I can help settle the argument...

I understand what robyn is seeing. She is just misinterpreting the results.

Fluid flow is no different than basic electricity.

When you use a 4 core raditaor, the resistance is basically cut in half, and more mass flow through can be achieved through the radiator (about double).



Lets use Ohm's Law. V = I x R

Where V = voltage (or outlet pressure of the water pump)
I = Current (or mass flow rate of the liquid)
R = Resistance of the component (or resistance to flow from the radiator)

Lets assume that a 2 core radiator has a resistance of 2 ohms, and a 4 core radiator has a resistance half of that, 1 ohms.

Lets also assume that:
1 gallon equals 1 volt.
87 GPM is the stock water pump max flow rate.
130 GPM is the stock water pump max flow rate.
There is no thermostat.

So...

Reconfigure ohms law to: V/R = I

We really want to know what I is (mass flow rate through the radiator).

Stock Radiator:

87/2 = 43.5 (stock water pump, 2 core radiator)

87/1 = 87 (stock water pump, 4 core radiator)

130/2 = 65 (hi cap water pump, 2 core radiator)

130/1 = 130 (hi capacity water pump, 4 core radiator)

As you can see, you get more flow through the radiator with the stock water pump and the 4 core radiator. The most flow will come from the high flow pump and 4 core radiator.

Lets reverse the use of the formula. What would have to be the rating of the water pump in order to achieve the 130 flow rating through a 2 core radiator:

V = I x R

V = 130 x 2

V = 260.

Your water pump would have to work very hard to achieve this. Without getting deep into pump law theories here, as you double flow, you quadruple pump head (or pressure out of the pump) and raise pumping power requirements to the power of 3. When you raise pump head, you are raising pressure out of the pump. Rememebr, John Kennedy has stated that sometimes when people run the hi flow water pump without the dual thermostat crossover, freeze plugs can pop out. This is why.

I know, someone here might say that I should have used the GPM rate for "I". Without knowing the pump curves, I worked backwards basically. The results are the same.

The 2 core radiator's "resistance" is to high, therefore when you try to apply a 200 GPM flow rate, it will never achieve it.

Now, without getting deep into heat transfer dynamics and equatiors, when you increase mass flow rate, you increase the amount of heat that can be transferred from one device to another. Slowing down flow to increae heat transfer rate violates the laws of thermodynamics, plain and simple. To bowwor a phrase from Scottie on Star Trek, " I cannot change the laws of Physics Captain".

The reason that the 2 core radiator will not cool the big block is that you can't readily achieve 200 GPM through the 2 core radiator with any reasonable water pump.