All automobiles are equipped with an internal combustion engine. Put simply, the internal combustion engine converts fuel into motion so that the automobile can move. To create motion from gasoline, it has to be burned inside the engine, thus the term internal combustion. There are different types of internal combustion engines including diesel engines, gas turbine engines, HEMI engines, rotary engines, and two-stroke engines. But, whatever the type of internal combustion engine, one thing is common to all – all of them produce heat and waste gases and compounds. Overheating is one of the dangers of combustion. When this happens, the engine can break down if it cannot dissipate the heat that has built up in its chambers.
Temperatures inside the engine can rise to over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Such a high temperature will put serious stress on the engine’s parts. The engine parts will have to work harder as the metal expands. The lubricant will also get thinner as the temperatures rise creating more friction between the metal parts in contact with each other. The pistons, cylinders, and other essential parts of the engine are subjected to extreme stress if the heat does not escape. Thus, the cooling system of an automobile is very important.
The cooling system is composed of parts and devices, which dissipate the heat inside the engine. The job of a cooling system is to transfer the heat from the engine to the coolant. The coolant then passes through the car’s radiator parts at which point the heat is converted into air and is discharged out of the system. The radiator is one of the many important parts of a car’s cooling system. Its purpose is to dissipate the heat that the coolant has absorbed from the engine. It is constructed to hold a large amount of water in tubes and passages, which provide a large area in contact with the atmosphere. It usually consists of a radiator core, with its water-carrying tubes and a large cooling area, which are connected to a receiving tank (end cap) at the top and to a dispensing tank at the bottom.
Side flow radiators have their “end caps” on the sides, which allow a lower hood line. In operation, water is pumped from the engine to the top (receiving) tank, where it spreads over the tops of the tubes. As the water passes down through the tubes, it loses its heat to the airstreams, which passes around the outside of the tubes. To help spread the heated water over the top of all the tubes, a baffle plate is often placed in the upper tank, directly under the inlet hose from the engine.
Radiators, as well as the other parts of the cooling system such as the fan, heater core, radiator cap, water pump, and others, are very important for the well-being of the automobile. Defective radiators should be replaced immediately so that the well-being of the cooling system and the entire engine is not compromised. Replacement Volvo Radiators are readily available from many auto parts stores. However, radiators are too important a part of any automobile that special attention must be taken as to its quality, durability, and reliability.
