|
Looks like the coolant exits the engine at the back of each cylinder bank into metal tubes that join and feed a single hose running to the DCT heat exchanger. Return line from DCT runs to auxiliary water pump, which then feeds supply to heater core through the bulkhead.
Return line from heater core runs straight to the return pipe to primary water pump.
I don’t see anyplace in the loop where there is opportunity for mixing of return from the DCT and return from the heater core. Rather it is a single continuous loop, and all coolant flows through the heater core before returning to main pump. I think the main role of the auxiliary pump is to augment flow to the heater core when at low RPM so the cabin still gets heated when in slow traffic. Heat delivered into the cabin is determined mostly by what the fan extracts, not by volume of coolant delivered.
Bottom line: I believe the coolant flow is a single continuous loop once it exits the back of the engine. Looping in a U-shaped bypass of the heater core (aux pump straight to main pump return line) will have no effect on cooling, except for the heat that would have been shed to the heater core. I suspect the auxiliary pump can be removed because it will never be activated by a call for heat at low RPM from an HVAC head unit that doesn’t exist, but I’m not comfortable with that assumption.
I’d welcome any input based on concrete knowledge rather than my suppositions. Am I naive to think there is no other hidden parallel flow path within the engine that I might be shunting coolant away from by creating a bypass of the heater core?
|