an area cut away to allow some air flow which I assume is to cool the alternator.
I have looked at the Rimmer's site and they do not recognize the defector board part numbers. Does anyone know of a supplier?