Do you have rods in your head? I do.

Maybe I'm missing something. Water flow coming out of an engine would be the same as going into the engine. So slowing down the flow some would allow the radiator more time to cool the incoming flow to the engine. A larger radiator works well, why, water is being cooled longer.
That larger radiator works better because it has more surface area to reject heat. More tubes more fins ect.