CATEGORIES FOR ARTICLE LINKS BELOW

Cooling Airflow

Cooling air becomes heated as it passes through the radiator. It enters the radiator at ambient temperature and exits the radiator at some increased temperature. It is the difference between the average core, or coolant temperature and the average of these two cooling air temperatures that creates the ability of the radiator to transfer heat to the air. The slower the air passes through the radiator, the higher will be its exit temperature and the higher will be the average cooling air temperature. The higher the average cooling air temperature, the less heat will be transferred from the coolant to the air. On the contrary, the faster the air flows through the core, the less it will increase in temperature on its way through, making the exit temperature and the average cooling air temperature lower. This increases the differential between the average core temperature and the average air temperature, increasing the heat transfer. Increasing airflow by speeding up the fan, by providing an improved fan, by providing or improving the fan shroud, by reducing air restrictions in the grille or engine compartment, or by providing recirculation shields to prevent air from bypassing the core, will all improve heat transfer and cooling.

-Improvement Rule #2- Anything you can do to improve airflow through the radiator core will help. Anything that blocks or slows airflow, either before or after the radiator, will hurt.

Radiator Face Area

As we have seen, cooling air becomes warmer as it passes through the radiator. Coolant in the back row of a radiator is cooled by warmer cooling air that coolant in the front row of a radiator. Increasing the face area of a radiator exposes more coolant to the coolest ambient cooling air, increasing the radiator heat transfer capability.

Increasing the radiator face area may not be practical in all cased because of space limitations. However, similar improvement may be obtained by relocating any air conditioning condenser, or oil cooler which may be in front of the radiator, thereby exposing more of the face area of the radiator to the coolest ambient cooling air.

-Improvement Rule- #3 Increasing the face area of the radiator by making the radiator larger will help. Relocating other heat exchangers that were in front of the radiator in order to expose more radiator face area to ambient cooling air will also help.

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