Quote Originally Posted by oj88 View Post
Exactly my point. Thanks for confirming what little knowledge I have on cooling systems.

As I mentioned several posts back, the fact that most modern aluminum radiators are practically isolated from the chassis ground (by using rubber grommets and plastic tops and bottoms) are a dead giveaway.

Grounding the radiator OR using it as a grounding point for any electrical accessory is just asking for trouble.
Most of these things should be commonsense but we have to deal with a lot of pseudo science floating around that is just discrediting the local industry and causing harm to consumers.


Here's another one from that website: Radiators: How hot is too hot? | Automotive Parts Suppliers
The normal temperature of an engine should be around 90 to 105 degree Celsius. With the help of radiators, the engines can go up as high as 135 degree Celsius. The radiators will be there to back up as the cooler all the time. That’s where flat fin radiators become useful as they can cover a lot of area to control the above-average temperature of the engine.
Not too sure about the 135C figure here. But I find it funny how they start inserting "Flat fin" surreptitiously here without justifying it.

Flat fin radiators have far lesser surface area than folded fin radiators per area. These are arguably the most inferior configurations for heat transfer but are structurally more rigid. They serve a purpose for use in heavy duty/high vibration applications which are prone to fouling (clogging).

For one to get an equivalent performance for a typical car radiator using a flat fin implementation, you're going to have something 2-3 times the size. Which will cause fitment issues not to mention serious weight addition. Not to mention these things aren't cheap given it takes 20 times as much more time to build a flat fin radiator.

So unless your ride is a John Deere tractor this snippet doesn't make any sense.

And the hits just keep coming:
Warm air goes up, cool air goes down. Therefore it will be ideal to place your radiators above the engine and let physics do the work.
For natural convection to be effective for your cars, you will need a really large amount of surface area i.e. a large radiator roughly the size of the car itself to get enough surface area. And for this to be practical, you will need to have the space to mount it. This over the top implementation has been done for earth moving equipment but not for the reasons of passive convection but because ramming through a mound of dirt can foul up your radiator. And even then it uses a fan.

Moreover, I do not think it is wise utilizing warm air as your fluid medium to remove heat from a radiator. For one, it is hotter thus has a lower thermal capacity, and in certain conditions you may end up heating up your core rather than cooling it.