question about cooling a projet.

[92ranger18]

Im in the process of mounting a ninja 600 motor on a Yamaha warrior 350 frame, well I have the motor mounted just need to finish welding, mount the gas tank, wire it up and a bunch of nit picky stuff. one hurdle I cant seem to get over is cooling. I don't have enough room to use the bikes radiator. I was sitting staring at the motor on the frame and had a brain fart so to say. "Wouldn't a heater core work?" I mean its basically a radiator its self right? Im building this to be strictly a drag quad, so I wont need to cooll it out on the trail or nothing. Just up to the staging lanes down the 1/8th mile and back up the return road to the pits. I was just wondering this because I don't have the extra cash at the moment to spend on a set of dirt bike dual radiators, and I have the heater core out of my ranger drag truck project. Do you guys think it would work?

 

[RonD]

yes, no reason you couldn't do that.
Not sure of the volume of the system but you may want two of them or at least a 12v fan on the one, since air cooling will only last a few seconds, depending on how fast your bike is, lol.
What is the water pump status?

 

[RangerSVT]

Mount the bike's rad on the back behind the seat with an electric fan, and just plumb the lines to it. The extra distance of plumbing the lines will increase your coolant capacity, aiding in keeping it kool...

SVT

 

[92ranger18]

I plan on running the fan that came on the bike. The reason I cant really use the ninja radiator is it is curved, and the custom header im having to make I just don't have the room in front of the motor and the frame. I also thought about building a scoop to direct air flow into the radiator or in my case heater core lol. ill try to find my camera and post some pics of the progress so far.

 

[RangerSVT]

When I say behind the seat, I mean the very back of the bike, above the swingarm...

SVT

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

When I say behind the seat, I mean the very back of the bike, above the swingarm...

SVT

It isn't on a bike, would that make a difference?

 

[don4331]

Why do you need a radiator on a drag quad?

The V-8 Vega we campaigned in '80s had block filled with concrete. No issue with staging, running 1/4, and coasting back down the return road.

On street, we were concerned with them running NO2 when they had radiator on their car... Pop in the 2ndaries was harder to detect; 1 lb NO2 bottle in lifter valley was neat; but PIA to swap manifolds between strip and street.

Yes, some of my youth was misspent...

 

[RangerSVT]

I know, its on a 4 wheeler frame. Make a mount on the grab handle behind the seat, from there plumb the lines to the engine. Since it has its own cooling fan, it can be mounted anywhere...

SVT

 

[RonD]

You may want to look at Waterless Coolant as well, wouldn't be too expensive because of the lower volume needed for the engine size.

50/50, Water/coolant boils at 220degF, you get 3degF by adding 1 psi of pressure, 16psi rad cap adds 48degF to 220degF so you get boiling point of 268degF.
If you hit that temp in ANY spot in the head the coolant flashes to steam and hoses blow off, all coolant is lost and you have an issue.

Waterless coolant has a boiling point of 356degF, and while it is expensive compared to regular coolant, you would be taking that "flash to steam" off the table