Radiator Articles Sections > Radiator Articles

The Radiator Cooling System

All cars, trucks, and SUVs use the same basic automotive radiator cooling system to keep their internal combustion engines from overheating. As you might imagine, the heat from the controlled ignition of diesel or gasoline in an engine's cylinders needs to be dissipated safely to prevent an engine from getting too hot. The automotive radiator is a simple and elegant solution to the need for engine cooling.

By passing a cooler liquid through the engine, the radiator can transfer heat from the metal of the engine block to the liquid. The hot liquid coolant then passes out of the engine and needs to be cooled.

That's where your automobile's radiator comes in: by passing the hot coolant through the cool metal grate of the radiator, a large amount of heat can be dissipated quickly.

These metal grates are your automotive radiator's cooling cores. Made from copper or aluminum, they cool quickly in the airflow that comes through the grill of your car, truck, or SUV. When you are sitting at a stoplight or going very slowly, a fan attached to your engine forces air across the radiator cores to continue engine cooling.

The coolant in an automotive radiator system only flows one way. Only coolant that has flowed through the radiator cores can enter the engine. This ensures that the coolest liquid is always entering the engine and the hottest is always heading for the radiator.

Many modern engines will also pass oil from the automatic transmission through an oil cooler attached or built into the automotive radiator.

Engine coolant is usually one half water and one half anti-freeze (Propylene Glycol), though you can safely cool an engine with entirely water as long as you live in a place where the temperature never reaches freezing.

It is usually greenish in color and has a slight oily texture. If you think your automotive radiator system may be leaking, have it check professionally right away.

The automotive radiator is a relatively simple technology, one that has been around almost as long as automobiles have been in production.