Radiators in tanks

[speediesparks]

 Now that Bonneville is over for me this year ,I need to start looking at putting a radiator in my water tank.I have read thru the posts about this but still have some questions. Who have you done business with and gotten what you needed from.I'm looking at a radiator that is 12" tall and 30" long.There are many companies that make aluminum radiators,Beko,Davis and Griffin that I have found.I'm just looking for someone understands our racing.THANKS
   

[Dynoroom]

Now that Bonneville is over for me this year ,I need to start looking at putting a radiator in my water tank.I have read thru the posts about this but still have some questions. Who have you done business with and gotten what you needed from.I'm looking at a radiator that is 12" tall and 30" long.There are many companies that make aluminum radiators,Beko,Davis and Griffin that I have found.I'm just looking for someone understands our racing.THANKS
   

Why? You can ask any radiator builder to mount the inlet/outlet any place you want, or you can do it yourself like we did.
The manufacturer won't likely have a clue why you're putting it in a box of water.

[martysmilt]

Why put a radiator in a box of water?  Why not use the box of water and run a thermostat on the engine?  Seems to me the possibility of a ruptured radiator from a blown gasket or cracked block inside a box of water is just as likely a possibility as a tank with the same problem.  Just put a large vent on the tank in case you get a blown head gasket and call it good.

[Dynoroom]

Because some people like to run a pressurized cooling system.

[maguromic]

Because some people like to run a pressurized cooling system.

Stop giving the secrets away, without the secret hand shake.  Tony

[Bob Drury]

  This might not add any clarity to the issue, but I route my engine water thru a 20 gallon tank in the car and back to the radiator (which gets minimal air from the front).
  The first thing to remember is if it can pressurize on its own (blown head gasket) that it ought to be round not square.
  In my car I run two 3/4 inch vent lines to a catch tank in the rear, and two additional 3/4 inch lines off of hot water heater pop off valves that dump out behind the rear tires if the vent lines cannot handle the hot water.
  Remember if the hot water hits your fire suit, it will scald you....................  Bob

[manifest]

If I were to build just a simple tank (25gal.) for the cooling fluid how many vents, outlets, inlets, etc. would I need other than the two coming to and from the engine? 

This is new to me so what are the advantages of a pressurized system.  How much better does a large tank cool the engine compared to a conventional radiator and how much better is a radiator inside a tank than just a tank alone?

[hotrod]

The main advantage of a pressurized cooling system over a simple tank running at near atmospheric pressure is that the boiling point of the coolant increases as pressure goes up. This significantly reduces the chance of flash boiling of the coolant water in the hot spots of the heads (near the exhaust valves for example). If local boiling occurs you develop a hot spot as the steam pocket formed cannot carry heat away as fast as liquid water can.

If you are running a large tank of water circulated at near atmospheric pressure the boiling point of the liquid is 212 deg F (100 deg C), raise the pressure inside the engine cooling system to 36 psi absolute 22 psi above atmospheric pressure and the boiling point of the water goes up to 261 deg F (127 deg C). A 30 pound pressure cap on the radiator would raise the coolant pressure to about 44 psi absolute, and a boiling point of 273 deg F 134 deg C.

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/boiling-point-water-d_926.html

This allows you to build your large water tank as a square shape that can operate at low pressure, and only pressurize the radiator and the cooling system of the engine which are designed to run at high pressures. Makes the large water tank cheaper and simpler to build.

The heat transfer from a common radiator to air is much lower than the same radiator fully immersed in cold water. Especially if the water it is immersed in is full of ice, you have a huge difference in temperature which significantly improves heat transfer. It also due to the large thermal inertia of the large volume of water will over heat slower if it does over heat, this might give you a few more seconds at full power and time to shut things down without injuring the engine if something goes wrong and the engine starts to run hot.

Larry

[Dynoroom]

This topic has been discussed quite a bit on the forum. Do a search and you can learn a lot about the pros and cons.

[John Burk]

A radiator in the water tank also lets you use antifreeze in just the engine and radiator . The heat transfer from fins to water is so much better than fins to air that almost any radiator would work . If the radiator water used antifreeze or was pressurized it could harmlessly boiling the tank water next to the radiator fins which would just spread the heat around the tank .

[Bob Drury]

  I would add as a word of caution that if any coolant is run into the passenger area that it MUST NOT BE FLAMABLE.
  We do not want another tragedy like Lynn Goodfellow went thru.
  If you lose a head gasket, and the radiator burst's, it could cause a sharp increase of pressure in the outer tank, so I think it would need to be vented to the outside (the bigger the better).
  Just my thought's,               Bob

[dw230]

Lets all avoid the possibility of a incident like Lynn's. Follow the rulebook and use water ONLY.

DW