RadsickT writes:
> Hey all,
>
> I swore to myself I wasn't gonna throw in my two cents worth about
Funny, I said that too, but what the hell. (:-) to follow!)
> Ok, suppose the coolant went really really fast. In this case, a
> small unit of fluid would not spend much time in the radiator in a
> single pass. Thus it would not lose much heat. On the other hand, it
> would not spend much time in the block -- so it won't gain much heat.
> This is called the steady-state condition.
But there would be so much friction from the mega-fast moving fluid
passing against the mettle surfaces that it would heat up the fluid,
the radiator, the block, the head, and eventually melt the hoses and
vaporize into a green flash of brilliant goop. How cool! (cool?) (now
that's fast!) Then we would proceed to the next situation below...
> pass through the radiator (because it sits there forever). For the
> remainder of its pass through the radiator, it is the same temperature
> as the ambient air. Which is nice and cool but in effect this makes
> the majority of the radiator useless!
Yeah!
> overheats, siezes up and solves the cooling problem since the engine
> no longer produces heat. It just radiates like a brown-body.
I agree with this!
To sum up my onions:
. all cooling systems are simular but different.
. if you remove the thermostat, you may run cooler or hotter
. if you run hotter, you need more back pressure on the
water pump.
. if you run cooler, you've increased flow, and your
waterpump had the back pressure it needed.
. it's important to get your engine to it's operating temp as
quickly as possible. This means use a thermostat.
> My credentials: BS in Physics from HMC
> Scientist in Air Force Rocket Propulsion Lab
> Burned myself with scalding liquids several times
My credentials: Burned myself with hot things
Dropped an engine on my foot
> I hope all this made sense and yet wasn't too simplistic.
Nice post Tim...
BTW, I'll be in Maryland for the next few weeks. I'll still be
reading mail and that sort of hub-bub, and would like to get together
with the DC area Solers for tea and crumpets some evening. I'll post
again when I get out there.
Cheer{io,s},
-Scotty
---
"All the parts falling off this car are of the very finest British
manufacture"
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