Hi LCB'ers,
Keeping the building blog clean I'll ask it over here...

For my exoskeleton I was planning on using 2 rads, 1 in each pontoon.
Short question, long answer...

run them parallel or series ?

what are your opinions ?

Parallel will give greater cooling all other things being equal.

Dont know answer but to consider.
Parallel cant guarantee equal flow but best for cooling as more heat transferred due to larger temp difference between water and air.

Series guarantees equal flow but increase in resiistance so pump works harder, less efficient as one rad is cooler.

Hmmmm. .worth googling to see whats been done, you are not the first to do this.


Im temped to say parallel if you can keep plumbimg very similar to both rads.

A thought, do Ariel have rads this way in their Atom? If so it would be worth seeing how they've done it.

There was a chap on here who built a car very similar to an Ariel Atom (called it a Mota Liera IIRC). He might have some real world input for you.

Both the Jedi and Dallara run radiators in series, both installations have been trouble free for me.

quote:

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Originally posted by nick205
A thought, do Ariel have rads this way in their Atom? If so it would be worth seeing how they've done it.

There was a chap on here who built a car very similar to an Ariel Atom (called it a Mota Liera IIRC). He might have some real world input for you.

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May be some info on the MotaLiera thread here? http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=70837
Perhaps not! He mounted the rad on the front

Description

[Edited on 4-3-16 by 40inches]

I'd go with series - I wouldn't trust the flow on parallel. Might be more difficult to chase out airlocks on a parallel system, too.

Another vote for series. Without some sort of valve arrangement how could you guarantee the flow ?

Edit to say: Do you definitely need 2 radiators ?

[Edited on 4/3/16 by wylliezx9r]

I would also have the closest one as the last one so the water is super cool with only a short journey back.

thanks for the opinions :p

I didn't even think of the the trapped air problem
What concerns met most is if the standard water pump could cope with the added drag and delay...
it would take longer for the flow to react upon the change in thermostat opening ?

Oh, I'm going with the Atom V8 setup, with the small pontoons.
Damn, MotaLiera has the original nose cone :p that would have saved me soooo much work

Well I know most of you run a single polo radiator on real powerhouses
And claim it goes alright :p
But in theory my 2l turbo will need to dissipate far more than 1 1000cc rad...
Ok, as they are completely in the flow that might be alright...
but on a spring day hammering around a track ?
or creeping in the traffic jam... more likely

If it helps, I originally built the R4 with two series rads and didn't have issues, there wasn't a noticeable difference in temp across them...
James

[Edited on 4/3/16 by cloudy]

quote:

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Originally posted by cloudy
If it helps, I originally built the R4 with two series rads and didn't have issues, there wasn't a noticeable difference in temp across them...
James

[Edited on 4/3/16 by cloudy]

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Personally I'd run parallel and just make sure the two routes were similar flow characteristics - ie same number of bend and diameter, the flow variation across the two will be negligible - it's not like if one rad has 95% of the resistance it will take all the flow.

I'd rather two rads working at high efficiency than have to carry two larger than needed rads because one is trying to cool already cool water. The bigger question is how are you picking sizes?

quote:

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Originally posted by cloudy
If it helps, I originally built the R4 with two series rads and didn't have issues, there wasn't a noticeable difference in temp across them...
James

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They were in series on my Jedi until I pulled one out to save weight!