radiator flow rate

[pushkick]

anyone know the flow rate of a stock radiator or where the info can be found? couldnt find any info in the stickies
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i see said the blind man to his deaf dog
i am going to quit smoking and drinking and die a healthy man. gotta laugh
there is no deed to the planet earth
1990 vw automatic camper

[insyncro]

The flow rate of the rad is dictated by the waterpump and size/length of line between the two.

[pushkick]

[insyncro]

Without any real idea of what vehicle, engine and so on you are talking about......no straight answer can be given.

[pushkick]

i have a 1990 vw camper with a 2.1 l engine but from my understanding all the water colded are the same. they even have the same water pump.
_________________
i see said the blind man to his deaf dog
i am going to quit smoking and drinking and die a healthy man. gotta laugh
there is no deed to the planet earth
1990 vw automatic camper

[Californio]

Wouldn't the real-time flow rate be determined by engine RPM?

[pushkick]

i am sure their is a curve for rpm vs. coolant flow and the slower the engine the less flow. but i think i am asking for the max flow rate of the radiator.
i think the pressure has something to do with the max flow rate. if you had 0 pressure at the exit of the radiator then how much gpm could you put through it at a given pressure? there has to be some engineering data on this somewhere.
_________________
i see said the blind man to his deaf dog
i am going to quit smoking and drinking and die a healthy man. gotta laugh
there is no deed to the planet earth
1990 vw automatic camper

[crazyvwvanman]

If it is really important to know, just hook a garden hose and pressure gauge to the input side and measure how much water comes out the other end, at the pressures that interest you.

The stock radiator has way more capacity than needed by the stock engines. A new one is under $200 delivered to your door. There are still quite a few vans with the original installed. That shows that there was surplus capacity as even degraded 20-25 years down the road they still often work sufficiently well most of the time. When in doubt, get a new one.

Mark

[PDXWesty]

[pushkick]

there were several reasons i asked this question first was to see what would happen when i tested my radiator so i could compare the results against a new one. second was to see how it works with a subaru engine with double the horsepower or a upgraded wbx, but really wanted to see if this would be a good test to see if my radiator of 20 years was still good and not clogged up. i found this website with some technical info it may help people in the future with some radiator problems

http://www.arrowheadradiator.com/14_rules_for_impr...obiles.htm
_________________
i see said the blind man to his deaf dog
i am going to quit smoking and drinking and die a healthy man. gotta laugh
there is no deed to the planet earth
1990 vw automatic camper

[dobryan]

[kevtherev]

I would have thought how large the exchange area is, is the key here.

[Jake de Villiers]

[pushkick]

[GMByers]

[fixedgear]

The stock radiator has way more capacity than needed by the stock engines. A new one is under $200 delivered to your door. There are still quite a few vans with the original installed. That shows that there was surplus capacity as even degraded 20-25 years down the road they still often work sufficiently well most of the time. When in doubt, get a new one.

I recently went the route of a rad. repacement on a '86 with AC. I had
wondered about the sediment buildup on an original rad., and how the efficiency may be affected. Prior to replacement the needle pegged always at top third of led after warming up. No experience of overheating as determined by guage or rad. coming on during highway driving. In the city, driving in 80* weather, the rad. would come on to deal with the heat buildup after shut off only, and only for about one minute.

After replacement, the needle pegged at exactly the same spot as before. I was curious about this as well, since another poster commented that the change seemed to free up the system and allowed for alot more movement in the temperature reads.

The only noticeable change was that in city driving, after shut off, the rad fan would not be triggered. The fan has not come on yet. I came to the conclusion that in mid-summer stop-and-go, a clear rad. would have a real benefit and would be a nice benefit to an aging vehicle.

I weighed the new rad. and got a weight of 11 lbs.
The removed rad., drained for 2 hours, and in every orientation was 25.4 lbs.
Cannot comment on whether the stock rad. materials were of a heavier guage or not.

I did a series of pictures on replacing the rad. in a van with air conditioning. I found the description of the procedure confusing in Haynes and in other sources. For instance, Haynes comments that the rad. can be disconneced from the condenser after dropping the rad., when in fact there is no connection, and the condenser poses no additional difficulty.

I have the old rad. against the building, and am thinking that it might be worthwhile to do an autopsy on it. I have an angle grinder with zip disk, if anyone is interested in how much of the area of the rad. is blocked let me know ( as well as the best way to slice it up).
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1986 Wolfsburg Weekender

[pushkick]

that would be interesting to see the areas of buildup and what the rad looks like after that many years. that is a big weight difference.
_________________
i see said the blind man to his deaf dog
i am going to quit smoking and drinking and die a healthy man. gotta laugh
there is no deed to the planet earth
1990 vw automatic camper

[crazyvwvanman]

The A/C condensers are attached to the radiator in most cases, but not all.

Use a sawsall and slice the plastic end tanks off. Then you can see the core pretty well from both ends. I have done this a couple times and the crap in there was kinda shocking. This also allows you to see how the tanks are arranged to make the coolant flow side to side through the bottom half and then back the other way in the top half. The inside partition in the hose end tank is sometimes known to split open and allow coolant to go in and back out of the rad without passing through the core.

Mark

[fixedgear]

[quote="crazyvwvanman"]The A/C condensers are attached to the radiator in most cases, but not all.

Use a sawsall and slice the plastic end tanks off. Then you can see the core pretty well from both ends. I have done this a couple times and the crap in there was kinda shocking. This also allows you to see how the tanks are arranged to make the coolant flow side to side through the bottom half and then back the other way in the top half. The inside partition in the hose end tank is sometimes known to split open and allow coolant to go in and back out of the rad without passing through the core.

Mark

Thanks Mark, I'll chop as you suggest and try and get the pics on this site.
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1986 Wolfsburg Weekender

[crazyvwvanman]

Don't cut the metal, just the plastic close to the folded over metal that holds the plastic to the core. If you cut the metal core it is so soft that the cutting process tends to bend up the fins so you can't see the passages very well.

Mark