Reverse Flow Water Cooling

[Ralph Fichtl]

Has anyone done or seen this done with the 6.5TD? I know the new LT1 Corvette is doing this.

[catmandoo]

i believe the 2000 up gas pickups are using it also.. iv'e thought of it but then again would like to use a piece of junk truck and motor just in case it doesn't work. would think you could use an older waterpump on these newer ones with the backwards running pump.you would also need a closed system as it would probably be more prone to air pockets suckin water from the top.or maybe resolder the top hose fitting lower in the side tank?i'd like to hear if it's been tried also.

[gmctd]

I believe the reverse-flow concept involves flowing coolant thru the heads first, then into the block. The heads are where the most concentration of heat from combustion takes place in a gasoline-fueled engine.
Reverse flow helps stabilize temperatures.
Flow is still from bottom of cool-side radiator tank thru engine, back to top of hot-side tank, same as with the block-first systems.

Would require considerably more than water pump rotational schemes to convert our engines.

The 6.2\6.5 series Diesel combustion takes place in the piston pocket - the heads are totally flat, with a small pre-igition tungsten-carbide "cup" for the injector nozzle and glow plug. It is an indirect injection system.
Combustion takes place more in the block area, so needs the coolest coolant in the block area first.

jd

[catmandoo]

thats something i guess i didn't think about heads being flat , you have a very good point.

[StephenA]

How 'bout an electric water pump which runs after engine shut off until cool down?

[rapidoxidationman]

Yes, on the reverse flow cooling system the water circulates first around the heads and combustion chamber. In the interest of stopping vapor build up this high in the system there is a small vent pipe which has a .09" hole in it for gases to escape to the overflow chamber. This part of the system is incidentally a major point of contention for gm and the system's inventor Jack Evans, who would like to see a 600 million dollar deposit from gm to his bank account. He claims gm stole his intellectual property before he had a patent on the design. This kind of cooling does result in supposedly higher MPG and horsepower, but it doesn't look like something that can be easily retrofitted to an existing system. There's an article on this (more business than mechanical) in the october issue of Fortune Small Business.
Regards,
Rapid