Engine flap questions, search is failing me Options

[VaccaRabite]

I know that this has been discussed, but my searches either find too much, or nothing (which means I 'm searching the wrong terms.).

That said.

The cooling flaps for my engine don't seem to want to pop up. The spring is there, but it does not have the oompf to open the springs. The engine is out of the car, so now is the time to fix it, or choose to just leave the springs open.

I have the diaphram and wire on the car, but my instinct tells me to leave it unhooked and just run it with the flaps open. My rational is simple. If the system is gummed up now, and the flaps won't "fail open" as they are supposed to, I am worried that down the line they will get gummed up again, and some day I'll cook the engine because the flaps are gummed again and failed closed.

It seems to me that the risk of having them failed closed is worse then the longer warm up time.

Given that my car has no heat, and there for will only be driven in ambient temps above 60F (and usually in ambient temps around 80 or higher) do I need the flaps, or could I just leave them open with no real harm done.

Zach

[SLITS]

The flaps rod rides in plastic 1/2 bushings. See if they are correctly seated in the blower housing grooves. The only other thing I can think of is that the transverse rod is bent.

In mild climates, I have seen engines that have the rod assembly removed and a screw placed in the trailing edge of the oil cooler flap to hold it down (directs cooling air thru the cooler). The engines run just fine.

Only loss is in quick warm up. If you can stand the concept of accelerated wear due to slow warm up, then there is no problem.