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Old 11-16-2012, 10:00 AM   #35 (permalink)
bryson
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Charleston, SC
Posts: 8

Eff Too Fiddy - '00 Ford F250
90 day: 19.99 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Piwoslaw View Post
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?

Last edited by bryson; 11-16-2012 at 10:07 AM.. Reason: speeling errorrs =)
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