Does This Debunk the "Coolant Can Flow Through the Radiator Too Fast" Idea???

RustyRatRod said

C'mon man! lol Plenty of smart people never graduated.

That said, my understanding of brass copper is as for cooling, because of all the solder and chemicals and whatnot, that kinda levels the playing field a little. But I've been radiator shopping for my Ford truck very recently. All of the big companies I've spoken with all agree that brass/copper is more durable and generally lasts longer.

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I didn’t say anybody was dumb. But high school physics doesn’t give someone the kind of knowledge you need to have a high level thermodynamic properties argument either. The problem is people thinking they know something they don’t have the tools to properly understand.

Like most things, the brass/copper argument is more complicated than just “copper has a higher conductivity number than aluminum”. Most automotive brass/copper radiators are more brass. And then they’re soldered together, not welded. And the solder has different properties. And the brass/copper has to be thicker wall, so, now it’s heavier. Well, more mass means more stored energy which has to be dissipated. So if the brass/copper radiator weighs more (and they do) then it loses efficiency compared to a lighter one.

Like I said, it depends. It’s not as clear cut as saying “copper cools better” or “aluminum cools better”. There are aluminum radiators that will outperform brass/copper radiators. There are brass/copper radiators that will outperform aluminum ones. And they will not have the same number of tubes/fins, so their cooling surface areas will be different even for a radiator with the same external dimensions.

You can’t just compare brass/copper vs aluminum as materials, you have to compare the radiators as they’re constructed. And the weight, surface area, fin density, tube diameter etc all make a difference. So you can have a radiator that doesn’t have the highest thermal conductivity cool better than one that does, based entirely on the specific construction.