The big reason most cars and trucks went to cross flow radiators was to
lower the hood line. The radiator could be much shorter without a tank on
the top and bottom. On most American V8's the water pump pumps water into
the engine instead of drawing it out. For the same reason, it is pumped
into the bottom of the engine and exits through the top. This makes sure
that even if the radiator is very low, the engine is still full of water
and won't overheat.
I've heard about the slower water pump allowing more cooling, never tried
it. The engineer in me says that slower flow will produce cooler exit
water, but less of it. The higher flow will produce warmer water, but more
of it. Net result is that higher flow should dump more heat (btu's) from
the radiator and cool better. This is for what it is worth. We have a
shop in town that engineers heavy equipment radiators from scratch and
builds them as replacement for Cat, Lectra Haul, and others. I'll give
their engineering department a call on Monday about this.
Bruce Kettunen
57 3200
Mt. Iron, MN
>most all vehicles flow from top to bottom regardless of radiator design,
>vertical
>vs horizontal flow. The water flows from the top hose to the radiator and the
>head(s) are the last thing to get cooled. Reverse flow water pumps pump
>backwards
>(dah) and the head(s) are the first thing to get cooled. This is good on
>aluminum
>heads or heads prone to breakage from heat. i also like to run my 235 with a
>195†F thermostat with a 4 pound radiator cap. I had the electric fan
>thermostat
>set to come on at 200† with a thermometer in the radiator cap opening. The
>hotter
>the engine gets the better it runs and the mileage increases to a point
>that is.
>The reason everything went to horizontal flow was the vertical flow rads
>would
>plug up and the bottom of the flow tubes.
>
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