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The isssue with winter engine cooling is as temperatures get lower the difference in temperature between the coolant leaving the engine and the coolant entering the engine, after going through the radiator, can get fairly large. In some cases over 100 degrees difference is severe conditions, and even higher in very cold areas. In very extreme conditions the heater core can provide all necessary cooling in some cases.
Blocking the air flow over the radiator lowers that temperature difference to a point that more resembles the summer difference, which might be as low (a difference) as 30 degrees.
The colder your coolant is when it enters the engine, the more heat loss you suffer to the coolant and the lower efficiency of your engine. In cooling systems with electric fans, you know you have overdone the blocking when the fan starts running a lot more than it did before your mod, and you are spending a lot of energy running that fan.
I am also an advocate of cooling systems that use the bypass circuit to control the incoming temperature of the coolant automatically to maintain the highest practical inlet temperature, something current systems (with few exceptions) do not do, which is the main reason for blocking airflow to the radiator.
regards
Mech
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