Water jets for radiator / oil / trans coolers

These systems are used quite frequently to cool the intercoolers of high performance turbo charged vehicles - they can be set to come on automatically based on throttle position with a small microswitch.

I believe SAAB installed them at the factory on some of their turbo charged cars.

It's a great belt & braces system - the water from your tank is going to be cleaner than the road spray that is thrown up into the radiator every day!

Great response Scott. Its refreshing to hear some real world experience, not speculation.
I installed a water injection system in the carb of my 68 Mustang 428CJ years ago, it cooled intake temp and stopped the pre-ignition. I wish I had known to put it to the rad, it overheated bad.

Thor,
Well Sir, our first motor home was a class C Dodge with the 440-1 in it and, during the summer runs from the San Diego area to the Colorado river, towing a boat, that darn 440 would always climb in temps. Of course, it didn't help that I was driving in 105 degree heat about 95% of the time. That's the reason we went to the river right?

Anyway, I got tired of it getting hot and worrying so, I built that system you're talking about. I used a steel brake line, about 3/16" in diameter and drilled about 20, 1/16" holes in it for full length, across the top of the radiator. I mounted that tube, about an inch away from the top tank of the radiator. I sealed the end with brazing.

Then, I plumbed it into another 12V RV water pump and tee-d off of the water supply from the main water tank. Now, when that temp would start climbing on that temp gauge, to say, around 220, I'd simply push a momentary button on the dash, and spray the top tank. I'd do this for a count of about 5-8 seconds. Then, I'd let it run for about 10 seconds and do it again. You should have seen that temp gauge drop down to 180. It would then take around 5 or 6 miles to climb back up to 220 again. Then, I'd start the process all over again.

And yes, I did everything possible to cool that engine. I did thermostat work, converted from a two row to a four row radiator, larger clutch fan, moved the trans cooling completely away from the radiator to it's own cooling system, built an oil cooling system for it, and, yet it still climbed in temp. The water spaying system was the only GARANTEED system for keeping that engine cool, in that kind of driving conditions.

Now, in a 4 hour drive, I'd end up using almost 2/3 of my water supply, which was about a 45 gallon tank.

That didn't matter 'cause where we'd camp, we had full hookups anyway. Now, as far as rust, NONE! Build up of any type, NONE! I tell you one thing that did happen, besides my manual cooling of that darn 440, the entire front end of that engine was always sparkling clean. It was being steam cleaned a lot!!
Scott

Thanks for the comments. As I haven't taken any long trips in the MH yet, I don't know that it has any cooling issues. I've driven it locally on the freeway and in town and been stuck in rush hour traffice for about an hour and haven't had any over heating issues. I also don't see any rust issues under the hood. I would guess the prior owner did it as an emergency fix when needed. I guess I will also only use it for emergencys.

I will add the water wetter product. I always do that to my vehicles and completely forgot to add it here.

It would have been nice to ask the prior owner questions about his modifications, but unfortunately he passed away before I bought it and the family friend didn't know any specifics. I guess everything will be a discovery. There are still some switches that I don't know what they do. At least he kept detailed receipts for any repairs.

Thanks again for the input.

I setup a spray system on one of my trucks. When going up hill or in stop and go traffic I could turn on the sprayer and it would help keep everything cooler. I was having a problem with overheating. The sprayer helped.

However, I discovered the true cause of my overheating was a bad fan clutch. Doing the normal testing it seemed OK. I decided to replace it at the sametime I was replacing the fan belts. Never had a cooling problem after that.

An alternative to the spray setup and works really well is an additive you put into the radiator from Royal Purple. It's called "Wetter Water". I've used it in a couple of different tow vehicles, the temps on hill climbs are 10 to 20 degrees cooler with the wetter water.

The minerals in the water will leave deposits eventually on the radiator and trans cooler which will cause a decrease in heat transfer. Then you might need to "spray" most of the time.

I built a setup like this on my MH. I have a 3126 CAT in a '98 National Tradewinds. I pull a horse trailer and the mist system really helps keep the temps cool. I live in Phoenix, AZ and pull a horse trailer and encounter alot of hills / mountain grades. I had my radiator R&R'd and keep my rpms up around 2000 and still would overheat. I have two jets on my system.

Old trick to help control temps on hard grades. Used the technique for many years on a variety of tow rigs. Can't say I caused any rust problems, on the hand don't have TX water.

They shouldn't hurt anything as long as they don't spray too much water onto some of the electrical componants. Don't forget to winterize this system also if you live in the cold. Let us know if they helped.

Bill

Might end up with a lot of rust. Also,this is treating the symtoms. Fix what is causing the overheating