Liquid Cooling & Heat Exchangers

[RichsApex3573]

Serious question here, with all the posts I see about people throwing studs through heat exchangers and the the other negative aspects that go with them why aren't snowmobile solely liquid cooled? i.e. with just a radiator and fan for heat dissipation similar to cars, liquid cooled ATV's, dirtbikes,motorcycles, etc... Seems it would save everyone quite a bit of trouble and surely Yamaha could do this if they wanted? RX1/APEX engines are basically a R1 sportbike motor which are cooled with only radiator and fan. So my questions is why keep heat exchangers on sleds when they are capable of keeping them cool without them?

 

[shadow44]

Sport bikes, dirt bikes and quads all have motors that are exposed to the air, therefore they don't soley rely on the rad and fan for cooling. As for our sleds, my Nytro ha s a horribly inefficient rad/fan combo, and even the heat exchangers can't keep up in low snow or super hard pack conditions. If we had no body work to protect the elements , we'd have even more problems....no solution except to not run studs or go with a track that has studs in the lugs

 

[Cubby]

I believe they keep heat exchangers because water/liquid is a better conductor of heat/cooling than air. So its more "efficient? when there is sufficient snow to hit the heat exchangers. But that can't be guaranteed all the time (crossing roads, hard snow, idling) so the rad is another option.

 

[smokingcrater]

Just relying on an air radiator system would be fine for a 100% trail sled. Once you get into deep snow, you would have it plugged up with snow and ice fairly quickly, and at that point, it does very little. The best combination in my opinion is to do both. On the RX/RS chassis, fit the apex air radiator with a fan, which is relatively small but in a very protected area, and of course leave the stock cooling system in place.