MENG422 Automotive Engines

ENGINE COOLING SYSTEM

ASSOC.PROF.DR. HASAN HACISEVKI

 What is Cooling System?
 The primary job of the cooling system is to keep
the engine from overheating by transferring this
heat to the air. The engine in our car runs best
at a fairly high temperature. When the engine is
cold, components wear out faster, and the
engine is less efficient, may cause dilution of
fuel and emits more pollution. So another
important job of the cooling system is to allow
the engine to heat up as quickly as possible, and
then to keep the engine at a constant
temperature.
Cooling System Components
 The Basics
 Inside your car's engine, fuel is constantly
burning. A lot of the heat from this combustion
goes right out the exhaust system, but some of it
soaks into the engine, heating it up. The engine
runs best when its coolant is about 93 degrees
Celsius. At this temperature:
 The combustion chamber is hot enough to
completely vaporize the fuel, providing better
combustion and reducing emissions.
 The oil used to lubricate the engine has a lower
viscosity, so the engine parts move more freely
and the engine wastes less power moving its
own components around.
 Metal parts wear less.
There are two types of cooling systems
found on engines: liquid-cooled and air-
cooled.

 1. Liquid Cooling
 2. Air Cooling
 Liquid Cooling: The cooling system on liquid-
cooled engines circulates the fluid through pipes
and passageways in the engine. As this liquid
passes through the hot engine it absorbs heat,
cooling the engine. After the fluid leaves the
engine, it passes through a heat exchanger, or
radiator, which transfers the heat from the fluid
to the air blowing air through the exchanger.

 Air Cooling: Air cooling is a method of

dissipating heat. It works by making the object to
be cooled have a larger surface area or have an
increased flow of air over its surface, or both. An
example of the former is to add fins to the
surface of the object, either by making them
integral or by attaching them tightly to the
object's surface
 FLUID
 Cars operate in a wide variety of temperatures,
from well below freezing to well over 90 OC. So
whatever fluid is used to cool the engine has to
have a very low freezing point, a high boiling
point, and it has to have the capacity to hold a
lot of heat.
 Water is one of the most effective fluid for
holding heat. The fluid that most cars use is a
mixture of water and ethylene glycol ( C2H6O2 ),
also known as antifreeze. By adding ethylene
glycol to water, the boiling and freezing points
are improved significantly.
Anti Freeze Mixing Ratios
Operation Principle of COOLING SYSTEM
 WATER JACKETS
 Engine Block: The engine
block and cylinder head are
manufactured in one piece
with precast "Water
Jackets", or passages for
coolant. These passages
let the coolant circulate
around the "hot spots"
(valve seats and guides,
cylinder walls, combustion
chamber, etc.) in order to
cool them off.
 The Radiator
 A radiator is a type of heat exchanger. It is
designed to transfer heat from the hot coolant
that flows through it to the air blown through it by
the fan.The radiator core is usually made of
flattened aluminum or copper tubes with metal
strips that zigzag between the tubes. These fins
transfer the heat in the tubes into the air stream
to be carried away from the vehicle. On each
end of the radiator core is a tank, usually made
of plastic that covers the ends of the radiator,
and inside the tank is a transmission cooler. The
transmission cooler is like a radiator within a
radiator, except instead of exchanging heat with
the air, the oil exchanges heat with the coolant
in the radiator.
 The two basic designs of
radiators include:
 Down-flow radiators. This
design was used mostly in older
vehicles, where the coolant
entered the radiator at the top
and flowed downward, exiting
the radiator at the bottom.
 Cross-flow radiators. Most
radiators use a cross-flow
design, where the coolant flows
from one side of the radiator to
the opposite side.
 Radiator Cap ,Pressure Relief Valve
 The radiator cap has two functions. First, it is a "lid" for
your radiator. Second, it is designed to hold the coolant
inside the cooling system at a pre-determined amount of
pressure.
 If your cooling system is under too much pressure, it can
"blow its top"! To prevent this, the radiator cap has a
pressure relief valve. The radiator pressure cap is a
simple device that will maintain pressure in the cooling
system up to a certain point. If the pressure builds up
higher than the set pressure point, there is a spring
loaded valve, calibrated to the correct Pounds per
Square Inch (psi), to release the pressure.
 Engine cooling systems are pressurized to
raise the boiling temperature of the
coolant.
 The boiling temperature will increase by
approximately 3°F (1.6°C) for each pound
of increase in pressure.
 At sea level, water will boil at 212°F
(100°C). With a 15 PSI (100 kPa) pressure
cap, water will boil at 257°F (125°C),
which is a maximum operating
temperature for an engine.
A vacuum valve is part of the pressure cap and is
used to allow coolant to flow back into the radiator
when the coolant cools down and contracts.

