Quote:
Originally Posted by siilver97
Getting ready to add a oil cooler, power steering cooler, and a trans cooler to my set up and I see three types. Mine will be remote mounted with fans because I do not want anything else in front of the radiator. The tube and fin (Derale Electra cool) is the cheapest. Then is the plate and fin (Derale Atomic cool) which is recomended for heavy towing. Finally what they say is the best, the stacked plate, made for racing, heavy towing, etc (Derale Hyper cool). With the three different designs which one is most effective in cooling and which one has the least pressure loss? Also should I look at another brand?
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I recently added a trans cooler to my MH and was wondering the same thing as you. I looked hard for answers to your questions. I did not find any. Instead I had to rely on basic fluid flow principles to make some educated guesses.
1. CFD software is necessary to perform a pressure change calculation on the stacked plate type. With a vetted pressure drop calculator in excel, you may be able to calculate pressure change for the tube/fin design.
2. None of the main MFR's publish information on pressure changes because most folk don't care or assume the pressure change is negligible.
3. Stacked plate exchangers are usually, but not always, more efficient that tube/fin exchangers of equal size (given similar environmental conditions). This is because of the BIOT number.
4. Generally, flow is more important than pressure since the fluid exiting the HX just dumps into the pan. The HX must not restrict flow. Flow is restricted by having too many variations of flow tube diameter. Line pressure is usually not an issue unless you begin to restrict flow.
For MH applications, I stay away from the racing stuff. Those HX are designed for high air flow conditions that are experienced on a race track at race speeds.
Instead, look at: what style HX do OEM's use for towing applications? What style HX do tractors use? What style HX do OTR trucks use? These style are typically designed for low air speed, heavy load applications.
The chassis manufacturer probably (hopefully) did all these calculations when they designed the cooling systems. The best we can do is to mimic their design and use proven upgrades.
For example: URVP publishes this document that shows the installation of an auxillary transmission cooler:
https://help.rwb-inc.com/hc/en-us/ar...RWB-826-01.pdf
This upgrade has been successful on many MH.
I used the Derale 54010 40 Row Core Stacked Plate Cooler Kit with a 1300cfm fan