I'd like to pick someone's brain about coolant systems. Starting with a new virgin system, would like to get it right the first time.

You should state a few facts here.. what is the
purpose and what car and engine

408
3/4 block fill

Street strip car

Have nice alum griff rad for the application
Std Carter water pump

I've been reading a lot about Evans waterless coolant , I'm intrigued.

I understand that strikers tend to run hotter engine oil too.

If you already have the water pump and the radiator then you have pretty much locked in your solution. Just make sure you have a good shroud and a big steel fan like one from an Imperial or a pickup truck. Use a clutch fan and a large crank pulley so you are overdriving the fan and water pump. You want as much water velocity thru the radiator as you can get. The more water you push thru the radiator the more cooling you will get.

With a filled block you might need to run an oil cooler too but that is a slightly different topic. Just put it together and drive it and see what happens.

I have a friend that tried evans coolant in his car. It's a 454 LSX with a turbo, and a big water to air intercooler in the nose. '85 mustang. This is a street driven car, thats been 8.20's on 16psi.
anyway, he tried out the evans coolant. and yes, his water temp DID go down, 12* from where it used to run. BUT the OIL TEMP went UP. To just under 300* before he could shut it down. and this was just under normal driving.
The heat has to go somewhere, right?

The heat should have went to the radiator and to the air. It will take the least path of resistance.

Make sure the entire radiator and bulkhead is sealed to the hood (small: inner tube slice, big: foam A/C sealer), any air passing the grill must go through the core.
Vacuum advance!!!!

If 727 with high stall, I suggest a Tru-Cool ATF cooler with a thermal bypass.
Stay away from any with their own fan - the fan lasts 6 months, then you're stuck.

My griff radiator has built in trans cooler awith a built in elec fan, I will install an eng oil cooler and shroud when the build requires it.

My take away frm the Evans stuff is this, it will NOT corrode engine parts, it will keep engine parts cooler but the coolant itself may be hotter (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as you get it to the radiator and your rad does it's job properly), all in all the car might (NOT will might) run at a higher temp but it will NOT overheat.

Coolant system design is an engineering problem, not a marketing gimmick.

The key issue is temp differential between inlet and outlet. So if you put 180 degree hot water into one side of the radiator how cold is it when it comes out. The bigger the delta then the better the cooling system.

That is really the only thing that matters, everything else works to make the differential happen. Water velocity, system pressure, fan size and speed, etc. All of those things are working together to create the temp differential across the radiator. If you pay attention to the temp differential you'll figure out what works and what doesn't.

Everything I'm reading says it's much more than that. Heat transfer from metal engine parts to the coolant is the basis of coolant systems. Coolant can only retain so much heat, it works very much like a sponge, and a sponge can become full. So can coolant. If it becomes full, too hot, it cannot drag any more heat away from the engine as it passes thru.

I don't think that is a good example. Water will keep absorbing heat until it boils so as long as the water isn't boiling then the system will work. The pressure cap on the radiator allows the water to absorb more heat since it delays boiling. If you are boiling a pressurized system then you have a major design issue.

If you are working on something fairly normal then you don't really need to get very deep into cooling system theory. Normal off the shelf parts should get the job done. If you are building land speed record car or something like that then you might want to hire a guy like me to engineer a solution but 90% of guys building cars can get the job done with parts out of the Summit catalog.

I'm not trying to over think anything here or build anything crazy, I'm just looking at Evans as an advantageous way to ensure longer lasting engine parts. No corrosion and no overheating.

What about using the RedLine Water Wetter in with the coolant. I did everything to get my 70 D200 to run cooler. Heavy truck and always liked to run at 210 no matter hi flow water pump or moving the trans cooler to a separate set of coolers from the radiator. Had a race shop said to try it. Poured it in and went to 190 on temps after that. May not work the same for everyone or have some other bad effect I have not seen yet but it worked for me at least.