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It happens when you start talking oil system mods on turbo buicks, everyone has their own opinion... Now do I believe that higher flows result in higher temperatures? Sure, that makes sense, I can explain that a few different ways. But what I think has happened is that someone took out their thermostat, saw a higher temperature, looked for an explanation, and came up with "not enough time in the radiator to cool off the water". And they came to the wrong conclusion, and it got repeated enough times to become the common wisdom and everybody believed it. Notice I'm not arguing with the result, that they saw a higher temperature, just the reason why there was a higher temperature. Their talk on cavitation is what I am familiar with - pump suctions, and the resulting pump damage when the bubbles collapse. No mention there of bubbles on the pressure side of the system. BTW, to me, that subject leads me over to PCV systems. Contamination of the oil directionally pushes you towards a cavitation problem, more gasoline and such in the oil will increase its tendency to form bubbles in the pump suction. Having a functioning PCV, and pulling a decent vacuum on the crankcase, will help vaporize that crap, and degas the oil, helping to reduce the tendency of the oil to make bubbles in the pump suction. Here's a thought: our pumps, with the straight cut gears, are functionally equivalent to a Roots blower, which also are known for their low efficiency. If someone made oil pump gears with a twist to them, or made an actual compressor type lobe (think Eaton twin screw type supercharger) our pumps would get a LOT more efficient. That would be sweet... just pop the old straight gears out and slide the new twisted gears in. Probably cost too much to make though. I'd buy it if it was available! A lot simpler than welding two timing covers together to get the 3800 gerotor pump.This stuff is getting too complex.
Hm.... everyone says the F-body radiator swap is a good idea because it is a single core but the tubes are much bigger, so the coolant passes through slower and thus has more time to have cool air rushing past it.
There are lots of potential reasons why that radiator might cool well. Just replacing an old rad with a new one could be a reason. A different fin count, allowing more air flow through the radiator could be another. Not saying that is it, since I don't know the respective fin counts, but some reason like that can explain it. Bigger tubes and lower velocities are usually worse for heat transfer, but if they put turbulators in the tubes that can get it all back by improving the heat transfer coefficient. Or maybe the core is thinner, which gives more air flow for the same fin count, again cooling better. Or maybe they've got a thinner core with a denser fin count for more heat transfer area with the same air flow. Or, with the larger internal cross sectional area, and therefore lower pressure drop, the actual flow through the system might actually be higher than it was before (ie, less resistance to flow allows the water pump to pump more), and the higher flow is what is cooling things better.
