Radiator Question

[ONEBADBUG]

I am thinking about building a radiator that is double pass, but only 7" high. That means it's really only about 9 or 10 rows for the water to go through. Does anybody know if that would be too much pressure loss/resistance to work properly? 

[Rex Schimmer]

The things that you need to consider are: Water pump flow rate, radiator tube size, amount of heat to be rejected, and air flow through the radiator. The advantage of going to a double pass radiator is getting the water velocity through the radiator high enough to ensure turbulent water flow. On a small radiator like you are thinking about, unless you have a very small water pump, there probably is not an advantage of going to double pass.

Rex

[ONEBADBUG]

Thanks.
Well, in my case the advantage is packaging. It would be convenient to have the inlet and outlet on one end, and just the header tank on the other. I'm not smart enough to know the answers to the questions you posed.

[ONEBADBUG]

Ok, I compared the sizes of what I want to the stock arrangement and it looks like I would have 2-1/2 times the the resistance. What kind of problems would that create?

[robfrey]

Can you do a simple flow test? Do you know what you need for flow? I sort of like the idea for getting both inlet and outlet on the same side? You will probably lose some efficiency though.

[Jon]

There is an Aus company that does a similar thing doing 3 passes acros the radiato, they are generally pretty helpful, members of DLRA.

http://www.aussiedesertcooler.com.au/triple_flow.htm

Cheers
Jon

[Fordrat31]

I had come across this small water to air cooler while back, a buddy had said it was from a Chevy cobalt SS but I am really not too sure. It is all aluminum, double pass, about 8" tall and 24" long. Not the best pictures but you kinda get the idea. I decided to go in a different direction so if it is something that could help you out let me know. 

[ONEBADBUG]

Thanks, but I have decided it to it somewhat traditionally.