radiator question

[wonko the sane]

I was thinking about using a car radiator in my watercooling setup. would i need to use a stronger pump in order to get the water through it?

[Random Nonsense]

a car radiator is WAY too big for watercooling, unless you have a truly vicious flow rate. what tends to happen (according to kaitain) is that the water will not actually pass through the entire radiator, there is too little flow. it just goes the most direct route between inlet and outlet therefore you dont get very good performance. A car Heatercore is just about the perfect size though, I suggest you look at these rather than full blown car radiators.

[surlyjoe]

hahahha way overkill. may not be super efficient but considering the size, it would definitly work

[JFettig]

actually if you would have the inlet to the radiator on the bottom and the outlet on top, i think it would work... water would be forced up thru all channels..

[Kaitain]

Originally posted by Random Nonsense
a car radiator is WAY too big for watercooling, unless you have a truly vicious flow rate. what tends to happen (according to kaitain) is that the water will not actually pass through the entire radiator, there is too little flow. it just goes the most direct route between inlet and outlet therefore you dont get very good performance. A car Heatercore is just about the perfect size though, I suggest you look at these rather than full blown car radiators.

Hullo? Do I see my name used in vain

The dead-volume problem only occurs in enclosed pin waterblocks, and multi-pass/parallel radiators.

IIRC a car radiator is usually single pass, in which case maskedgeek's reasoning holds for getting the flow through the entire system.

BUT by having such a huge radiator volume, you're doing yourself no favours. The flow-rate will always be x gal/min, same everywhere in the system, but the flow velocity (water in metres/sec or feet/sec) will be minimal. Rate of heat flux is directly proportional to flow velocity: you really want a radiator to have skinny little tubes, as a result.

For a typical watercooling pump, you'll get nice turbulent flow (ie fastest heat transfer) in your waterblock, and either streamline or (worse) creeping flow in the radiator, giving pathetic heat flux out of the system. You might as well just use a reservoir then (y'all know what I think of reservoirs).

Either way, let us know how you get on

[Random Nonsense]

you love proving me wrong dont you mate? oooooooh cunning plan, I dont have any money.

/me Hopes that Kaitain has to prove him wrong by sending him all his money.

[Samuknow]

Originally posted by wonko the sane
I was thinking about using a car radiator in my watercooling setup. would i need to use a stronger pump in order to get the water through it?

Not unless your planning on strapping a small block to her.

A heater core works great...

[Kaitain]

Originally posted by Random Nonsense
you love proving me wrong dont you mate? oooooooh cunning plan, I dont have any money.

* Random Nonsense Hopes that Kaitain has to prove him wrong by sending him all his money.

But it's just so much fun

I can send you all my debts, how's that?

[wonko the sane]

the thing is i already have the rediator (would only get like 10 if i brought it back for core charge)

[Holst]

Originally posted by wonko the sane
the thing is i already have the rediator (would only get like 10 if i brought it back for core charge)

Can you take a photo ?

It might work out Ok, id probably go ahead and buy a pump and waterblock and test it out. If you get poor flowrate or temperatures then you will have to find a heatercore to use instead.

Another thing to watch for is galvanic corrosion. WHere ions of copper will attack alluminium, if the rad is aluminium I wouldnt use it. THose bits of oxide can clog your waterblock (or in an extreme case cause a leak) Use glycol or waterwetter to reduce this efect.