Fact/Fiction- cooling

Basically, no. But one must consider this as a two-edged sword.

First, the lesser point of why more flow is detrimental. Fluid (coolant) flowing through pipes generates heat from friction. So increasing flow actually adds to the heat that the radiator is trying to remove. Moreover, it takes work (energy) to operate the pump. That extra work is provided by the engine, which, because it is inefficient, must generate more heat of its own. So faster coolant flow heats the coolant not only directly by friction but indirectly because the coolant is cooling an engine that generates heat in proportion to work done propelling the coolant.

Now the major point. [Remember that the radiator is supposed to remove heat from the engine, not the coolant.]

At low flow rate, the coolant spends time in the radiator and lots of heat is removed from that particular batch of coolant–theoretically it can drop from engine temp down to the ambient as the coolant moves slowly through the radiator. Then, it enters the engine, with plenty of time to reheat, and the cycle repeats.

At high flow rate, the coolant spends little time in the radiator and its temperature hardly decreases at all before it’s back in the engine. Then, it’s quickly back to engine temperature and the cycle repeats.

So you might first actually think slow is better, but if you think more it would seem that the two are about the same. In the fast flow case, it’s almost as if the engine is just extended to the radiator–the same temp in both, just as if the radiator fins were cooling fins on an air-cooled engine. In other words, there is cooling in the sense that the engine would get hotter without the fins, but you just don’t see any cooling of the water between the radiator’s inlet and outlet.

But here’s the subtle difference…the amount of cooling is proportional to the temperature difference between radiator and ambient air. A cold day cools better than a hot one. So the hottest part of the radiator cools most–more heat is removed. If you reduce coolant flow so that the coolant temp decreases significantly from top to bottom, the bottom of the radiator cools less, and the engine runs hotter. Increase coolant flow, and the bottom of the radiator cools more too.

So the only difference is that higher coolant flow lets the entire radiator cool maximally, not just the top. The engine (and average radiator temp) goes down compared to slower coolant flow. BUT, there is a practical limit–higher flow (even with properly designed pump etc) itself generates more heat. There’s a happy compromise, indicated by a certain ideal temp decrease from radiator inlet to outlet. IMHO.

Aside: There are vendors of muli-pass and the like radiators who advertise large temp drops from inlet to outlet. These radiators have more resistance to flow, so they slow the coolant, thus giving the larger drops. But if you look at their data, the drop is greater, but the inlet temp is up. The engine is running hotter, but the water in the radiator is cooler. You want to cool the engine, not the water that happens to be in the radiator.

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