2010 Front Diffuser Installed
sqidd7/14/2009
Part Number / Description / MSRPAR3Z-17626-A / Valance-Shelby Cobra GT 500 ; Underbody, Lower Cover (Front) / 139.27
AR3Z-6C038-A / Underbody Heat Shield- Shelby Cobra GT 500 (Front) / 62.65
HC1 / Fasteners / 1.26
HS1 / Fasteners / 1.87
I just put a 2010 Front diffuser (2 parts) on my car yesterday to try and get some air out from underneath the hood to keep it from “dancing”. Just as I suspected it works great. It creates a vacuum under the area below the stretch from the core support to the K-member. And as a bonus forces the air that goes through the openings in the front to go through one of the coolers opposed to being able to bounce off the face and bleed out around the sides.
My hood shake has reduced 80% and I still have horrible are management up front. I have no bumper so the air hitting the heat exchanger can go straight up opposed to through it. And my grill doesn’t have the area around the stock fog lights blocked off so I am getting WAY too much air through the grill and a lot of it goes where you don’t want it. Once I get the tin work done to box all of the front bumper openings in I’ll bet it will not hood dance at all. And even though I still have horrible air management it’s a lot better now and the car ran noticeably cooler today. And I swear in some of the high speed sweepers I wet through the front end of the car was more planted. I think there is even less wind noise coming from up there, but I may be crazy.
The two parts were about $140
The front piece does not reach all the way to the bumper cover so you will want some material around to cut up and patch it in or you can use the original shield and cut what you want out of it. The original shield is a bit short of being wide enough so you can kinda see two small gaps I the middle where the diffuser meets the bumper cover. When I do the ti work I will do a replacement part out of aluminum.
You need to cut two “eyebrow” shaped parts off of the bottom of the bumper cover to allow the wicker bill to hang down in front of the wheels but it was easy. I just attached the back of the front piece in the screw holes that were already in the core support for the old shield and then traced the arc in Sharpie where I needed to cut and a few runs across the lines with a razor blade and it trimmed right up.
Where the inner fender, bumper cover and new diffuser meet they are pretty tight and didn’t move when I got it up to 150 but when I pull it all apart again when doing the tin work I will be making a bracket to fasten them together and use Dzus fasteners to secure it all. You may want to plan on having some of that Home Depot aluminum “strip” so you can cut it up, bend it and make a bracket.
The rear piece (the one with the louvers) went right on. It comes with two well nuts and screws that push into existing holes in the K-member and then there are holes in it for the two I think they are 14mm nuts sticking out of the bottom of the K-member. I was lucky and had the bolts I the shop or I would have been making a trip to the store. My advice, if you order these order the fasteners at the same time.
The front and rear pieces “mesh” together with no fasteners where they meet.
Making the front part fit was a bit of work and if you are not exactly handy with tools and don’t have things like a GOOD razor knife, rivet gun, rivets, etc it will be time consuming for you. Maybe 4 hours after you get back from Sears where you bought a rivet gun.
It doesn’t look like the rear part would be effective at all without the front. Too many exits for the air without it.
I attached some pics. Sorry some are blurry, I was on my stomach with no flash so the shutter was open forever.
I one shot I laid the two new pics out with the 05-09 shield laid on top to give you an idea of how big this sucker is.
With the wicker bill and the car lowered there is not much clearance at all under there now.
Have one of those low profile aluminum jacks and it caught the wicker bill a bit when putting the jack out. From this point on I will probably be turning the wheel all the way one way and jacking the car up from under the K-member but from the side between the tire and the bumper cover, inner fender, diffuser.
For the money this is an outstanding mod.
There are pics of the new 2010 pieces.
The new 2010 pieces with the 05-09 shield laid on top for comparison
The underside of the car stock
Two shots of the finished install (note rivets where I “patched” the extra bit in between the diffuser and the bumper cover.
Last pic shows how the wicker bill hangs down.