Radiator 'Thickness' - 3-Row Compared to 2-Row

[CorvetteFan]

I didn't find where this info had been posted before, so here goes...

I measured the core thickness of the early 80 radiator (three-row) and the later (two-row) radiator.


The early 3-row is a full 1/2" thicker than the 2-row that was original to my '96.


I was wondering if the two row radiator simply made each row wider (winding up with the same overall core thickness) but that is apparently not the case... the earlier one is thicker... I guess more is better (I'll find out soon!).

Rob

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Yes, but, aluminum is more efficient at radiating heat. Not sure thickness means anything.

 

[Ebag333]

Alum vs brass/copper has been a long standing (and still ongoing) argument in the computer field, as to which cools better.

From what I understand, brass/copper is a better heatsink, but aluminum radiates heat better. So the brass/copper takes longer to heat up (absorbs more heat), the aluminum will dump it faster.

The ideal product would be a brass core with aluminum fins to shed heat. If you were doing a three row, maybe brass for center row, aluminum for the outer two. Of course that'd be prohibitively expensive to build.


For our purposes, heating up quickly is actually a positive, not a negative. Likely the reason why the brass was three row and the aluminum two, was that the brass took an extra row to shed the heat.

If you look at the thermal conductivity (heat transfer coefficient), you see that aluminum is rated at 250 while brass is only rated at around 100. So mathematically speaking, the aluminum radiator with two rows is half again as good at dumping heat as the brass radiator is with three.

Add the weight and space savings, and it's easy to see why Mr. T went with aluminum over brass. Just a guess, but I'd be willing to bet that by dropping a row the aluminum radiators weren't much (if any) more expensive than the brass ones.

 

[Tools R Us]

... Not sure thickness means anything.

The thicker the cooler, the higher the airflow restriction, requiring a stronger fan to achieve the same airflow/cooling. The more rows a radiator has, the less efficient it is. The most efficient radiator would be a single core with a large surface area, unfortunately it wouldn't fit in the '80.

 

[CorvetteFan]

I'd Like to Know Who's Running What Rad (S/C'd that is)

It seems that a whole bunch of guys have opted for the earlier, 3-row, radiator for their supercharged trucks... Wouldn't it be interesting to know how many S/C'd rigs are being cooled by 2-row rads and how many are being cooled by 3-row radiators.