Yellow Bullet Forums banner

not running a radiator? dragster question?

5K views 16 replies 14 participants last post by  Rodchucker 
#1 ·
So i decided for weight and room savings, that we may not need to run a radiator in the dragster as we finish up this winter for running comp next year with our inline 6 motor. question is, still running water in the block, what should i use as a fill? or expansion-overflow tank? what rules are associated in doing so? Should I still circulate with the water pump? Thanks, Mark
 
#6 ·
use a oil cooler /heat exchanger
and plum it to outlet .
this will min. weight but give you time to cool as needed
i would stack it with a small trans cooler and lil brushless computer fan .
having fittings to flush both the trans and engine with a separate cooler /pump in an ice chest from suport vehicle
will get ya rounds ....and keep weight at min .
you only need enough cooling on trans and engine to allow a pass and the real cooling is in the pits or return road if your savvy
then talk to backyard bandit at the next race ....the red turbo 4 dragster . been down this road . almost got perfect weight to cooling efforts
 
#8 ·
I would run something small at least. With gas you want to keep the engine as cold as possible, some go to the extent of Pro Stock and ice the engine down prior to the run. Also be aware that depending on what he puts together next year you may have to run against Glen Treadwell. He has a two dragsters and an altered he runs with Ford 6 cylinders, and sometimes runs a Trailblazer engine in one of the dragsters in G/ED. His daughter runs one of the dragsters.
 
#10 ·
seems like he is running the trailblazer combo exclusively lately. hope he stays with that! we starting out low buck with the goal of just cracking the index with the first effort engine, go from there. Machine work is done to block, ready to start assembling. Car is finished, sitting in the trailer, just waiting on the converter. Hopefully test and tuning by Feb. we want to make it to the gators if all goes well.
 
#9 ·
I ran w/o a radiator in B/ED long ago. Had no problem with cooling unless I got next to a C/SM car that spent 5 minutes heating his tires AFTER I fired my engine so i learned to talk to the other guy before the run about timing the fireup. I just had a cap on the water outlet for a filler, and petcocks on the block to drain. I let the water drain out during the return tow (after weighing), refilled it before heading for the lanes. One thing that was important was having air bleed petcocks at the rear of the intake manifold to let trapped air out of the heads during refill. If you have an air pocket trapped in the head(s), as soon as you hit the throttle that air pocket will boil and water will geyser out of the filler.

After I filled the block with devcon I had more heat retention, and less water to dissipate it. On hot days and quick laps I had to run water through the block while in the pit to cool it off .

A little pump to circulate the water while running would be a plus if you can afford the weight.
 
#12 ·
Hi mate,

we run a super charged flathead v8 fed here with water in block solid heads and a small water tank as we were concerned about the heat coming from the ports running trough thw ater jacket but we still have a radiator cap at the higest point with an over flow bottle at rear of dragster yeah it will trhow some out maybe 1/2 litre if the engine is real hot but we now just decide if we will run it or not if our class comes around to soon we will just sit out and wait for it to cool down..

i see your talking about an inline 6 any pics? heres my inline 6 build..
http://www.theturboforums.com/threads/353498-Aussie-t51r-feed-202ci-holden-6


 
#13 ·
I don't know how well this would work in your application but I have seen demolition derby cars remove the radiator and fill the engine block with motor oil and seal it.

p.s. I wonder what any of you guys would think of this bad or good.
 
#15 ·
I would run some kind of radiator even if it is just the size of a heater core or trans cooler. I believe you need some water in there to circulate and prevent hot spots.
 
#16 ·
SBC in a dragster here, no radiator, just filled with coolant with a filler neck and cap and an overflow bottle. We run MFI with methanol, haven't had the oil temp or water temp over 170* for 3 seasons. We run block heaters to try and get heat into it! It's very hot down here too, most races are 95* to 105* ambient temp.
 
#17 ·
I run my ford on alky no water any where, can't fit a radiator.
Cast block, ally heads.
Grout filled block to the head studs.
We gave it some extra PTB clearance.
I just heat the oil and start it just b4 I hit the water box.
I am sure you being a comp racer won't use alky fuel, but you will have more cool down time than a bracket racer maybe?
Race days are also very hot here.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top