I see this question come up repeatedly. I think it belongs in tech because its pertinent when diagnosing a cooling problem, but if mods think its chat, then I apologize and please move it.
I've heard the argument that when coolant flows too fast it doesn't have a enough time to dump heat through the radiator. I believe coolant will dissipate heat at the same rate regardless of how fast it moving. When the coolant runs faster, more coolant will spend less time in the radiator, but net heat dump will be constant.
Image a toy train with 10 cars running on a circular track. Image each car carries a toy man who throws a piece of toy coal once per second. Image a toy coal bin along side the track.
A piece of coal is analogous to a packet of heat.
If it takes 10 seconds for each car to pass the coal bin, and one complete revolution of the train takes 100 seconds, then after 100 seconds the coal bin will contain 100 pieces of coal. If the train speeds up so it only takes 5 seconds for each car to pass the coal bin, after one revolution, the coal bin will have 50 pieces of coal, but after 100 seconds it will still have 100 pieces.
I'd like to hear other's opinions.
I've heard the argument that when coolant flows too fast it doesn't have a enough time to dump heat through the radiator. I believe coolant will dissipate heat at the same rate regardless of how fast it moving. When the coolant runs faster, more coolant will spend less time in the radiator, but net heat dump will be constant.
Image a toy train with 10 cars running on a circular track. Image each car carries a toy man who throws a piece of toy coal once per second. Image a toy coal bin along side the track.
A piece of coal is analogous to a packet of heat.
If it takes 10 seconds for each car to pass the coal bin, and one complete revolution of the train takes 100 seconds, then after 100 seconds the coal bin will contain 100 pieces of coal. If the train speeds up so it only takes 5 seconds for each car to pass the coal bin, after one revolution, the coal bin will have 50 pieces of coal, but after 100 seconds it will still have 100 pieces.
I'd like to hear other's opinions.