am i missing something with radiators?

[SeikakuOtosan]

so i have a boat that uses 2 medium sized modular engines. they are both V8 engines. i have tried 2 different cooling solutions so far. fluid to fluid coolers and fluid to air coolers. both of them ended up over heating the engines at about the same speed.

on both systems when you looked at the coolers they were both relatively ice cold. at 8-10C on the fluid to fluid cooler and 14-15C on the water to air cooler. but the engines were at 100C and climbing. both systems had a large fluid tank as a radiator reservoir and both systems used the 5x5 sized radiators my first fluid to fluid system used 3 of the large radiators and had 1 loop between both engines. and the second system with air had a 2 loop system with 1 air radiator for each engine. i had a large fluid pump on the fluid system. and used 2 small pumps to move fluid around in the air system.

i guess the question is then, why are the radiators so cold and yet the engines over heating?
do you need more water headers for cooling? though that would seem to not fall in line with how the other headers work where you only need 1 for air and 1 for fuel.

im lost on how to keep my engines cool when it seems like the fluid going through them is already cold.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Small fluid pumps should be sufficient. Depending on size of the vehicle you need either 3x3 or 5x5 electrical radiators, as far as I tested the other components don't even come close to those two.
You also want to maximize coolant flow for maximum cooling.
This is a basic cooling setup:
https://i.imgur.com/jGDEzca.jpeg

If that's not enough swap the 3x3 radiator with a 5x5 and go with large electrical pumps.

To properly stack cooling components set them up like this:
https://i.imgur.com/BqlLChe.jpeg

You can also use this MC to get a very accurate maximum temperature prediction:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2430145616

I've been using it frequently with great results!

[SeikakuOtosan]

do you need pumps on both sides of the radiator like that? or is that just a design choice for symetrey? and also i dont see any fluid tanks? are those needed for the electric radiators? or do you not need fluid going through them?

[GrumpyOldMan]

Fluid tanks aren't needed.
You may get away with a single pump pumping out of the radiatior into the coolant manifold, but for more coolant flow it's best to use pumps on both sides.

[SeikakuOtosan]

so i got another question about the radiators. Do they need space behind them to work well. I E do they work better with room and if so how much. also can they point into each other. will that affect them?

[GrumpyOldMan]

Originally posted by SeikakuOtosan:

so i got another question about the radiators. Do they need space behind them to work well. I E do they work better with room and if so how much. also can they point into each other. will that affect them?

No, they work fine in enclosed spaces and don't need an empty block next to them.
If you put more than one heat exchanger per coolant manifold you severly limit the flow rate, adding just a single 3x3 radiator with pumps to another 3x3 with pumps, the second in line will only receive 40l/s flow, as opposed to ~106l/s with only a single radiator per manifold. Less than half, so unless you enjoy having dead weight on board it's not really worth it.

[Νικολάι Αλεξάντροβιτς Ρομανόφ]

alexa, up up down down left right left right

[RiftHunter4]

Your pumps might be going too fast if the radiators are cold.

[HardlyLivin]

Originally posted by GrumpyOldMan:

Small fluid pumps should be sufficient. Depending on size of the vehicle you need either 3x3 or 5x5 electrical radiators, as far as I tested the other components don't even come close to those two.
You also want to maximize coolant flow for maximum cooling.
This is a basic cooling setup:
https://i.imgur.com/jGDEzca.jpeg

If that's not enough swap the 3x3 radiator with a 5x5 and go with large electrical pumps.

To properly stack cooling components set them up like this:
https://i.imgur.com/BqlLChe.jpeg

You can also use this MC to get a very accurate maximum temperature prediction:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2430145616

I've been using it frequently with great results!

It works with raw water loops too. However, at what point or temperature does salt scaling become a problem?

[GrumpyOldMan]

Originally posted by RiftHunter4:

Your pumps might be going too fast if the radiators are cold.

Do you have any numbers on that?
As far as I tested maximum flow = maximum cooling.

Originally posted by HardlyLivin:

It works with raw water loops too. However, at what point or temperature does salt scaling become a problem?

I wouldn't use ocean water as coolant, scaling doesn't seem to work currently, in the case it gets fixed sometime in the future it's good to already have a proper cooling system in place.