According to this interesting article in The Independent the reason Racehorses are able to run at such high speeds without overheating or losing consciousness, is because they are equipped with a biological radiator that keeps their brains cool.

Horses generate so much heat while galloping that their blood reaches temperatures of up to 104 degrees, enough to cause serious damage to a horse’s brain.  However, before the blood reaches the brain it is cooled by moving past internal pouches filled with cooler air.  This anatomical heat transfer system keeps the horse from damaging it’s brain in much the same way that the heat transfer systems in our cars keep our engines from suffering permanent damage or failure.

Of course, when a car overheats, the thing that suffers most is not the automobile itself but the cars owner.  He or she is the one that has to deal with the stress and expense of getting the vehicle up and running.  Fortunately Radiator.com is here to help.

Auto Mechanic: Tools for the Auto Mechanic in You is Frankie D’Antoni’s excellent automotive repair blog.  I stumbled across the site the other day and was immediately struck by the simply stated, practical advice Frankie offers about taking care of your car. 

When I read his entry on how to flush your car’s cooling system I knew I had to share this wonderful site with all of you do-it-yourself mechanics out there!  I was particularly happy to see that the first step in that tutorial was this one:

Step 1: Wait until you have a cool engine. If you’ve been driving, then it’s always best (not to mention safer) to wait for your engine to cool down before you start working under your vehicle’s hood.

We all know how I feel about the importance of letting your car cool down before messing with your cooling system.

 -Emily

Every week, as I scan the internet looking for radiator news to share with all of you I come across stories of men and women who injure themselves with hot coolant while trying to repair or remove their radiator.  This can result in serious injury to the eyes and face and in most cases it is a problem that could be easily avoided.  You simply need to let your engine sit and cool off before attempting to remove the radiator cap.  I’ll repeat that: LET YOUR ENGINE COOL DOWN!!!

Coolant works by coursing through the engine, absorbing it’s heat, returning to the radiator where that heat is released into the outside air.  The coolant is then sent back to the engine where it picks up more heat and heads back to the radiator to be cooled, fanned and prepared for another run.  This is why we refer to radiators and fan assemblies as part of a car’s heat transfer system.  Coolant transfers immense amounts of heat away from the car’s engine, and in the process the fluid is heated to scalding hot temperatures.

This increase in heat leads to a build up of pressure in the system.  This is because heat is energy, and molecules that are full of energy/heat bounce around more than molecules that are not full of energy (cooler ones).  The extra movement of the molecules in hot coolant means that the coolant takes up more room.  In a closed system, this means more pressure.  When this pressure is released through say, the sudden removal of a radiator cap, the result can be a veritable gyser of burning hot radiator fluid.  This is a recipe for injury to the eyes and face.

After reading story after story about people who don’t let their engine cool and are subsequently burned, I feel strongly for the safety of my readers.  It is a simple, easy, and safe thing to remove a radiator,  but make sure to read up on our car care articles and speak with a mechanic before embarking on a radiator removal or installation.  And whatever you do, for goodness sake, LET YOUR ENGINE COOL DOWN FIRST!

-Emily