Hi Volvo Saint,
yes it does have a shroud, which I expect should significantly improve cooling, while I seem to want the opposite. But I'm in no hurry to take it off.
You make a good point re the viscous coupling fan, which I'll check, though I'm pretty sure my mechanic mate would have thought about that. I assume they can jam in the engaged position, and overcool?
I think the radiator blocking idea was born of the fact that these cars were, I assume, designed for frigid climates, though they work fine elsewhere, too. I've read a few items where back in the day when they were fairly new, people in northern Europe were advised to do some radiator blocking in winter. My mechanic is an old school Scotsman, and he reckoned that the practice was pretty common over here for many cars in winter too.
I do wonder, though, whether the temperature gauge is just reading low. I seem to now recall somebody on this forum (with a different model) having a thread about trying to get his gauge to read properly.
Maybe I should just get a correct temperature check, and if it's OK, learn to live with the gauge.
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