So your Late Model, Bomber or Sportsman racer is overheating when rim-riding the berm of clay. You have performed the cooling system maintenance, right? Because if we assume (you know that makes an ASS of U & ME!) your cooling system is operating properly, you’ll just end of throwing parts and money at the problem. We sat down with AFCO racing experts Brandon Kight & Eric Saffell, and some local dirt track hotshots to get some tips on what to look for when your racer blows its stack. Everyone told us, maintaining the cooling system should be chore number one.“Often times one component is blamed for a cooling problem” explained AFCO’s Kight. ”Keep in mind that there are a multitude of components to a cooling system. Air flow, water velocity, ambient air temperatures, etc., and they play key roles in overall cooling system performance. If you’re having cooling system problems, each component must be considered. As an example, a car with a cooling problem using a 15” fan blade with limited ram air available may require a higher cfm fan to adequately pull enough air through the radiator. Switching from a 15” to a 17” fan can aid in cooling with a 40% increase in air flow”. “The goal of the cooling system is to remove heat from the engine that is generated by the production of horsepower and friction” said Saffell. ”It does this by circulating hot coolant through the engine pumped by a mechanical or electrical water pump to an air to liquid heat exchanger that we call a radiator. This hot water passes into the radiator and transfers the heat energy to the tube. The heat is transferred from the tube to the fin and from the fin to the air that is passing through the radiator”.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 11:01:09 +0000