Cooling System Basics and Radiator Buyers Guide - Hot and Bothered
Explaining Cooling Basics & Radiator/Cooler Buyer’s Guide
OK, so the cooling system on your truck is not nearly as sexy as those new shocks or lights. The cooling systems on your rig, however, are much more complicated than it may seem. It’s also far harder to appreciate the importance of your cooling system compared to how cool those new shocks are.
So why go to the expense and effort to upgrade your cooling system? Well, quite honestly, any cooling expert will tell you that a purpose-built cooling system will help achieve optimal engine performance while protecting your not so inexpensive equipment, helping you to avoid situations that lead to equipment failure and unnecessary wear and tear.
Chris Paulsen of C&R radiators says, choosing the correct cooling system components for your application, be it casual off-roading to full blown racing, starts with understanding certain cooling basics. As Paulsen has eloquently written in his website based “Cooling 101,” there are several factors to consider.
Actually, there are a lot of factors, especially when talking about off-road vehicles. From cooling configurations, contributors to heat in the system, the core construction itself, including material, type of welding, fin pitch, fins per inch, tube spacing, overall thickness in comparison to frontal surface area, water flow, airflow, and application. Adding in the harshness of the off-road environment and how a vehicle can be driven hard at even low speeds let alone wide open along a power line road, and you get the idea that there is much more to this cooling thing than meets the eye.
While engines have steadily improved over time, they still have some inefficiency in their design, which at its basic is changing chemical power (fuel) to mechanical power. Burning fuel creates heat obviously, but how the engine is tuned needs to be evaluated as well. Running advanced timing and a lean fuel mixture creates big power, but also higher than normal temps. Something like a restrictive exhaust system can place high demands on the system.
Even something as trivial as a leaking radiator cap can cause heat in the system to increase. We’re sure everyone knows that modern cooling systems are pressurized. Pressurizing the system increases the boiling point with every psi of pressure, increasing boiling point 3 dF at sea level. That means any leaks raise the temperature of the fluid even if all other factors are within spec.
