quote:

Originally posted by 1320racer:
Tony, I don’t believe it. We can stage at any temp we want late in the rounds with -12 hoses. Won a grueling 8 round race in brutal heat and humidity several months ago snd cooling was never an issue.

I agree with you and I've been in the same boat many times using -12 line. I was just curious about this since I just ordered a new radiator from Saldana.

quote:

Originally posted by TonyB6255:

quote:

Originally posted by 1leg:
Is this on a dragster or Door car? What engine are you running?

I've been waiting for you to post on this. I've always ran 12 line to my rear mounted radiator with the Meziere 100HD pump in my 1200-1300 hp RED. Although like a few have posted, there was an article a few years ago about running smaller line to keep the coolant in the radiator longer. I am considering a switch to -10 coolant lines.

What are your thoughts? I think I remember you disputing this a while back.

If you have trouble keeping a dragster cool, no matter what size lines you use, you have other issues. I'd start by looking at your radiator and fan setup. I would not waste my time changing lines....

And for those who feel a smaller line will help by keeping the water in the radiator longer, that's a give and take because the water is also staying longer in the motor so it picks up more heat/temp! I have a small Davis radiator, Dedenbear water pump and #16 lines that cools my 1200 plus HP 632 with no issues! I don't tow this combo around either.

Cooling the motor while running and cooling it not running are two different things! In the pits you can cool the water down quicker than the motor.

quote:

Originally posted by TOP38:

quote:

Originally posted by TonyB6255:

quote:

Originally posted by 1leg:
Is this on a dragster or Door car? What engine are you running?

I've been waiting for you to post on this. I've always ran 12 line to my rear mounted radiator with the Meziere 100HD pump in my 1200-1300 hp RED. Although like a few have posted, there was an article a few years ago about running smaller line to keep the coolant in the radiator longer. I am considering a switch to -10 coolant lines.

What are your thoughts? I think I remember you disputing this a while back.

If you have trouble keeping a dragster cool, no matter what size lines you use, you have other issues. I'd start by looking at your radiator and fan setup. I would not waste my time changing lines....

And for those who feel a smaller line will help by keeping the water in the radiator longer, that's a give and take because the water is also staying longer in the motor so it picks up more heat/temp! I have a small Davis radiator, Dedenbear water pump and #16 lines that cools my 1200 plus HP 632 with no issues! I don't tow this combo around either.

Cooling the motor while running and cooling it not running are two different things! In the pits you can cool the water down quicker than the motor.

I've never had an issue keeping cool but my radiator fins were really getting closed up and I'm not able to straighten them. I called Saldana who built them for Mullis and many other chassis builders. They already had the specs and they are building me a new one.

And now I have one of the last few things that I didn't have a spare for.

quote:

Originally posted by TOP38:
And for those who feel a smaller line will help by keeping the water in the radiator longer, that's a give and take because the water is also staying longer in the motor so it picks up more heat/temp!

Isn’t that the argument? The whole purpose of circulating water is to pull the heat out of the motor.

If slowing the water allows more heat to absorb into it, shouldn’t that be what we’re doing? Maximizing the transfer?

The larger the hose size the more flow and the better it will cool. Slowing the flow down to cool better is wrong. Most factory hoses are 1-3/4 or 1-1/2. -16 is 1 inch id, -12 is 5/8".

A larger line on the inlet side of the pump is alway recommend. Most dragster on gas will do fine with -12 on all the high pressure lines. If you run M1 you could run -10 some even run -8.

The biggest issue is when you use the filler neck on the intake. It's near impossible to get all the air out of the system when you fill on the water neck.

We designed our dragster pump to cure the air in the system problem. Imagine only having to take the radiator cap off once a year to service the coolant system, just like your street car.

OK, I'm gonna steal a post..

What about putting the radiator in front of the foot box? Not concerned with airflow as there isn't that much wit radiator mounted to the driver protection plate. My concern would be insuring all the air is out of the system.
This is a mopar with remote mount water pump, so cannot use a filler neck at T stat housing.

