Quote:
Originally Posted by Tesla
Entirely agree, but wouldn't it be easier to seal off the entire engine bay area, and just add and appropriate cooling air exhaust at the rear bottom of the engine bay to open and release heat, as well as allow airflow through the radiator, than it would be to add another complete cooling system as a heat sink.
Eg when warming up all vents closed, engine warms up very quickly, once warm, vents open as much as required, then when stopped and shut down, all vents close and retain engine heat, when re started and running vents open as much as required.
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I see your point about working with what you've got rather than adding further components to the cooling circuit (as I suggest), but a few things occur to me:
- As well as having to fabricate an airtight space under the bonnet, you need to fab at least two actuated vents (air-in & air-out).
- Especially when stationary or going slow, your cooling air will need larger (and perhaps extra) electric fans to force enough air through. This is because you've strangled the free air flow in the engine bay.
- The manifold (header) and top of the exhaust would need to be thermally separate from your controlled ducted airflow (no idea how you'd do that). If not, because normally the header relies on radiating some portion of the hundreds of degrees it will reach into the free air of the engine bay. Either way, this large additional heat dissipation needs to be factored into your alternative design.
The thing is there's nothing like the amount of thermal capacity, even in all the air 'contained' in an engine bay, as can be held in a few kilos of thermal salts (PCMs). And I'm not convinced your alternative 'plumbing' would even be as simple.