• Welcome to The Truck Stop! We see you haven't REGISTERED yet.

    Your truck knowledge is missing!
    • Registration is FREE , all we need is your birthday and email. (We don't share ANY data with ANYONE)
    • We have tons of knowledge here for your diesel truck!
    • Post your own topics and reply to existing threads to help others out!
    • NO ADS! The site is fully functional and ad free!
    CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

    Problems registering? Click here to contact us!

    Already registered, but need a PASSWORD RESET? CLICK HERE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD!

radiator mist system

The first year I towed my 30' 5er to San Diego - bone stock, dirty rad, no mods done to the truck at all - I thought of that, while climbing the grapevine up out of Las Vegas at 30mph, overheating, windows open, air conditioning off, heater on... like everybody else has done.

AND ... I did nothing about it. Until the following year, when the same thing happened in central Washington. I stopped and got Bill Heath to do some stuff for me, and the problem went away... and I never thought of it again until now.

I'm REALLY interested in this one, if anybody tries it out... I would think water mist into the rad would be cheaper, easier, and more idiot-proof (good for me!!) than water-mist into the intake...

And it's cheap like dirt, too... :D
 
I think Heath had something like this a long time ago 8 yrs maybe. Problem is it uses a lot of water.

I have sprayed down a house AC heat exchanger before and felt an appreciable temperature difference from the fan in a few minutes. The concept works but I have never tried it in 100% humidity. But having said that with the extra temp of the radiator its hard to reach true 100% humidity at the radiator fins and you should always improve some heat transfer with a mister.

I think ricers use something similar for IC boost cooling. But its more for short term cooling not long term cooling.
 
The only problem with that system is, if it's anything like trying to cool down a race car between hot laps you would need 40/50 gallons of water to continously pull the heat out to the point of dropping the temp any measurable amount for any length of time. W/M is definetly more effient at holding down temps over the long haul {pun intended} for towing than just misting the rad.

As most of us know you get what you pay for, You could make that system for less than 20 bucks. Get a spray nozzle and mount it where you want and hook it to you W/W bottle filled with water of course and test the results to see if you want to buy/build yourself a stand alone system.

That could also be built using old injectors from a gas motor for higher pressure and finer misting plumbed to a tank in/under the truck for the best results of that type of system.[ could also use ice in a big tank with said water for better effiency.

Just my .2
 
Yeah, I can see that, but you wouldn't need it on the flats, or even on most hills, I think, if everything else is clean and working. It would make a neat back-up system, no?
 
I would rather relocate my AC condenser with an electric fan to improve cooling. There wouldn't be the extra weight of water and maintenance free.
 
Last edited:
Yep ... move the 'other' heat outta there... I think Turbine Doc had his tranny cooler relocated under the bed with a fan. Maybe it was somebody else, but that seems like a great idea. Tranny cooler, oil cooler, and use a hanging ATA intercooler. Should be good to go!

Of course, water-mist in the rad is only $60, and I AM a cheap olde farte...
 
We have used this method in refining on large commercial fin fans that were undersized during engineering to increase throughput during extreme ambient conditions. It also will help clean the fins to some degree. In the refinery we always would select cooled boiler feed water to eliminate deposits/corrosion from collecting during injection. It works.
 
OK Crank there is no WAY my newbie @ss understood that statement of yours! LOL I am interested in a mist system and I am just gonna take it without understanding it that u agree that the system would/could work.
 
Sorta like when the flying jenny got hit by lightning......you didna need an electrical engineering degree to know it wasnt never gonna run no more! LOL
 
Let me back up and say Heath had a blurb or picture on his website about a misting system. It might have been an informational thing showing some of the things people have tried etc. I am not saying he was a proponent of it.

I do believe they work but I don't know the volume of water they will use. And I would think the amount of water varies greatly according to speed of vehicle. It would be best for slow speeds and/or supplemental AC support while idling sitting still. At 55-65 mph it probably takes a lot more water to cool. I suspect it wouldn't help you climb a long mountain grade at 45+ mph for very long without a big tank. But again for stop and go traffic it would help keep AC cool. And if you were towing a steep winding grade crawling along with short stretches of acceleration but not much overall ground speed.

I would get the specs for it and see the nozzle flowrates and estimate time tank emptying time before buying.
 
what kind of water do these systems take? At work, we do at times hook up a sprinkler under the roof top air conditioner condenser units when it gets hot out to help them shed heat. It works but our water is loaded with minerals and clogs up the coils fast. It takes some serious work to clean them.

Tap water might not be the best solution for a system like this, at least in my area.

Brian
 
Swamp coolers work. Mister systems work. This will have an effect on the radiator, but, how much water you use could be an issue.

Cold or hot water doesn't make that much of a difference vs. the heat removed by evaporation. here is an in depth discussion on turbo compressor water misting that explains the difference between evaporation and water heating. (It will make yer head hurt.) Don't waste the space or trouble on ice... http://killerbeeperformance.com/induction/i-f-o-g/
 
"mist" doesn't mean huge gallons of water to cool down radiator. Probably the same amount or less used in intake cooling. Go to Busnutonline.com and go to archives on radiator mist systems. Many bus owners have used this system to good results. They have found that more volume of water than misting does not help remove heat as well. No body has reported calcium build up problems. One can build their own system at modest cost, using misting nozzles from local garden store or northern equipment or the like. probably for our use, one or two nozzles would be sufficient.
 
"Swamp coolers"-misters-evaporative cooling systems work however,,,,,,, require lots of water and no way to capture it for a re-circulating system like in stationary evaporative cooling, also needs low humidity to work well. Because if humidity is already high, there will be a less effective cooling exchange if atmosphere is already "wet" and moisture carrying away the heat can't be accepted into the already "wet" air.

The trans cooler I run Jim is an additional one under the bed of the truck with an thermostat controlled electric fan from Derale systems.

Something for I had considered at one time to improve rad airflow was to remove condenser from in front of the rad, and remote mount it, with a dual electric fan setup only for the condenser active when in ac mode only but since I don't have any cooling issues with my present setup I never went much beyond the thinking part of the problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top