Several cooling system questions...

[John S]

OK, this year the cooling system in the Monte SS is going to get some attention to hopefully work out a few bugs and make it as efficient as possible. Last night I spent several hours reading through25 pages of past threads which answered some questions, but left me with others.
The next couple of days I am going to do some baseline testing. Armed with that information I'll be back looking for recommendations on corrective actions. In the meantime I have a few generic questions to ask opinions on.
For those that do not know let me preface by adding that the emissivity of a surface is its ability radiate heat. A perfect emitter is 1.0 and it drops from there.
My questions;

1. Has anyone considered painting their aluminum radiator? Aluminum radiators have an emissivity of approximately .040 and the higher the level of polish the finish has the lower its level. Painting a radiator flat black or better yet wrinkle black can move its emissivity up towards .7-.8 making it a much better radiator.
2. Does anyone know the affects of using De-Ionized water? I have 10's of thousands of gallons of DI water available. This water is ultra pure having resistance levels ~2Mohms and higher. We routinely place flood lights in the pools of this water to inspect the tanks and since the water is non-conductive there is no shock hazard. Would this eliminate any electrolysis? Also, there are no solids, chlorine or any other metals in the water.
3. I currently have an Edelbrock hi-flow water pump installed. the upper port on the pump is plugged. Someone told me that I needed to unplug the port and route a hose from that port to a port on the intake manifold. This would aid in getting proper water flow and cooling to the rear of the heads. Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks for helping me get started on this.

[DoABarrelRoll]

Effects of DI? Are you honestly asking that, or looking for reaffirmation of what you already know?

[Ron]

Hello John,

I hope this helps they are high-level answers. If you would like some more info or have other questions, you are welcome give the guys or myself a call at 800-842-5166. 8 am to 4 pm M-F

Good luck,

Ron Davis


Radiator Finish
We have not had of any performance issues with our radiators when customers paint or polish the exterior. Paint goes on in mils so unless the paint is put on so thick it blocks the air passages through the core; I would not worry about it. Though anything is possible I suppose. We also do not take into consideration the rejection ability of the tanks. We rely strictly on the core to reject the required amount of heat, and any extra performance contributed by the tanks is a bonus.

Affects of using DI water
We recommend our customers to follow the directions of the coolant manufacture of their choice. I cannot emphasize this enough. It is very easy to mix a cooling system cocktail that will not only destroy a radiator but blocks and heads are a risk as well. We have seen radiators ruined within two weeks because people do not read the instructions on coolants and / or additives they are pouring in their cooling system.

Upper port on pump is plugged
Bare minimum when filling the system the plug should be cracked open to bleed off the air trapped in the upper half of the pump. While taking coolant from the back of the motor is good, any trapped air will be put right back into the pump and circulated back into the motor. Not good for cooling, so the plumbing of the system can contribute to the success or failure of the cooling system. Also a good system filling procedure can reduce or eliminate the chance of over heating due to trapped air in the system.

[DoABarrelRoll]

I'm going to ask the question, because assuming... yea.

You know DI and copper don't play nice, right? DI is great for metals with high nickle, but I'm not 100% on how it plays with aluminum. On one had I've heard there is nothing wrong with it, and on the other I've heard of it corroding aluminum.

I don't think you're planning on running straight DI, right?

For giggles, a NASA case file titled Corrosion of Metals in DI Water:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1969015779.pdf

[John S]

Thanks for the Info Guys, I will be following up but here is what I have found after speaking to a chemist that is in the DI field.
DoABarrelRoll is correct, DI (ultrapure) water of greater than about 1.5Mohms does not play well with copper. It also does not play well with any other metals except Stainless or PVC tubing. The Di water will actually leach the molecules from pretty much anything it comes in contact with. It is always trying to reach a state of equilibrium. She told me that drinking the DI water will actually absorb calcium from your teeth and PH from your saliva. So do not drink it .
No I never planned on running it straight, and I do not plan on running it at all now.
Ron, I appreciate your input and will be giving you a call to discuss some possible improvements for my system.

[John S]

I'm going to ask the question, because assuming... yea.



For giggles, a NASA case file titled Corrosion of Metals in DI Water:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1969015779.pdf

Thanks for the link, interesting read. I've also passed it on to a few others within my organization since our DI systems is used to treat the storage and cooling water of large amounts of Cobalt 60 (~12Mcuries) used in our process.
It should give some of our people food for thought when considering materials used in the fabrication of our machines.