The air directors in front of the radiator do not touch or even come that close to the radiator. They were meant to direct the air stream from outside at speed.
However, the main issue of why you run hot at idle is primarily a multi faceted condition. First, if you are using an aggressive fan, there is no directed passage out of the engine compartment that allows full and easy flow. This hot air finds its easiest path (with the car stopped) through the porous radiator bulkhead (especially around the steering box). To make matters worse, this escaping hot engine compartment air is then reintroduced through the radiator by the drag of the fan. This recursive passage of heated air continuously increases in temperature, thereby giving less and less relief to the engine. Add to this condition, the lack of effective fan air control that, as original, has no shroud to stop air from leaking of the tips of the fan blades and you have a very inefficient engine cooling system. Attempts by many of us to compensate this misunderstood condition by introducing very aggressive fans, larger radiators, and even fender vents and louvers and the resulting effect is much less than expected or desired.
Although the best thing to do could be to create a non-porous radiator bulkhead that forces air to pass through the radiator when entering the engine compartment and venting far from its point of entry. However, this would not be practical or simple to achieve on a completed car as it would require disassembly and fabrication. In addition, discussions in other threads show the difficulty of coming to a decision of how far to go with the introduction of changes that may better the situation but loose the character of the car we chose to have in the first place.
Although I have come to the belief that the main factor causing the issue you are questioning is the presence of a porous radiator bulkhead, the way to provide some compensation is with the installation of a more efficient radiator and more aggressive fan with simple fan shroud. Going further would require major effort based only upon theoretical validation.
By the way, if you are not using a "Sleeved" thermostat that blocks the internal radiator bypass for quick warm-ups, you are also loosing 20% of your cooling by providing an in-engine radiator bypass.
Do the easy things. Make sure you have a sleeved thermostat, good fan with simple shroud, more efficient radiator (if needed) and enjoy your Healey drives during the cool part of the day while listening to the “Beach Boys”.
Sorry for going off like I did.
All the best,
Ray (64BJ8P1)
Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
