Heater core?

This is the biggest n00b question i can think of but....what the difference between a heatercore and a radiator? I have a rad cause someone said i did and said i didn't need a heater core...but what are they?

They're pretty much the same thing. Some of the newer radiators are designed specifically for their purpose, and the heater cores, which are serving the exact same purpose, come from auto part stores. Usually the only difference is the barbs attached.

A RAD is to RADiate heat.

Most rads we see use one pipe that winds all over. This is ok, but a better design is to have many parallel chanels for the water to go thru. If you look at a car rad you see this design. Water comes in one side and can go accross many ways and out the other side.

Winding pipe rads are cheaper to make. A heater core design is more expensive to make. But we can get high tech ( lol ) heater core rads for 15.00 at a car parts store. And a bkack ice is how much?

So a heater core is a type of high performance rad.

Heater cores tend to be much smaller than a radiator, strictly speaking of car parts. They essentially do the same thing. I have a heater core from a 1965 Mustang I plan on using for watercooling.

actually a heater core was kinda the opposit of a Rad...

Radiator is used to cool the engine block, and the heater core leeches extra hot water to heat the core up, and air is blown over it heat the passenger compartment....

so basically it was originally an air heater

we use it as a small rad..

Opposite and the same. Opposite in the direction of the heat flow. Same in that heat flows.

If you look at you car rad it is the same design as the heater core.

More precisely we could say there is parallel flow ( heater core and car radiators) rads and the straight thru (oil coolers and most retail water cooler rads) kind.

And that parallels beat straight every day.