radiator/heater core?

[mirko_3]

now I don't even know wether I should post this here... anyway...

I'm not english, so a question arised: what's the difference between a heater core and a radiator? It probably sounds dumb, but...

thanks guys

 

[Iron Hawk]

In water cooling applications, a heater core is a radiator. When used in a car it has a slightly different purpose, but that is of little importance.

Heatercores are Ideal because they arent very restrictive, have alot of surface area, and are generaly pretty cheap.

 

[mirko_3]

but lets say I want to get a heater core for my pc (that's what most people get). If I go to the junkyard and ask for a radiator, will I get what I want?

In another post I read something like "a radiator is way to big, a heater core is just right". ???

 

[Cheesy Peas]

a radiator, if you go to a car breakers and ask for a radiator they'll get you something similar to that big grilly thing in the front of the bonnet of a car with a big fan strapped to it, where as if you ask for a heatercore, its the same kindof thing, just more compact(it fits inside the central console inside the car).
A Heatercore is much smaller than most radiators, but perform pretty well becuase of there multipass design, where as a radiator tends only to have a single pass design.

hope this helps

 

[mirko_3]

yep, that's exactly what I wanted
how much bigger is a radiator that a heater core, btw?

 

[Cheesy Peas]

bout 2,maybe 3 times, depends on what car there from

 

[Frodo Baggins]

depends ont he car. I have a car rad I got from a dump. It's at least 5-6 times bigger in length and width, but not as thick as a heater core

 

[mirko_3]

ah, that sucks... I can get a radiator for free.... do you think I could use that anyway, if I don't have problems of space (which I might have, but just to know...)
Would I also need a more powerful pump than my 900 l/s?

 

[Cheesy Peas]

if you plan on using a radiator from a car your gonna need a more powerfull pump than you are with a heatercore, if space isnt apreoblem then you can use the rad and you probably will get good results with it provided you have anought airflow through it (try 4 120mm on a shroud 1.5" from the rad)

 

[mirko_3]

do you know if my pump will handel it? It's rated 900l/h (uh, I wrote 900 l/s in the earlier reply...)
And will the fans perform better if I place them 1.5" from the rad? Or from using a fan shroud? If I just stick the fans to the rad, will it hurt performance?

 

[Cheesy Peas]

just gonna convert that to gph erm......

 

[Cheesy Peas]

thats only 197GPH, which isnt enough, you need a better pump, about 400gph(1800l/h) to get it throught the radiator

 

[Cheesy Peas]

get a heatercore!!

 

[Paxmax]

if you plan on using a radiator from a car your gonna need a more powerfull pump than you are with a heatercore, if space isnt apreoblem then you can use the rad and you probably will get good results with it provided you have anought airflow through it (try 4 120mm on a shroud 1.5" from the rad)

As of why do one need a bigger pump with a car radiator than with a heater core ?

Plz explain in detail your reasoning.

 

[mirko_3]

ah, never mind, I guess I wasn't thinking... that's stupid... now I only need to find a way to adapt my small tubing to the radiator, which is about 6-7 time bigger
I'll come up with something. Thanks1

 

[Cheesy Peas]

if you place the fans about 1.5" from the rad with a shroud then youll get a fuller airflow pattern instead of just the circular patters from each fan, basically, all the radiator is cooled, so no hot spots are left.

If your going to use that radiator then you really need to get a new pump, at least 300gph, or your overall flowrate will suck!

as for the fittings, you can chop off the barbs that are on the rad and solder the correct dia barbs onto it, or use bigger tubing

have you got any info on the rad you plan on using? or a pic maybee?

 

[Cheesy Peas]

panmax...
you need a bigger pump when you use a rad basically becaus eit has more resistance to the flow through it, and well, its much bigger!!

 

[mirko_3]

soo... a 300gph pump would be about 1200 liters, right?
sorry but there's no way I can upload a pic... no digital camera nor scanner... but, when I have time, I'll do a little searching on the net and see if I find one...
It's an Italian car, so no one will know it, but just in case it's a Fiat Uno (hmmm... General Motors might buy Fiat soon...). It's probably the smallest car rad you can find here, unless you start looking at motorcycles...
have to go now, later today I'll look for the pic...