Redoing my mister system

Scott & Heather · September 02, 2019, 06:07:06 PM

Cliff, there was a discussion a while back on this. Misting vs flooding. I agree that misting works better in terms of actually cooling the air before it hits the radiator, but because of how much air is getting sucked in, I can assure you it works better flooding my rads. My first system I've used for three years was misting them. This flooding system brought the temps down faster more degrees of drop, and longer. It's night and day. The cooling effect of flooding them works so so much better.

buswarrior · September 02, 2019, 06:52:39 PM

Oh I wish the engineers of days gone by were still here to explain this...the stuff that got banged out in the old chat rooms that was lost as soon as we logged out...

Evaporation and what not, getting the water onto the rad surfaces is the point of the exercise.

Where we screw up is not getting the water onto enough surfaces, because our delivery methods are inadequate for the hurricane blowing past.

Some "misters" don't do squat when the fans are at full tilt AND the coach is moving down the road at speed. The water ends up blown to the sides someplace, and not get on the rad surfaces.

Oh well, the dolts that pissed off the engineers by arguing stupid $#!% are also gone...

The decay of our society: celebrating stupidity and laziness then discounting knowledge and hard work

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

luvrbus · September 02, 2019, 08:07:12 PM

I think evaporation would be the way to go if you had enough room to mount a system farther away from the radiator to be affective, it would cover the entire radiator with cool air,when you get down to it the right foot comes into play with cooling a beast

chessie4905 · September 03, 2019, 03:53:20 AM

Some drown them because their system isn't misting properly because of airflow issues disturbing the spray pattern. Probably using some food dye it the misting water temporarily might show how the spray is working going down the road.

lostagain · September 03, 2019, 06:56:22 AM

I drove these 2 stroke Detroits in the 70s and 80s. A lot of times in the heat of the British Columbia Interior, up and down hills. We never had misters. We were trained to drive them on the governor at high rpm. We were also taught to watch the temperature gauge, and to back off and down shift when it went up toward 200F. I don't remember overheating issues.

What has changed?

3 things I can think of:

- Our buses were well maintained.

- All we had was manual transmissions that don't put extra heat into the cooling system.

- A lot of today's busnuts don't know how to drive them. They lug them with a heavy foot.

JC

lvmci · September 03, 2019, 09:14:47 AM

Clifford I had misting sprayers and they cooled some, drilled out the holes and it cooled faster and to a lower temperature, tom...

luvrbus · September 03, 2019, 09:46:35 AM

Quote from: lvmci on September 03, 2019, 09:14:47 AM
Clifford I had misting sprayers and they cooled some, drilled out the holes and it cooled faster and to a lower temperature, tom...

I am just saying if there was a bigger air space for the mister to cool more air it would work,At the restaurants we run 350 PSI with tiny holes and you can hardly see the mist and it drops the temperature 30 to 35 degrees on the patios,I am not fan of flooding the radiators it does a number on radiators over the years

Geoff · September 03, 2019, 09:51:44 AM

I have always had good luck with drowning the radiator to cool the engine. However, you can use a lot of water this way. When I moved from CA to AZ I pulled a 10k trailer behind my bus several times.

By the time I got to AZ I would have to refill my 100 gallon water tanks, so the water would last 600 miles having to use the sprayers on every grade. Without the trailer I didn't need the sprayers.

Scott & Heather · September 04, 2019, 06:50:19 AM

Couple thoughts:

Lost again: my bus is maintained well. But I'm 47,000lbs gross when towing my Expedition. How heavy were you with passengers?

The Allison auto does add a ton of heat to the cooling system. So if you were driving a manual, I agree that's likely a big cause of why you never had overheating issues.

My coach has been turned up to a 500hp setting. I love it. It's worth having to watch the gauge if it's really hot out. I only have to be careful in 90's or above heat. Most of where and when I drive, this isn't an issue. My tours keep me north in the summer and south in the winter.

As for flooding the rads, I agree with Cliff, if the system could mist the entire radiator it would have an amazing cooling effect. But I tried this using patio misters and once the rpms went up, the mist disappeared and there were just small wet spots on the radiator right where the misting heads were located. Just didn't work effectively. My new system does flood them but the downside is that it absolutely uses a ton of water. I need to find the perfect balance somewhere in between.

Dave5Cs · September 04, 2019, 07:05:18 AM

I put in sprayers with 1/2" pex in a square and 1 pipe down the center. drilled 1/16" holes every 6 inched around the pipe and down the center. When coming down Bakers grade it did bring down the heat which has never really that bad 180 190 but noticed oil all over the rear on the coach. It was basically steam cleaning the engine for me but what a mess it mad with the old oil from the rear of the motor. Its clean now just don't use the misters until it needs it again, LOL

lvmci · September 04, 2019, 08:08:36 AM

Dave that brings up the other benefit of cooling the radiators, the water spray then gets sucked down to the road hitting the engine, like an old oil bath air filter, cooling the engine block and in Dave's bus, cleaning the engine as a side benefit, maybe I should put some 409 in the mix and later some gold leaf, making my engine a gold 8V92, a step up for me! lvmci...