Originally Posted by
BenFenner 
Radiator fans are meaningless above ~25 miles per hour. You're better off without them above that speed.
Not entirely, I think I recall from the manual that the fans are still on above that speed, but I don't recall the chart off the top of my head. Also different with AC on/off, and different generation cars will have different setpoints.
Originally Posted by
gEE805 The 53mm thick R1977 is actually one of our oldest models and was developed when Koyorad did not yet offer the 36mm cores for our performance radiators. As our core offerings have expanded and technology has improved, we can now get similar if not better results in smaller packages. Instead of prioritizing coolant volume as the industry once did, we now take fin/tube density and overall size into consideration. With much less volume than our old 53mm core, you have less chance of the cooling system heat soaking.
Too many replies to comment on, so I'll stick with this one. What they say about heatsoak is correct, basically there is less coolant in the system that needs to have the temp brought down by the fans when the car slows down, be it idling at a stop light or coming down pit row.
What I have a concern about, and the whole reason that the B13 folks wanted a larger radiator in the first place, was that the original stock B13 SE-R radiator was undersized for performance use, track days, etc, where the engine would generate so much heat that it would overwhelm the capacity of the stock radiator to dissipate the heat. If their fin design and thermal efficiency is better than the stock design and can dissipate that heat more effectively, then yes, they can get by with less coolant capacity. That can really only be shown by actual data.
Ideally, you'd want to have a thermal imaging camera to record good data, failing that one of those laser temp probes to measure the heat at multiple points, I would think that at thermostat, radiator in, radiator out, back of the block where the actual temp sensor is for the stock gauge would be the four ideal places to check temps. Again, for an ideal test, you'd want to check the stock radiator temps, R1977, and V020311 temps under similar circumstances, ideally on a hot day where the engine is seeing a lot of heavy use.
For maybe a more scientific test, eliminate the car completely. Determine what the normal coolant flow rate would be from the waterpump, then set up an electric pump, water tank, and heat source to heat the water. Have each radiator with a set of fans running tested in turn. You can then simulate an engine running as hot as you'd like, heating up the water, and then measure efficiency at various 'engine' temps and see how well each does under load.
As long as the new design can dissipate more heat than the engine can produce, it should work. I think that they need to actually prove that they've done their homework here.
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