On Mon, 17 Jul 1995, William R. Kennedy, NJIT CIAT, 201-596-5648 wrote:

> Scott Beckstead claims that cooling the radiator makes an engine retain
> heat, but I've been driving for 30 winters now and I ain't buyin'.  I
> may be misunderstanding, but I ain't buyin'.  Scott -- do the math for
> me a little, here.
> B.
> 
  The heat being used to evaporatively cool the fin is being drawn from 
the air not from the radiator.  Therefore if you cover the whole surface 
or a significant portion of it with water it will indeed cool the 
radiator but it draws the heat required for the evaporation from the air 
surrounding the radiator not from the water contained within the 
radiator.  the water in the radiator stays just as hot as when it came in 
and the heat goes back into the engine.  The radiator itself get's cooler 
and the engine get's hotter.  I hope this is explanation enough because 
my math is very old and I can't remember the precise explanation anymore 
but I do remember sitting in shop watching my teacher do this 
experiment.  He started an engine on a test stand and had us watch the 
gauges (temp, oil pres, and tach) he then poured water on the radiator and 
we watched the temp gauge climb and not come back down untill the water 
had been blown or evaporated off the radiator He then warned us never to 
put water on the radiator of a hot engine.  Now this may not hold 
true in an unpressurized system and it may not be valid for an air cooled 
cylinder but it sure worked on that old chevy small block.
Scott
 
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Any nation that trades Liberty for Security deserves neither.
---Ben Franklin
'69 transporter 
conrad@centcon.com  sbeckst@dpc.com becksteads@aol.com