Automotive Blog

It’s no secret that there’s a radiator under your hood and most people understand that they need to make sure that there’s always enough water and coolant in their rad. What a lot of folks don’t understand, is how a radiator actually helps a car keep cool?

How a Rad Works

Although the oil you put in your car does contribute to the smooth running of your engine, it is not enough to handle the boiling temperatures produced by your vehicle when it’s running. Your car creates a lot of heat, both from the friction of moving parts and by burning gas. The radiator is what keeps your car from overheating, by removing the excess heat generated by your engine and helping it to run at a steady, safe temperature of approximately 195 to 220 degrees Fahrenheit (91 to 104C).

Your rad contains a mixture of water and anti-freeze, which is pumped through chambers around your engine block, head and running parts. This coolant mix is cycled around to a receiving tank to cool down before being pushed through your vehicle’s system again. Naturally, the sequence happens quickly and in a steady stream.

While all of this heat to water transference is happening, the rad is also dissipating heat through its fins, thereby absorbing the excess heat and drawing it away to prevent engine overheat and damage.

To make sure that your coolant water is doing its job, your vehicle has sensors that check the temperature of the water as it leaves your radiator for its trip around your engine parts. Acceptable temps vary, but your vehicle will let you know if things are heating up.

Prevent Radiator Issues

Maintaining your radiator is of prime importance. If it develops a leak or clog, or a hose breaks, you’ll soon find yourself with worse problems. Your vehicle can reach dangerously high temperatures within just a few minutes. That can mean the seizure of your engine, broken pistons or even a fire. You could even find yourself stranded at the side of the road.

You can help your car’s engine and working parts to stay cool by having your rad and hoses checked regularly to make sure nothing is cracked and that you’re not leaking coolant.

For Port Chester and area do-it-yourselfer’s, radiators and other automotive parts can be ordered online, right from Mac Auto Parts.

Cars are dear to everyone and therefore when on one hand you take care of your babies, your puppies, and your garden, on the other hand you take care of your car and like all the above cases, one is most likely to have a fair knowledge of your car spare parts too.

For example, ever noticed those speaking lips or the mouth in Walt Disney’s very admired- ‘CARS’. No wonders if you are very fond of your car and ever heard our car grills make some lip movement. Jokes apart; Technically a grille or grill (French word from Latin craticula, small grill) is an opening of several slits side by side in a wall or metal sheet or other barrier, usually to let air or water enter and/or leave but keep larger objects including people and animals in or out. Of lately the heavy and very stylish Car grills have become the face of the cars and the face of the companies. People recognize cars and the manufacturers through them. For instance remember the rings on the front side of audi or the sign on the face of Mercedes? They add to the overall appearance and looks of a car and so, they do matter

Grills are of several types depending on:

* -mounting location on the car body: Radiator, Bumper skirts (front and rear), Fender (brakes ventilation duct covers), Hood scoop (allow intercooler air flow), Roof or trunk (rear engine vehicles)
* -Style :: OEM factory-style, Custom style
* Fastening method: Bolt-on grille (overlay mounting), Grille insert
* Material types: Chevrolet Vega plastic “egg-crate”, ABS plastic, Billet (made from Aluminum), Mesh(used in fast cars, made of stainless steel woven mesh, Electro polished

Talking about auto ac condensers , wondering what it does? Its task is to keep the refrigerant in the system cool enough. It does this by cooling the refrigerant coming from the compressor before letting it circulate the system to take away the heat away from the interior of your vehicle. A malfunctioning AC condenser would greatly hamper the ability of the air conditioning unit to do what it is supposed to do and that is to keep the interior of any vehicle comfortably cool. Therefore, if you see some deterioration upon inspection, it is about time that you replace it.

A car AC condenser can be easily found under the hood of a car nestled in front of the radiator. Confused which is which? The automotive radiator is bigger than the condenser and is placed just under the grill, to take advantage of the air flowing through the area, thus greatly helping cool the refrigerant. A Radiator is a type of heat exchanger designed to transfer heat from the hot coolant that flows through it to the air blown through it by the fan. Most modern cars use aluminum radiators. The coolant flows from the inlet to the outlet through many tubes mounted in a parallel arrangement. The fins conduct the heat from the tubes and transfer it to the air flowing through the radiator. The tubes sometimes have a type of fin inserted into them called a turbulator, which increases the turbulence of the fluid flowing through the tubes. By creating turbulence inside the tube, all of the fluid mixes together, keeping the temperature of the fluid touching the tubes up so that more heat can be extracted, and all of the fluid inside the tube is used effectively.

Long ago, car owners would just put straight water into the radiator of their cars. Water worked alright, but there was one problem. Well, actually two. The temperatures at which water froze and boiled were simply to close together. Driving on a hot summer day or trying to start you car on a cold winter morning could result in a host of problems. To overcome this, coolant was developed.

Coolant for the cooling system in your car comes under many brand names. Notwithstanding this, every product has one of two chemicals in it. The vast majority are comprised of 95 percent ethylene glycol. When you mix these products in a 50/50 mix with water in your car, you are effectively reducing the chance of a freeze or boil over. The ethylene glycol prevents the water from boiling or freezing at any temperature you are likely to run into. If you live in Siberia, however, all bets are off on the freezing problem!

There is one problem with ethylene glycol. It is very toxic. The Environmental Protection Agency has done studies and put out big warnings on the chemical. Why? When ingested, it causes depression, respiratory failure, heart attacks, kidney damage and brain damage. Other than that, it is fine!

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