Have you ever thought of how your engine cools? Or, how the cooling system of your car works? If you are interested to know how it works, it’s worth to read this article.
Inside your car hood air/fuel is constantly burnt due to which lot of heat from combustion goes out through the exhaust system, but some amount of heat remains in the engine, due to this the engine components heated up. If the heating of engine components happens continuously, the engine lifespan decreases. The engine runs effectively when coolant is at 200-230 degrees Fahrenheit.
Working of cooling system in vehicles
Cooling system in the vehicles are adopted to keep the engine from over heating by transferring the heat to atmosphere. When the engine is cold the components wear out and engine is less efficient and emits more pollutants,the coolant system allows the engine to heat up as quickly as possible and then keeping the engine at constant temperature.
The components of cooling system consists of :
- Water pump
- Engine
- Thermostat
- Radiator fans
- Heater core
- Pressure regulator
- Radiator
We discuss how the cooling system works
A car engine produces a lot of heat when it’s running, and should be cooled continuously to avoid engine over heating. The engine is cooled by circulating water mixed with anti freezers. Some engines are cooled by air flowing through the air cooling fins.
A cooling passage is arranged around the engine block and cylinder head through which the coolant runs. At the top of the cylinder head all the coolant channels are converge to single passage.
A water pump, driven by a pulley and belt, drives hot coolant from the engine to the radiator,
The radiator acts as a heat exchanger, the hot coolant is passed through the radiator to the atmospheric air stream. The atmospheric air and the radiator fins absorb the coolant heat and the cooled coolant returns to inlet of water pump and again it flows back to the engine block and the cylinder head. The process thus continues.
The water pump sends coolant up through the engine and down through the radiator. The radiator is connected to the engine by rubber hoses, and has a top and bottom tank connected by many fine tubes.
These tubes pass through the radiator fins and lose heat rapidly to the cooler air passing through the radiator fins.
The extra pressure of coolant is regulated by the radiator cap, which is equipped with a pressure valve in it. Excess pressure in the system can be removed by opening the pressure regulator valve.
With a cooling system of this type, there is a continual loss of coolant if the engine runs very hot.
Most vehicles are equipped with water-cooled cooling system, because it’s more effective than the air-cooled cooling system.