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by David Covey:
OK, I'm gonna steal a post..

What about putting the radiator in front of the foot box? Not concerned with airflow as there isn't that much wit radiator mounted to the driver protection plate. My concern would be insuring all the air is out of the system.
This is a mopar with remote mount water pump, so cannot use a filler neck at T stat housing.

Dave

You may look into the Maziere Top Dragster pump, it has a small reservoir and cap and can be mounted up high.

A hundred years ago, we jacked up the front of the car with the cherrie picker, to get all the air out. Never took long, and was pretty simple.

quote:

It's near impossible to get all the air out of the system when you fill on the water neck

I don't agree with this. Although having air in a system is the biggest culprit in a heat problem. You have to have all the air out. Also most don't quite understand the difference between and overflow can and a recovery can.

I just checked our cars this past weekend after 50 runs. No air, full of water. Haven't had a cap off in 3 weekends.

Jack it up if needed but make sure all the air is out. Make sure you are using an overflow that will allow the system to suck the water back into the engine when it cools off.

Or... buy one of Mezieres tank style water pumps which work great as you fill on the pressure side of the pump.

There is a lot of info on the internet about pressures, recovery systems, radiator caps designed for recovery, etc.

I also agree if you have problems keeping a dragster cool, you may have issues with what I've listed above or something else.

My cars go into the water at 140-150 depending on outside temps. On a hot day say 95 degrees I'll go in at 150 turn fan on, drive it all the way back and it never gets above 180 on gas.

On a cool day like this past weekend. 50-60 degrees I can't run the fan until I stage. Go into water at 140. Turn it off on the return road as it's only about 160. Run pump only back to build heat for next round. Get back about 180.

That's a lot of info, but real world info.

quote:

Originally posted by David Covey:
OK, I'm gonna steal a post..

What about putting the radiator in front of the foot box? Not concerned with airflow as there isn't that much wit radiator mounted to the driver protection plate. My concern would be insuring all the air is out of the system.
This is a mopar with remote mount water pump, so cannot use a filler neck at T stat housing.

Dave

Dave, ironically mine is a Mopar as well, carbureted on gas (ICH block/heads). I couldn't find anything on the market I was happy with, so I fabricated a small expansion tank for the blow shield and mounted it higher than anything else in the system, ran a #8 in one side and out the other (#8 male plugs, welded on the tank then drilled out) with enough size for thermal expansion (roughly 6” cube), then welded a billet radiator neck to the top of the tank. Temperature gauge bung welded to bottom of tank – all aluminum. During that time I never used a recovery tank, just a puke tank. Once it finds its happy spot for expansion you are good to go. I used a water manifold much like the shogun design. The radiator was sold by Spitzer and had a fan/shroud assembly on it, it worked well – again no less efficient than the high end stuff I use today.

Proper thermal exchange is the key to a happy cooling system and that is not dictated by line size. It is primarily water speed through the heat generator (engine) and heat exchanger (radiator).


Food for thought - compare a modern over the road truck to an old school muscle car, coolant lines are all about/close to the same size....radiator vastly different.

Jerry, Thanks You gave me an idea. I had thought of mounting a tank like you mention, but just didn't like the idea of having something ugly hanging there.
My reason for wanting to put the radiator in front of the footbox was to make room for a dry sump tank. Thinking now that I could mount a coolant tank to the dry sump tank and it would not look out of place..
Thanks for jogging the ole noodle..

Dave

Curly, That pump is interesting as well. Thanks
Dave

quote:

Originally posted by DragRaceResults:

quote:

It's near impossible to get all the air out of the system when you fill on the water neck

I don't agree with this. Although having air in a system is the biggest culprit in a heat problem.

I don't think we disagree with each other, I said "near impossible"
If you can manage to get the air out of the system using a filler neck on the intake using a recovery style catch can then you should be fine.
Sounds like we both agree managing the air in the cooling system is the #1 engine cooling issue in drag cars.
I think we can also agree if you are having to take your radaitor cap off every round or even every race you need to put some work into you cooling system.