Diff betwen rad designs?

[Kekuso]

I went to a car wreck store or whatever (where they sell car spare parts from wrecked cars) to see if they had any nice rads.
The salesman first showed me an aluminium rad that looked like some thick pipes with fins on, no tanks or anything, just a thick long pipe bent around with lots of straight fins on it. I asked him if he had any copper rads, and he showed me one that looked like most heatercores i've seen, squeezed honeycombish fins and tanks or whatever it is on the sides.

Wich design is the best? And does it make big difference if its Al or Cu?

edit: I read a review on some wc systems, and in one of the systems, the rad looked like the alu rad i saw. I think the review said it was an "conductor", not a radiator. Is that true?

[jman1310]

you will get better performance out of the heatercore due it's greater surface area (water to metal). the AL tube one is an oil cooler and depends on a high ∆T to work effectively (50-100 degrees F). w/c has a low ∆T (generally less 10-15 degrees) and needs higher effeciency.
it is also best to use the same metal though out the system. for example: copper block and copper rad or AL block and AL rad.

no idea what was meant by "conductor", but you can call a truck a lorry and it still does the same thing

attn: flamers: i'm not saying the AL rad won't work, just the the HC is likely to be better

[Kekuso]

Thanks for the answer!

[ricecrispi]

I'd guess the heatercore would if they had same surface area and simliar thickness. The surface area is the key factor though. More surface area should result in better temps

What is your intent? I would use a large rad for mainly passive cooling. I would give upon finding suitable heatercores or oil coolers at junk yard. Hassle.

I recently got a jaguar xj6 heatercore for free from my uncle who's master tech and resells a lot of parts. The core cost about $200 when refurbished but the item had a little too much corrosion in some areas to refurbish. It is perfectly 120mm wide and about 330mm long with dense copper fins and AL core. I used some corrosion cleaner, some braker cleaner, put it into steam cleaner, and cut off the metal tubing. Still need to build the shroud or buy thermochill one and paint the rad.

My point is it can get expensive and time consuming prepping, modding, and frustrating using heatercore or car rad setup. I'm lucky since i didn't have to pay for most of that stuff I used or for the cleaner.

If you plan to use heatercores or rads I think it's a hassle. With the larger old junk rads you have to modify it to take barbs, clean the core and the junk on the outside, figure a way to mount it, mod the case, and build a shroud. The time and money put into it is not worth it unless its a hobby meant to drive your girlfriend nuts.

[jman1310]

Originally Posted by BGP Spook

How did you make the delta T?
EDIT: Question directed at jman1310.

∆T is the difference between the cooling fluid and the ambient temp.

an oil cooler during normal use (on a transmission or a crank case) is cooling a fluid that's at 150-200 degrees

the fluid in a watering setup shouldn't be much over 100-120 degrees while the ambient is 70-90. these are very general numbers, as there are seasonal differences and other factors

jman

[bigben2k]

[moderator; thread cleaned up] see http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=12875 for displaced posts.