The pressure valve maintains the system pressure and allows excess
pressure to vent. The vacuum valve allows coolant to return to the system
from the recovery tank.
 Reserve Tank
 When the cooling system pressure reaches the point
where the cap needs to release this excess pressure, a
small amount of coolant is bled off. If it does release
pressure under these conditions, there is a system in
place to capture the released coolant and store it in a
plastic tank that is usually not pressurized. Since there
is now less coolant in the system, as the engine cools
down a partial vacuum is formed. The radiator cap on
these closed systems has a secondary valve to allow the
vacuum in the cooling system to draw the coolant back
into the radiator from the reserve tank. There are usually
markings on the side of the plastic tank marked Full-
Cold, and Full Hot.
 The Mechanical Radiator Fan
 The standard engine cooling (radiator fan) on
many vehicles is of the mechanical type,
meaning that it is belt-driven. It is usually
mounted on the water pump shaft, and is turned
by the same belt that drives the water pump and
the alternator, although it can be mounted as an
independent unit. Some manufacturera are
using viscous fan systems where they become
active when the engine becomes hot, it
automatically engages the mechanism and fan
starts to rotate and circulate air through the
radiator.
Mechanical Fan
 The Electric Fan
 The electric fans are controlled by the vehicle's
computer. Many cars have one electric fan for
normal cooling and a separate one just for when
the air conditioner is on. It helps to continue to
cool the engine after it's turned off.
 A temperature sensor monitors engine
temperature and sends this information to the
computer. The computer determines if the fan
should be turned on and actuates the fan relay if
additional air flow through the radiator is
necessary. Front-wheel drive cars have electric
fans because the engine is usually mounted
transversely, meaning the output of the engine
points toward the side of the car.
Electric Fan and Sending unit
 Thermostat
 Any liquid-cooled car engine has a small device called the
thermostat that sits between the engine and the radiator.
Its job is to block the flow of coolant to the radiator until the
engine has warmed up. When the engine is cold, no
coolant flows through the engine. Once the engine reaches
predetermined operating temperature (generally about 200
degrees F, 95 degrees C), the thermostat opens. By letting
the engine warm up as quickly as possible, the thermostat
reduces engine wear, deposits and emissions.
 Water Pump
 A water pump is a
simple centrifugal
pump that will keep
the coolant moving
as long as the engine
is running. It is
usually mounted on
the front of the
engine and driven by
a belt connected to
the crankshaft of the
engine.
 The pump sucks fluid from radiator and sends
the fluid into the engine block, where it makes
its way through passages in the engine around
the cylinders. These passages are called water
jackets. Then it returns through the cylinder
head of the engine. The thermostat is located
where the fluid leaves the engine. The plumbing
around the thermostat sends the fluid back to
the pump directly if the thermostat is closed. If it
is open, the fluid goes through the radiator first
and then back to the pump.
 Piping
Pipes: Pipes that are used on cooling systems of IC
engines are reinforced rubber tubes ( Pipes ) and metal
pipes. Some of the pipes can be metal on the engine and
cylinder head connections. End connections must be
secured with special clips connections to maintain a
leakage free connection.
 Heater Core

 The heater core draws heat off the engine, so if your car
is running a little hot, turning the heat on can help reduce
heat in the engine until you can get to a mechanic. It is
mounted under the dash board. The hot coolant is also
used to provide heat to the interior of the vehicle when
needed. This is a simple and straight forward system
that includes a heater core, which looks like a small
version of a radiator, connected to the cooling system
with a pair of rubber hoses. One hose brings hot coolant
from the water pump to the heater core and the other
hose returns the coolant to the top of the engine. There
is usually a heater control valve in one of the hoses to
block the flow of coolant into the heater core when
maximum air conditioning is called for.
 SENSORS

 Control Modules
 Engine Control Module (ECM) controls engine functions
and stores diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) for engine
components
 NTC
Thermistors are regularly used in automotive
applications. For example they monitor things like
coolant temperature and/or oil temperature inside the
engine and provide data to the ECU and indirectly the
dashboard. Negative temperature coefficient (NTC) is a
term used to describe a thermistor (temperature sensor)
in which the resistance decreases as the temperature
increases. The thermistors used on fuel injection
systems are nearly all NTCs.
NTC type sensor
 Temperature Sensors
Coolant and air temperature sensors measure engine
coolant temperature, used to by the computer in timing
and fuel calculations, and on some cars the coolant
sensor is also used by the computer to turn on or off the
radiator fan. Some vehicles have a separate sensor to
control the radiator fan. Failure of either sensor can
cause rough running, rough idle, poor milage.
 Fan switch
It detect the temperature of radiator and depends on it,
sends signal to ECU and Ecu starts the fan.
 Heat Sensitive Switch
When its becoming hot which is between 68-52 C, at 68
C two b metal connects the fan circuit and fan start to
run. In traffic, engine is getting hot slowly thats why we
are using this system.
 Electric Fan control Thermocontact
It is used for detecting the temperature of elecric fan.
Fan Sensor
The ECM monitors coolant temperature, vehicle
speed, and air conditioning status to determine if cooling
fan operation is required. When the ECM determines a
need for cooling fan operation, it sends a signal to the
IRCM to run the fan at the required speed.
When viscosity changed, this changing causes to on or
off the fan
Electric Gauge
This gauge gives us the temperaute of
engine and warns the driver if the temperature of
engine goes too high.It is similar with electric
fuel gauge and the electric oil gauge. The
instrument panel gauge may be either a
magnetic or thermal gauge.
The instrument panel unit has two coils. The
right coil grounds through the engine sending
unit. It contains a thermistor which loses
resistance as it hets up. As the sending unit
loses resistance, it passes more current. The
current flows through the right coil,increasing
magnetism. This pulls the armature and pointer
to the right to indicate the increased coolant
temperature.
 Air Cooling System
 In all combustion engines, a great
percentage of the heat generated (around
44%) escapes through the exhaust, not
through either a liquid cooling system nor
through the metal fins of an air-cooled
engine (12%). About 8% of the heat
energy finds its way into the oil, which
although primarily meant for lubrication,
also plays a role in heat dissipation via a
cooler.
Air may be force fed
with the use of a fan
and shroud to
achieve efficient
cooling with high
volumes of air or
simply by natural air
flow with well
designed and angled
fins.