imp
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- November 12, 2009
- Messages
- 4,798
- Reaction score
- 779
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 59 Ranchero F250 D'Line
Even though I had already done very extensive automotive work by then in Chicago, I started hearing some things different from what I had experienced before, after I took over Dealership of an ARCO station in Las Vegas. One thing I noticed was that cooling systems seemed to react a bit differently, maybe due to the much drier air in the Desert. Boil-overs seemed rarer, for one thing. Many of my customers lived out on the west side, where the station was located, because they worked at the Nevada Test Site, over 100 miles northwest, and caught the only highway up there near my station. They commuted daily. Some took buses, some carpooled. Most bought gas from me. Many were highly educated, Engineers, Physicists, Radiological Doctors. I spoke in great detail to many of them, me being new to the West.
Everyone of course talked about the heat, Desert driving. A well-dressed man brought his big Galaxie in with 390 eng., his wife following, handed me a thermostat for his engine. Asked me to install it, we talked a bit. He was a Nuclear Scientist. Had overheating problems, so for cool months, it was perhaps October, he put the thermostat back in the engine, removed it each following Spring. Had overheating problems in Summer with thermostat installed, no problems without it. You may have heard the opposite of this story. Hear me out, first, please.
I've racked my brain for a few days trying to figure out a quite logical way to explain my own thinking on this dilemma, the belief that COOLANT CAN MOVE TOO FAST THROUGH THE RADIATOR.
Try to picture this. Typical engine cooling system, pumping water from the engine through the radiator, back to the engine. Picture a chosen hunk of this water, say a gallon, hold that gallon steady in your mind as it moves through the radiator. During it's pass, it's temperature is lowered as it loses heat to the radiator structure. Let's say it's temperature drops 10`. Next gallon loses 10`. Every gallon through loses 10`. Say the flow rate was 10 gallons per minute, not unusual for a vehicle radiator.
Now, double the flow rate to 20 gal. per min. Each gallon is now in the radiator for HALF THE TIME, and only drops HALF THE HEAT as before. But, TWICE AS MANY GALLONS are now passing through, each dropping only 5` in temp.
THE NET AMOUNT OF HEAT TRANSFERRED REMAINS THE SAME. See below, one of the many sources I've consulted having mathematical proof that FLUIDS (liquids and gases) passing through heat exchangers experience no difference in amount of heat transferred vs. mass flow rate through the radiator.
"Heat transfer rates and radiator theory
Part I.
This will be a long post that I will be working on for a while, like a build post.
There has been discussion on this forum, and others, of overheating due to the myth that coolant can move too fast through the radiator. This also applies to other fluids needing cooled. The coolant moving too fast is often associated with removal of the thermostat. I will get to the reason for this particular case later."
http://www.colorado4x4.org/vbb/showthread.php?198232-Heat-transfer-rates-and-radiator-theory
I believe in proof over hear-say, word of mouth claims, special cases which do not apply to the concept (such as "thermo-syphon systems"). You may still not believe it. Tell me, please, if you don't, and what has prompted you to believe so: Have you driven your vehicle without a thermostat? Did it overheat then, but not WITH a thermostat? Thanks fer readin'! imp
Everyone of course talked about the heat, Desert driving. A well-dressed man brought his big Galaxie in with 390 eng., his wife following, handed me a thermostat for his engine. Asked me to install it, we talked a bit. He was a Nuclear Scientist. Had overheating problems, so for cool months, it was perhaps October, he put the thermostat back in the engine, removed it each following Spring. Had overheating problems in Summer with thermostat installed, no problems without it. You may have heard the opposite of this story. Hear me out, first, please.
I've racked my brain for a few days trying to figure out a quite logical way to explain my own thinking on this dilemma, the belief that COOLANT CAN MOVE TOO FAST THROUGH THE RADIATOR.
Try to picture this. Typical engine cooling system, pumping water from the engine through the radiator, back to the engine. Picture a chosen hunk of this water, say a gallon, hold that gallon steady in your mind as it moves through the radiator. During it's pass, it's temperature is lowered as it loses heat to the radiator structure. Let's say it's temperature drops 10`. Next gallon loses 10`. Every gallon through loses 10`. Say the flow rate was 10 gallons per minute, not unusual for a vehicle radiator.
Now, double the flow rate to 20 gal. per min. Each gallon is now in the radiator for HALF THE TIME, and only drops HALF THE HEAT as before. But, TWICE AS MANY GALLONS are now passing through, each dropping only 5` in temp.
THE NET AMOUNT OF HEAT TRANSFERRED REMAINS THE SAME. See below, one of the many sources I've consulted having mathematical proof that FLUIDS (liquids and gases) passing through heat exchangers experience no difference in amount of heat transferred vs. mass flow rate through the radiator.
"Heat transfer rates and radiator theory
Part I.
This will be a long post that I will be working on for a while, like a build post.
There has been discussion on this forum, and others, of overheating due to the myth that coolant can move too fast through the radiator. This also applies to other fluids needing cooled. The coolant moving too fast is often associated with removal of the thermostat. I will get to the reason for this particular case later."
http://www.colorado4x4.org/vbb/showthread.php?198232-Heat-transfer-rates-and-radiator-theory
I believe in proof over hear-say, word of mouth claims, special cases which do not apply to the concept (such as "thermo-syphon systems"). You may still not believe it. Tell me, please, if you don't, and what has prompted you to believe so: Have you driven your vehicle without a thermostat? Did it overheat then, but not WITH a thermostat? Thanks fer readin'! imp
