A very different coolant reroute
 

I know you guys are sick to death of reroutes, but I have gone a very different "route" in cooling the engine.

In order to maximize horsepower from my N/A, I built a remote electric water pump for my car. Some engine builders reverse the flow of water so that water enters the cylinder head first before going into the block. I am going the nitrous route, and have 12:1 compression currently.

I have reversed the flow of water so that it does enter the cylinder head first.
Water comes out of the top of the radiator and enters the front of the cylinder head. I did this project about 1 1/2 years ago, before I even heard of reroutes. I just put the car back together, and it runs cool. Maybe too cool. To try to keep the temps as close to ideal as possible and to try to get a correct reading, I pump some water to the back of the cylinder head, but it is water that has not gone into the radiator. There is some cooling (of water going to the back) from the water pump, because it is remote. I put a mechanical temp gauge at the back of the cyl head, and it reads about 160 degrees all the time. At the track (drag racing), it gets a little warmer. Rarely above 180.

My question is this. Instead of water running down the radiator, and coming out the bottom, the water enters the bottom and comes out the top. Am I looking for trouble? Is pumping warm water to the back a recipie for disaster? Do you think I am getting a dangerously false reading?

I will try to get pics soon. Your comments.

The trouble is you are fighting the natural flow of heating and cooling water. Didn't you do any labs in school with cold and hot water? Water warming rises, cooling sinks. May work but it likely decreases the efficiency of the radiators cooling effects. How much will take someone smarter than me to answer.

Don't fight nature, it knows what its doing.

Remember, I am showing very cool temps on the gauge. Also, the pump I am using is a universal that can go on any motor up to the mega cubic inch big blocks. That thing will move some water!

Also, the water enters the bottom. Its natural flow (because it is hot) will go along with the flow of the water pump. Will it not? Am I sounding retarded?

Did you know in Austrailia the toilet flushes the opposite way ?

yup learned that on the simpsons :laugh:

I highly doubt this is going to make much of a difference, if anything, it might be more effective in this case.

I don't know exactly what the inside of the cooling section looks like in a BP, but ASSUMING that convection has an noticeable effect, the boundary layer at the cylinder wall might create some extra turbulence increasing conduction.

I'd have to know more about the system to make a simple model, but if he's getting the temps that he wants, I don't see an issue with it.

My worry would be the fact that even a slight loss in coolant in your system will cause the pump to run dry and wreak havoc on all sorts of stuff. Either pull coolant from the lower port, or switch to a cross-flow radiator.

Reverse flow systems interest me greatly. I've considered playing with one on my car. Could you post some photos of your setup?

You live your life 1/4 mile at a time, no? No worries, then. By the time anything has a chance to get warm, you're done already.

Convection only has an impact after the engine is shut down and is heat soaking. In this case, water might revert to its original flow direction. Not a big deal, I think.

And I don't know about Australian toilets, but I just got back from New Zealand and they flush straight down. No swirling at all!

-Dave

That is one hell of a good point. I have had some problems when water was a little low. I can not believe that never occured to me.

I will get pics soon.

Here are the pics I promised.