back in 1979 i had the occasion to be lucky enough to have assisted in the
construction of the car that won the SCCA national championship that year.
it was a G production 1098 cc car. now where im going wit this is we spent
a lot of time dynoing engines and doing R&D on horse power and cooling.
cooling was a bit of a problem. but contrary to popular belief of closing
off the heater valve with a blanking plate, we found that caused excess heat
build up in the rear of the head. instead there were a few things we
experimented with . 1 was to try the heater valve and the heater core with
a cut out heater box . using the heater core as a secondary heat exchanger.
thgis was excessive and added weight to the car where it was not wanted. 2
was to weld a hosefitting to a blanking plate and route it directly to the
pipe that returns coolant to the lower radiator hose. as odd as it sounds
it yeilded better circulation and cooling for the rear of the head. we also
ran a restrictor plate instead of a thermostat in that car.
on my bugeye i chose to still have a heater and run a 160 degree thermostat.
if the car is running hot i just turn on the heater. i never turn off the
valve that controlls coolant flow. my heater core is always hot. but the
luxury of having an aditional heat exchanger that i can controll is a
luxury.
as for water wetter? i have experimented with it. it is in the 62 morgan
racer and my 60 saab racer , and have tried it in my H-modified sports racer
too. the stuff does in fact work! now 15 degrees cooler? am not certain
i can say that is an exact figure. but in a car that runs hot all the time
it has bought a margin of leeway before "cooking " the system. so i would
have to say the stuff does work . now in the racers we are not allowed
antifreze in the system and water wetter has helped to do a semi replacement
job for antifreze. in a street car i have no info on it's ability to help
a mixture of 50% water and 50% antifreze (the optimun coolant mix) do a
better job than it already does. i hope this info is of use to someone?
chuck.
gotta go and paint 2 morgan doors so i can finish the car!!!!! we leave
for summit point raceway tomorrow late in the afternoon!........c. :)
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