silly radiator coverings during winter

Hey, I resemble that remark!! I hauled sticks for quite a few years.

 

i have over 30 and still do

 

I might would consider it again if I could do it like the old days. Pull a tandem drop frame with a single axle tractor, unload my upholsterd load, slam the doors and head home.

 

Learn something.

The heated water from the engine goes through the heater core BEFORE it goes to the radiator - NOT after.
That is why, when you are overheating, turning on the heater can help cool the engine. The heater core is simply a smaller (pre-)radiator.

You need a hot engine, and a cool radiator.
The hotter you can safely maintain the water temp within the engine, the more efficient it will run.
And the cooler the intake charge, the same.

And these systems work in concert with each other.
So, yes, starting a cold engine on a cold morning will cause inefficient combustion - a warm engine with cold intake produces the best.

 

My CATliner cab heat comes off the lower radiator tube and goes to the cab heater core and then to the block then to the radiator upper tube and down through the radiator over and over.

 

Considering you're from Florida you might want to change your definition of silly, I'd start with your post.

 

Yep, the cooling system is designed for extreme heat too. It's kind of hard to protect running across a hot desert mountain and in -40 up north. One has to take extra measures for the extremes. Technology is improving but it isn't quite there yet. They started putting computer controlled shutters on some car grilles for aerodynamics and I bet it won't be long before ECM controlled shutters are put on trucks for the extreme cold.

 

Lots of trucks had shutters back in the day of constantly running engine fans. It was the only way to get any heat in the winter. Those engine fans really roared when the shutters closed. The truck in my avitar had shutters on it.

 

My 1960 Diamond Reo 220 cummins shot one foot of fame out the stack and black smoke for a mile looked like a tractor puller going down the road. No shutters and no heater. Just a gasoline heater under the seat it burned about a gallon of gas a day. Had to wear all your winter clothes while driving