Radiator question, for thermodynamics/heat transfer experts Options

[bondo]

Hopefully I can get some input on this without too much of the inevitable "that won't work" (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/smile.gif)

I'm cutting down a large tall radiator into a shorter one.. 1/3 the height to be exact. The 3 layers of radiator will be set up in a cross flow, sequentially. The hottest water will enter the rearmost later, travel across, then across again in the middle layer, and across yet again in the front layer. The idea is the hottest water gets the hottest air, and the coldest water gets the coldest air. This way delta T stays pretty constant.. I'm thinking of it as trying to heat the air as much as possible, which would cool the water as much as possible.

So I realize that cooling capacity will be reduced, as I will be dealing with 1/3 as much air. But then the cooling capacity must be more than 1/3, because it's 3 layers thick instead of 1. My question is what percentage of the original cooling capacity should I be expecting? Would it do me any good to do 5 layers instead of 3? (by adding 2/3 of a second radiator)

The original radiator cooled the same engine just fine, in a heavier car, with an AC condenser preheating the air. I will be running an electric pump, so I will have an advantage at idle.

[scotty914]

QUOTE (bondo @ Feb 2 2005, 12:22 PM)

Interesting.. My mustang has a 3 row radiator, and each row is about 1/2" deep. This radiator I'm hacking up for experimentation has a single row that's more like 1.25". I wonder if that's why.

simply the reason why the old radiator is 1.25 for a single row, is simple. look at it this way radiating the heat to the air is a surface area thing. the larger the fins the more heat each tube can give out. the more tubes the less the area of the fins. now in a modern radiator there are many tubes with less fin depth, but i would think that the tube surface area ( water side ) ratio to the fin surface area ( air side ) to the over all size works out to about the same for every maker, to engine size. with a modern radiator they have had years to figure the best cheapest stongest way to make the radiator.