The air cooling engine system aims at heat dissipation. This technology goes far back to when the engines didn’t need a radiator nor coolant as part of the engine cooling system components.
Air cooled engines describes those that do not have water jackets in the engine block. However water cooled engines have liquids that circulate within their cooling systems.
Smaller engines use air cooling. Motorcycles and quad bikes are the common ones that use air cooling. The air cooling engine has a small capacity in comparison to a water cooling engine.
Engines that have a water cooling system have a different design in comparison to engines that have air cooling systems. In fact, some of the modern engines are partitioned to use both water and air cooling systems through a heat exchanger.
Whereby, the heat these engines produce is passes out through a heat exchanger known as the radiator. The coolant liquid takes up heat from the engine and passes it on to the air that passes over the radiator.
Whenever the internal combustion engine starts, the process of burning fuel and air mixture begins. Therefore, a lot of heat comes from the combustion process and movement of engine parts like the piston.
Internal combustion engines have a combustion chamber where the mixture of air and fuel burns after ignition. Most of the heat within this engine escapes through the exhaust manifold.
Modern vehicles use liquid cooling technology for their engine’s thermal management. Further, they are faster, heavier, bigger and more fuel efficient. Therefore, they demand a better cooling system to handle the heat they produce.
Difference between air and water cooling engine.
The engine cooling technology utilizes the concept of enlarging the surface area to allow for more heat dissipation.
Air cooling engine system.
As the name suggests, this engine uses air to eliminate heat. In fact, its design facilitates airflow over specific car engine parts in order to optimize heat dissipation.
This prevents the possibility of an overheated engine. Proper airflow is a priority within this engine. Therefore, cooling fins around the engine cylinders draw the heat away. However, a large percentage of the heat leaves the engine through the exhaust manifold.
The movement of the automobile directs air over the fin blade to facilitate more heat dissipation. Older vehicle models were using this type of engine cooling system.
Further, the air cooling engine system may incorporate two types of cooling fins. Either the electric fan blade or a belt driven fan blade.
Apart from using cooling fins, the air cooling system also uses the different types of engine oil for heat dissipation. Although, the oil removes about 8% only of the heat that comes from the engine block.
How air cooling engine system works.
The main concept behind this engine cooling system is the movement of air over engine parts that produce heat. Additionally, the efficiency of this cooling mechanism depends on a number of things. For example,
- The surface area of the fan blade.
- The rate of air flow.
- Temperature difference between the air and the hot engine block.
Further, the cooling fins are installed on the cylinders head. Therefore, this engine doesn’t occupy a large space. The surrounding air of the cooling fins has to be cold at all times in order to facilitate heat dissipation.
Air cooling engine system design.
Firstly, the engine has cooling fins that extend from the engine. Cool air blows over the cooling fins to carry away the heat that comes from the cylinders to the cooling fins. This cool air comes from the forward motion.
Secondly, air cooling engine system designs have ducts that direct improve airflow and ensure unrestricted airflow over the fan blades. These ducts direct the air flow to the areas of the engine that produce heat to optimize airflow pressure.
Lastly, this design has horizontally opposed cylinders. Further, these opposed cylinders are much more far from each other in comparison to those found in the water cooled engines.
Advantages of air cooling engine systems.
- There is no coolant leakage issues in this engine system.
- Secondly, these engines do not have a heavy weight.
- Thirdly, air cooling engine systems have better fuel efficiency in comparison to the water cooling engine systems.
- Air cooling engine systems are less expensive.
Disadvantages of air cooling engine systems.
- Firstly, they tend to overheat more than the water cooling engine systems.
- Secondly, it is slightly difficult for them to maintain consistent engine operating temperatures.
- Thirdly, these engines produce louder noises in comparison to water cooling engines.
Water cooling engine system.
The engine design involves a much more solid engine block. However there are internal passages in the engine block and the cylinders. Most modern engines have a water pump that connects to a timing belt or it is electric.
The water pump connects to the passages within the engine block. Coolant pumps through the valve system into the passages to collect heat from the engine block.
Afterwards, the coolant runs through the radiator where its surface area increases due to the nature of the radiator pipes. The purpose of this is to allow heat dissipation by the air that runs over the radiator fins. Afterwards, when it is cool, the coolant is goes back into the engine block.
A thermostat controls the movement of coolant between the engine block and the radiator. Whereby once the coolant absorbs heat from the engine, the thermostat senses the increase in temperatures.
Afterwards, the thermostat allows the coolant to move into the radiator for cooling purposes. Heat from the coolant transfers to the radiator fins and its dissipated out to the surrounding.
Hybrid water cooling engine system.
These engine cooling systems use both the water and air cooling engine system designs. Therefore, this helps to keep the engine cool and to reduce the weight that comes from a purely water cooling engine system setup. Further, the hybrid water cooling system has smaller radiators to make room for the air cooling system setup.