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cruise ---- Keeping Your Engine Cool|
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Engine cooling must be one of the most misunderstood subjects in the history of the car.
Well almost, the real misunderstandings began when temperature gages were first introduced.
Unfortunately most everyone is led to think that the gage indicates how
well the engine is cooling when it is simply indicating that the engine is cooling. The
reason why is that an engine cools itself by the fact that it is at a higher temperature than
the air surrounding it. And as the hot engine warms the air around it the air is cooling
the engine by an equal amount. This concept can be hard to grasp but Automotive Engineers learn first
of all that energy can neither be created or destroyed. So what you see as the temperature
gage rises and falls is the balance of the engine's heat with the air's cooling power. A
good way to imagine this is to see what happens on a cold winter day. You'll notice that
when the temperature gage rises it stops at a much colder reading than normal. Why? Because
the cold winter air has enormous cooling power. By the same reason you can now see why
the engine must run warmer on the hottest summer day in order to cool itself.
So how do you know when your engine is overheating? The classic symptoms are a loss
of coolant, most often because of a leak in coolant pressure. On a classic American car
an old clogged radiator will cause overheating or on a street rod you may not have enough cooling capacity.
The other true sign of overheating is when the gage rapidly moves into the red zone or most
likely pegs itself. In any case stop to cool down and check for coolant leaks.
Keep in mind that a major coolant loss will cause the level of coolant to drop below
the gage or warning light sender and you'll get a cold reading on a severely overheating engine.
Another drastic misconception is that it is better for an engine to run cooler. It seems
sometimes that the whole world believes this, but your own experience will again prove this false.
Remember how poor an old carbureted car runs on a cold winter morning? That's because heat
is required to properly vaporise the fuel. And everyone knows that an engine driven on only
short trips needs to have the oil changed much more often because the oil never gets up to
the proper temperature. The final proof that an engine should not be run cold is seen
everytime you watch a race on TV. In the ultimate test of speed and reliability the teams
operate the engines as hot as they can get by with by covering part of the radiator opening with tape.
Cooling FAQ
-Q My car loses some coolant shortly after I shut the engine off. How do I
fix this problem?
-A Modern cars need much smaller cooling systems than antiques, so what
you are seeing is the engine's heat causing the coolant to expand. The fix is easy, just
run the coolant level low enough to allow for expansion, which may need to be so low that
the radiator tubes show when cold. You can also add an expansion tank like most recent
cars use which will let you run with the radiator tank completely full.
-Q My car runs hot most of the time. How do I cure this?
-A If you don't see the typical problems of coolant loss or the gage moving into the
end zone then you don't have any problem.
-Q In the winter my car runs nice and cool but the heater is not very hot even after I
replaced the heater core.
-A The problem of you being cold is a problem for the engine too! If the engine never gets
up to proper running temperature then moisture, gasoline, and combustion byproducts will stay
in your oil. This is obviously not good. An easy cure for this is to cut a piece of
corrugated brown cardboard to fit in front of the radiator. Try to cut it some way so that
you can adjust how much of the radiator it covers. After you figure out how to cut the
cardboard to get the engine to run as warm as possible without overheating then dust some black
paint on it so it can't be seen behind the grille. Now you and your engine will both be cozy!
-Q My car runs cool when cruising down the Interstate but gets too hot when I'm caught in city traffic.
-A Remember that if you never lose coolant or have the gage peg then you most likely have
no problem. One good way to keep the engine cool on cars with engine driven fans is to run
the engine up to about 2000rpm when the car is not moving to force air through the radiator.
-Q What use is the temperature gage anyway?
-A Not much use, mostly it just reflects what temperature it is outside! Once you get used to
that you can watch for any sudden move into the hot zone, indicating a possible problem. In
the winter a gage is also great for knowing when to turn the heater on.
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cruise----866 415-5559151 MacCorkle Avenue , South Charleston WV 25303
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