Wasting that heat more efficiently

[ShadeTreeMech]

one thing to remember the Daox hinted at is that the lower drag will reduce the engine load and reduce the amount of work required and reduce the amount of heat dissapation required. Which would make your radiator a bit oversized for the job.

[3dplane]

Wow thanks to all your responses and ideas!

I think before I further investigate this, I will go to the extreme and just
tape up the whole front of the car including all the little gaps around the
lights,bumper,grill,hood ONLY for a few comparative high speed coast down tests.

If I can't show any considerable measurable difference going to the extreme,I will not risk overheating with grill blocks. I've done a LOWER grill block on my truck once and it over heated on me which was surprising because I thought
as long as the top grill is open where the real heat is I can't get in trouble...
( WRONG! )

Bicycle Bob hinted about the lack of effectiveness using tubes attached to
aluminum under belly plate etc. Come to think of it on SUVs and vans with
rear a/c and heat,there are these long aluminum lines going from the front to all the way in the rear to the heater and evaporator cores and the manufacturers don't even bother insulating them yet they still function so
that's a pretty good indicator what a tremendous amount of heat is being created by the engine and how good an actual radiator is really that it can handle getting rid of all the excess!

I like the hood idea as well! Could double as a large frying pan too! Go camping,crack a few eggs on the hood...throw a wet T-shirt on it to dry in seconds

[redpoint5]

For those that found the hood as a heatsink idea interesting-

Source

The following is a partial list of manufacturers who use aluminum body panels.

Acura – NSX (all), RL (hood, decklid, fenders and trunk)
Aston Martin – Vanquish (body panels), DB9 (hood)
BMW– Z8 & 7 series (body panels), 6 Series (hood, doors, body panels)
Buick – LeSabre (hood), Park Avenue (hood), Rendezvous (liftgate)
Cadillac – CTS (hood), Deville (hood), Escalade (liftgate), Seville (hood)
Chevrolet – Suburban (liftgate), Tahoe (liftgate), Venture (hood)
Chrysler– Concorde, LHS, Pacifica (hoods)
Ferrari – 360 Modena (body panels)
Ford – Expedition (hood & liftgate), Explorer (hood and fenders), F-150 (hood), Lincoln Navigator (hood & liftgate), Lincoln LS (hood, fender & trunk lid), Ranger (hood), Lincoln Town Car (hood), GT (body panels), Mustang GT (hood)
GM – Yukon, Yukon XL (liftgates)
Honda – S2000 (hood), Insight (body panels)
Infiniti – Q (hood & trunk lid) I (hood & trunk lid)
Jaguar – XJ, S-type (hood)
Lancer – XJ, S-type (hood), Evolution VIII (roof)
Lexus – SC430 (hood)
Lotus – Elise Sport 190 (body panels)
Mercedes – CL500, SL500
Mercury – Mountaineer
Nissan – Altima, Maxima (hoods & trunk lids)
Oldsmobile – Aurora (hood & trunk lid), Silhouette (hood)
Opel – Speedster (body panels)
Panoz – Roadster (body panels)
Peugeot – 407 (hood)
Porsche – Cayenne (hood), 911 (hood)
Plymouth – Prowler (hood, doors & trunk lid)
Pontiac – Bonneville, Montana (hoods)
Range Rover/Land Rover – hoods, doors, side panels
Saab – 9-2X (hood)
Subaru – 9-2X (hood), GT (hood), Legacy (hood, bumpers, sunroof)
Volvo – (hoods & trunk lids)

[Mustang Dave]

The Ford Mustang V-6 also has an aluminum hood. It's not limited to the GT. I verified it with a magnet.

[C3H8]

my idea would be to use the high pressure area at the bottom of the windshield to flow air into a radiator. you would have to do extensive ducting though. but since most of you ecomodders do not have a/c , have it but its broken, or just never use it, then use the louvered area where the climate control system gets its fresh air from. which is the area right under the windshield. since this area is high pressure, you would be foprcing air into ducting and out of the radiator. also since this is a high pressure area and you are relieving the pressure, it might even have an aerodynamic improvment. i would be wrong though. but i know for sure that the area under a windshield is a high air pressure area. why not use some of that pressure to our advantage, instead of squandering it on nothing.

[comptiger5000]

Just make sure not to try this with an old Saturn. The plastic would probably melt

[gone-ot]

...what about "surface" radiators like those used on the British Supermarine racing seaplanes back in the 1930's? Of course, they might interfer with door openings (wink,wink).

[steve-o]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Keep the radiator and resize the inlet and outlet.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...bums-3541.html

what if you were to use this low drag cooling system and run the duct work all the way back the car and let the air exhaust through the rear bumper. could you get enough air out the back to help reduce the negative pressure back there?

[Bicycle Bob]

On a sunny day, a car hood can get up close to maximum coolant temperature just parked, so there would not be much left for cooling. A belly pan, OTOH, is safer and cooler but more prone to damage. AFAIR, the 1911 Napier Railton was the first and last surface-rad car, with copper tubes surrounding the engine and leaving only top access for quick service.

Theoretically, one could run a big duct through the car to raise pressure at the back, but the overall effect is to make the car bigger for the same useful volume, with more surface area.

The air pressure at the base of the windshield is generally lower than at the front grille. Leaving it alone is not a waste, unless you use a fan to grab low-pressure air for ventilation elsewhere. There might be a small gain to letting air flow slowly through the interior, since even a rough duct has little drag at low speed.

[gone-ot]

A) a similar approach to cooling round, reciprocating, air-cooled-cylinders of aircraft engines, through the use of controllable cowl flaps.

B) exactly the same approach was used to cool engine oil on both P-51 and C-69/121 propellor aircraft.