New radiator source

[rithunder916]

ok, so i've been in the car world for about 12 years. In my time i have used many different things to make power. My most favorite was a turbo that awesome sound of a jet engine coming out from under the hood as you rev the engine is amazing! Typically i used air-air intercoolers to keep that charged air cool. There was one time though that I used an air-water intercooler. I was running through the guarage the other day and i found it! I orderd two air-waters for a big block turbo build. Then i was given a much larger intercooler, so i used that and sold one of the two intercoolers off. Well i found it, I'm going to clean it up some and take a few pics.


What i'm wondering is has anyone ever thought of this before?



Ok i cleaned it up, but i can't find my camera. So If you search ebay for air-water intercooler, there are a bunch of 70 dollar units, that's what this is. the core itself measures 4.5" x 4.5" x 10" with end tanks it's 4.5 x 4.5 x 12. that's a pretty large core. it's a single pass system, with 3/4 fittings on each end. I'm going to work on getting the sides off to show what it really looks like. Oh and this would be for a cm stacker!


Mike

[jdbnsn]

I've heard of people using heater cores as radiators for watercooling loops, not sure if that is what you are talking about or not though. I do know of one mod that used a turbo prop called "Forced Induction"

[rithunder916]

That is awesome but no, hang on i'll post a few pics from the internet.


LINKY
that's the one i have. The center area is a 10x4.5x4.5" radiator core. Basically the plan is to cute the end tanks off ("wings") clean it up some (paint it), mount fans to see what I can do. It's rated to cool 700cfm, soo i bet it will do nicely for a radiator.

[Spawn-Inc]

first off its aluminum. mixing metals is a very bad idea in watercooling

and cooling is not rated in CFM its rated in watts and the ability to remove them.

what your reading means you need a fan with 700 CFM to properly cool the rad. you are going to go def with that much cfm from a computer fan, which by the way can't push anything near that. the highest computer fan is a delta rated for 220CFM its LOUD.

the rad is so big that it will hurt your flow rates for a standard computer pump and you will loose cooling, not gain.

as far as car rads ending up in computers copper/brass heater cores only cut it.

[SXRguyinMA]

I've heard of people using heater cores as radiators for watercooling loops, not sure if that is what you are talking about or not though. I do know of one mod that used a turbo prop called "Forced Induction"

thats crazy! It woulda been neat if he had the exhaust side pull hot air from the case as well as push in fresh cool air

but then he would have had a tough time hooking up the bench grinder lol

[rithunder916]

Thanks for the input!!!

I have a few questions though!
First, why would it matter if i used aluminum radiator with a copper block. I am a fan of copper myself, but I have a copper radiator in my car, with an aluminum block.... Second is that the radiator is rated to cool up to 700 cfm of air flow from a turbo charger, not that I'll need a 700 cfm fan to cool it.

What is nice about that cooler is that it is completely indepedent from the cars cooling system. This core has been used twice, one in the gmc cyclone, which used a 12 lph pump made by jabsco, and the second the svt lightning/cobra, which used a 317 gph pump. So i believe as long as I stay between those numbers i should be able to get enough flow. I want also to build new end tanks, ones that are hollow and have 2 inputs and two out puts, that would give me the ability to use two pumps instead of one. Now, onto cooling this thing. I would probably wind up using 4 mid cfm fans, like say 110 cfm, two on front, and two on back. Or, A friend of mine has two 3" nascar brake cooling fans from his old sprint car he no longer needs. they both are rated at 175 cfm and are 12vdc at 3 amps max draw. With a custom mount made i could have these pullling air out. Lets see what else am i missing. I don't know, I'm sure i'll think of something later.


Thanks again!!


MIke

[Spawn-Inc]

i should have also added that while it is a no no mixing metals the reason car do it is because they run 50% antifreeze which only slows down the galvanic corrosion. generally speaking in computers you try to run distilled water and some biocide as the glycol will slow heat transfer.


since you already have it you can run tests but you will always have corrosion happening and can only slow it down. if the pressure drop ( i assume it is referring to the water side) is only .1 psi then it sounds like it has a chance. and as for the fans try it and see i'm not sure how tight the fin spacing is but as long as its less then 25FPI you will be fine with high speed fans and lower as the fpi goes.

[rithunder916]

Ok, now that makes sence. What if i were to run anti-freeze in with the distilled water/biocide mix? Also would it be possible to run a very light oil as the cooling liquid instead of the water? The pressure drop is on the air side. What makes these so nice for turbo charged applications is that there is very little resistance in the air flow. the water side of things will take up to 70 psi of pressure.


I'll have my uncle cut the end tanks off, and I'll get a cheap 12v pump that will put out enough water, and i'll see what I can do as for testing. IT would be awesome though to use this for a radiator!


Also for the noice issue, meh i don't really hear my computer anyway over the 1000w surround of gun fire



MIke

[Spawn-Inc]

if you run antifreeze be careful using biocide as it may react.

and your 1000watt system will not be on all the time. but you can always undervolt the fans.

[rithunder916]

True on that one, I was planning on using 12 v 30 am relays with a fan controller that will turn the fans on at x temperature. I can run just anti freeze see how that works.

I'll also look into other coolants/additives that would help.


Mike