Quote:
Originally Posted by Piwoslaw
Just got an idea: What about two half-sized radiators, plumbed in parallel? One would have a valve allowing it to be closed off for winter and opened for summer. Or it could be opened automatically only when the coolant gets too hot, sort of like a second loop with a hotter thermostat. It takes up the same amount of room and shouldn't add too much weight.
|
I'm actually pretty surprised OEM's don't do this on light trucks. The cooling system on my F250 is hugely oversized when I'm not towing, even for the 100* summers.
I guess that warmup times aren't factored into fuel economy ratings (also, a lot of light truck are exempt from having to obtain ratings), so there really is no "value" added as far as the factory is concerned -- just an additional component to fail with huge associated risks.
Eh, also a block heater could be used to accomplish similar goals (although not as convenient as a self-contained system like the radiators) with much less risk and significantly less investment.
Anyway -- I do really like the parallel radiator concept. How about a secondary thermostat to allow flow to the auxiliary radiator?