Inefficient the stock fan may may be BUT when used correctly in a stock shroud there is little to beat it. Stock fan and shroud will draw cooling air from the whole radiator cooling surface, something that twin Spall fans will NOT neccesarily do. They are mounted so close to the radiator that they need to be on more than needed and then by design draw cooling air from an area little larger than the fans! - remember L88 didn't come with cooling fan and in its day didn't have so many cooling issues did it? - flex fans worry me, buddy with a BB C3 had one of these come loose when he was on the 'loud pedal' - it sythed through all coolant hoses dropping all coolant under the car which caused him to do a 360 and go off the road backwards, fortunately with minimal damage to the car. The damage from the flex fan continued with it cutting a huge gouge across the underside of the hood.

 

Did you set the emissivity of the gun to match the emissivity of the surface you were reading?

 

bump

 

As I understand it. A mirror has a emissivity value of "0" totally reflective and unable to get a reading off. a value of "1" is the the most condusive which is your flat dark black.

My expensive high temp and very small + or - value says in the booklet that the gun is set to .95 emissivity for non reflective flat colored surfaces. It can be lowered in a menu. But I have never messed with it and just use the factory default setting.

The front of my block, AFR heads, aluminum intake are all non reflective. So if I have been driving around in our 100 degree weather and the temp gauge is right at 200 F. and I pull over and pop the hood and my $200 gun reads 180 - 185 on the front of my still running motor. I would tend to say that the frigging Autometer gauge is reading about 15 degrees too high

 

You must have incredible measuring devices as well as means of controlling all other factors to be able to detect a consistent decrease of 3 degrees.

Most cars have coolant variations of that magnitude through simple hysteresis of the thermostat.

 

Mine is 10f too high, cap tube into left cyl head, FI sender in right side head....I have calibrated my IR gun with my Fluke temp probe....heat sunk to object of interest....same reading.....I figger the temp gauge bulb is buried deep into the cyl head, and the surface runs a tad cooler....10f ain't nuttin, anyway....

my gun is just a HFreight cheepie, but it works.....



OH, and for most of us, just drill 3/16 holes around the apron of the stat, say 3-4 of them, it increases the water flow when open, allowing more cooling, as they all decreased the opening size over the years to make engines run hotter....our .gov looking out for us....they ALL run like 195 stats when open....

 

Plain water is superior as a coolant than a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and water. That is to say, water alone removes heat from the surrounding metal surfaces better.
Water Wetter is a satisfactory additive to lube the water pump and provide anti-corrosive properties if you don't need/want to use antifreeze, as on a racetrack. Assumes you don't need to protect against freezing.
Really no other reason to use Water Wetter.

Pete

 

I simply noted reduction in temperature off stock gauge for each change/improvement made. Current BB stroker engine with DeWitt radiator generally shows consistant 175 degrees in winter, just under 180 in summer raising to 185 indicated in heavier traffic conditions. I'm not saying things are not running hot because cabin temperatures will certainly be 'cookin' and engine will be idling very 'wooly' with elevated underhood temperaturesn - but it won't be boiling over!

 

MrVette, Those boys up north sure do use big words!!!!!!!!!!!!!

emissivity of the surface you were reading?

hysteresis of the thermostat.

 

Considering the crude, inaccurate and unlabelled markings on a stock gauge, I think your imagination got the best of you. People 'want' to see an improvement proving they got their monies worth- so their eyes 'see' it.

Any temp gauge in any C1/C2/C3 Corvette I've ever driven would vary more than 3 degrees from day to day without changing anything.

 

Absolutely no change on my small block. But I did have a change with a big block once. So go figure

 

No imagination - gauge may not read 'real' temperature but still worthwhile for comparitive readings.

 

Bet you now wish you'd gone to high school huh?

 

My favorite Canadian show was: "The Trailer Park Boys" Bubbles and I have alot in common. He races his go-kart with a hockey helmet on

Ricky was always working on grade 11. As for me I never had the silver spoon to work on my doctorate and gave up at the grad level. 20 some years was enough

 

Well, emissivity for bare cast aluminum is much lower than 0.95....

2 guns both setup wrong will both read the same wrong temperature.

 

Bubbles and I have lost allot of sleep over the minor variations in 100% true temp and what my IR gun reads

 

Yes, it was worth about 10 degrees cooler. I have to add a bottle every year to maintain that 10 degree drop...
Worth it

 

Too bad. I'm not losing any sleep over what you're doing.

Just saying that assuming an IR gun will magically give the true temperature of any surface you point it at is plain wrong.

 

Well, my understanding of those types of products is primarily that it is suppose to assist water to "attach" the the metal it's trying to cool; to keep it from boiling "off" the metal surfaces it's trying to cool.

It seems to me that if a coolant successfully removes heat from a surface...block, intake, etc, what's going to happen to it?

I will get hotter.

I don't know what the can says, but it seems to me that if the coolant in the motor is successful in extracting more heat from the metal through improved surface contact, and dispersing it into the coolant, that would be a good thing. And it follows that the temperature gauge wouldn't necessarily read lower.

Regardless, could care less about the small cost if in fact it works. If it doesn't work, so what, it won't break me.

In any event, I don't worry about it too much as my LS6 crate motor runs consistently about 185. I have to push it to get it to move higher, and I'd have to sit still with the motor running for about half an hour to hit 210.

Forget the hassle of an aluminum radiator; simply have a good radiator shop install an additional core and you probably will never have anymore problems. When we installed the LS6 in my '73 back in '77, that's the first thing we did and we've never looked back. But, I still use the wetter.

 

Whatever works for you - there is probably a 'law' of deminishing returns adding an additional core to the radiator - too many will reduce air passing through, leading to - increased temperature?