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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Basic Cooling Info

Just happened to be surfing around and found this site - which may be old news to some. However, it provides some valuable information.

http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/cooling.htm

Wayne
Wayne Pearson

Thanks, Wayne
It's always good to have info presented from different sources, especially for those of us who are in the cooling system design stage. After seeing the same concepts put forward by different companies, it's easier to put it all together in your head, then hopefully into the hardware. Best, Joe

Joe Ullman

Just to add my two cents-worth to the always hotly debated topic of cooling, I offer my observations from designing systems for severe service trucks.
1)The "Novak Guide" has a lot of good basic info. Four row radiators, although providing marginal cooling improvement over 3 row, do not justify the extra cost for diminishing returns in performance.
Most modern rads have louvred serpentine core construction which is a huge performance improvement over the old "tube and fin" technology found in the original MG rads.
2)Our testing with a major OEM rad supplier, has indicated that, rad for rad, the copper/brass unit provides marginally better heat transfer (ie. better cooling)- however, the aluminum rad is lighter and is more cost effective.
3) A well designed shroud provides the best bang for the cooling buck($). Novak points out correctly that many unique design issues come into play that define best fan location for a particular chassis - we have found that a 1/3 fan penetration into the shroud provides best performance.
4) The other feature that is worth it's weight in gold is the provision for recirculation seals to prevent hot high pressure air in the engine bay from recirculating back to the front of the radiator.
Graham Creswick

If you have your rad and motor in the stock V8 location, you can't really put in a shroud of much significance. But I do TOTALLY agree that the recirculation seals are everything you hope for and more! I never could get my car to settle down on a hot day in traffic until I added an aluminum tray in front of the rad and sealed the top to the bonnet ... once air has passed through the rad, it ain't coming back through it! It requires a tiny bit of careful measuring and sheet metal fabrication, but this helps immensely.
Ted

Graham,

From discussions with a rad manufacturer in UK it would seam that BMWs etc are changing from 2 and 3 row to 1 row, this 1 row type rad is also being supplied to Middle East hot Countries. Obviusly from a production point of view I assume its cheaper to produce, but also must have same cooling capacity perhaps achieved by increasing surface area.

In the UK a four row Ali rad is about £150 more expensive than 2 row.

Paul
Paul

My 86 BMW 635 uses an alum rad. I am not sure the row count, but keeps her pleny cool.

I did notice that my 78 MGB Rad is a 4 core?? I though they were all 3 core from the factory? Correct me if I am wrong, but I am thinking maybe a PO had it recored for some reason.
Larry Embrey

This is always an interesting time of year on this board. As we move toward July, you get to see how good your work on the cooling system was over the winter! Don't forget guys, it usually isn't the radiator itself with BV8s, it's gettign the hot air out of the engine bay. You can have the most glorious rad in the world and it won't matter if you don't ventilate the engine bay. Air dams, bonnet louvres, RV8 header holes ... name your poison but ya basically gotta choose at least one.
Ted

Larry,

The change on BMW Rads made by Behr is only recent but I can't work out logic for 1 row apart from using more surface area.

Also an Ali direct replacement for Std rad had better cooling on 220bhp Midget.

Paul
Paul

This thread was discussed between 30/06/2003 and 02/07/2003

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