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Flow Rate and Pressure Drop Testing

5:30
23:48
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At 5:30 in

Formula One Radiator Service Will Change Your Opinion About "Clean" (Serck Motorsport Tour)

What happens here

The radiator is then connected to a flow rig, which measures the flow rate (gallons per minute, GPM) and pressure differential (PSI) across its inlet and outlet. This data helps assess the internal condition of the radiator. If the flow rate is too low or the pressure drop is too high, it indicates clogged or damaged tubes. Conversely, if the flow rate is too high or the pressure drop is too low, it suggests the tubes have expanded or internal damage. The rig's computer system records this data, which is then compared against established benchmarks (like Mercedes-Benz racing team specs or Serck's own averages from similar coolers) to ensure optimal cooling efficiency. This test can reveal manufacturing defects or issues from previous use.

Goal: Evaluate the internal flow characteristics and efficiency of the radiator.

Tools and materials

  • Flow Rig Serck Motorsport custom — Measuring flow rates and pressure differentials through the radiator
  • Laptop — Displaying and recording flow and pressure data

What they say

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where it came from next year this is our our uh we said we take a lot of information down throughout our process this is our flow rate um we're able to see flow rates throughout the radiators life and what that does for us is that we we were able to show you hey this thing is still collected is brand new um or hey there's an issue internally there could be whether it's clogged or damaged or even the new stuff it could be a manufacturer defect that we can find here in-house versus out on the track this one's mine is there anything wrong with it not so far 2004 this thing's 19 years old I noticed about all this stuff is everything here is fabricated out of stainless steel like even the framework it doesn't have to be but it is because it's fancy I can't see everything about us is cleanliness and we have a cleaning with spec so everything's welded kind of a food standard so if you look at it I don't know we didn't compliment a lot about like the the milk industry like all the rigs for milk are all out of the same you know similar tubing and everything like I said stainless and welded that's just to prevent the least amount of contamination possible we're flowing gallons per minute that's what the 50 50 is right there and then we're taking a pressure data of the pressure of what you have two pressure lines your Inlet and your outlet and this is posted off the difference and that's how we're able to tell the pressure's too high generally the tubes are damaged or they're closed in if the pressure is too low the the tubes have expanded so if it's too low does the water not spend enough time in the radiator to actually cool off correct it's just a free flow right through it's pulling too much it's not the the radiator is not efficient or open it can happen in the oil coolers as well how do you know what that sweet spot is where it's enough but not too much and not too slow either um we've done enough of these to where we had we just we took an average of each kind of cooler that we that we see and we were able to kind of find that um you know our our Target upper limit lower limit and we just kind of have an equation of what they should be and what we've seen from multiple radiators but how's this one is it messed up no this one's actually dead on um we've had a few of these old ones and this is where you have like an internal oil cooler more of a heat exchanger we've had quite a few of these um other cars a lot of dirt stuff dirt dirt late models have ran a few…

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