Tube and fin, Plate and fin, and stacked plate coolers

[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?

[JonathonM]

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?

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

[Toyman01]

I use the stacked plate coolers on race cars. They slow the oil flow down through the cooler allowing a longer dwell time to transfer more heat from the oil. They are also smaller than the tube and fin for a given heat removal allowing for packaging in smaller places.

Be careful you don't over-cool anything. I end up adding bypass thermostats to most engine coolers to make sure the engine can get up to temp in cool weather. You want to make sure the oil temps are above 200 or so to boil off any moisture or condensation that occurs when the engine is sitting.

Transmissions like to be above 175. If you run through the trans cooler first and then through the radiator cooler, if equipt, your transmission temps should be good.

[donr103]

Imho. When considering adding extra oil coolers.. you must look at what you already have.. and the psi the systems operate at.. stacking plate coolers inline with other plate coolers to me.. could cause an issue.. for instance.. on my rv trans .. I wanted to add another cooler.. given that.. I looked at mine.. existing trans cooling.. line runs out of trans.. to plate coolers in front of condenser then to radiator to another plate cooler inside radiator then back to trans main clutch set.. I read various opinions and main clutch set needs the most cooling.. I felt another plate cooler would starve oil by restriction.. so I went with very large tube and fin.. from derale.com with fan..

Next p/s.. my system is hydroboost.. no cooler found.. but psi goes as hi as 2000 psi.. to me..i went with tube and fin.. on return line from resovior.. one idea was that any cooler is better than 0 cooler.. next was p/s was real pain to change and I did not want to do it ever again.. and nearly no one is left that knows how to fix.. next idea was that there are 2 return lines back to p/s pump.. if I used plate it would just cause oil to return another path.. so I used tube and fin..

Next.. I wanted to add another super large engine oil cooler.. just me.. my rv.. I feel over 50yrs in car business repairing chevys.. fords.. dodge.. I see what heat does.. there I went with Hugh tube and fin with thermostat bypass and fan.. plate type I feel would cause too much restriction..

Now here is where I put all this.. engine cooler.. left side in front of tire.. mount to cap frame.. p/s cool.. top of condenser.. because return resovior is right there.. next trans.. I junked engine air box and ton of hoses.. added cold intake kit.. this opened room to mount trans cooler assembly to cap frame front right.. in front of passenger tire.. now I had to add some stabilizing brackets to both engine and trans cooler.. nothing hand tools can't handle.. nothing fancy.. added switches and relays .. boom.. done.. got to go.. oh don't worry too much about running too cold.. unless you plan on camping in Alaska or Canada in winter.
Good luck and keep us posted