Coolant Cooling Magic

Lovert Mafukure

Temperatures soared in the past few days with the weather experts calling it a heat wave. I felt the heat and I’m sure most of us did.

A lot of people started looking at fixing their air conditioners that have not been working as far back as they can remember. While most of us can make a plan for the heat to keep ourselves cool and hydrated . . . our precious metal vehicular objects don’t so much think for themselves when they are thirsty or when they need more than just water, they just pant and die of heat exhaustion. That brings us to our focal point this week — one of our readers wants to know why really we should use coolant when we grew up putting water in those 504s and the 323s.

The engine cooling system is one of the most important components that cannot be ignored. By design, the internal combustion engine creates a lot of heat in its operation such that it needs cooling every so often. An engine takes about 10 or so minutes to warm up to operating temperature, that is if some components like thermostats have not been removed. That means within an hour of driving without a working cooling system the engine can reach a point of mechanical breakdown caused by excessive heat.

Engine coolant is used in the cooling system because it works better at heat dissipation than natural water. A lot of people use water because it’s what they naturally know to go into the radiator but the use of coolant is encouraged for a host of reasons. The use of water instead of coolant in the cooling system is permissible in an emergency but not recommended for use over long periods of time for some simple reasons which we will look at.

Water in its natural form is not immune to forces of nature like boiling and freezing. In very cold areas, water can freeze in the radiator . . . in very hot areas water easily boils. Our scientists then figured out they could come up with “coolant” that has a higher boiling point than water and a lower freezing point . . . genius right? What that means then is your car does not work as hard to keep your engine cool. Since coolant has a higher boiling point than water it has higher cooling power than pure water. People that use their cars excessively either on highways or perhaps racing will notice the difference.

There are different types of coolant that you will find on the market. The other time I went shopping for coolant I found some cream soda looking coolant with no details about the manufacturer and I quickly walked away. What came to mind was, what if someone is just dying water green and making a business out of cream soda? I wondered if someone could be making a quick buck? I mean I would want to be proud of my product and put all my details there. All the same, the different kinds of coolant you find on the market have different instructions. Some are already premixed and some are not. In most cases if they are not premixed you need a 50/50 mixture of coolant and water. Again not tap water but distilled water.

Water again in its natural form, reacts with metallic objects and causes rust. Rust builds up and scaling may and will cause blockages in the cooling system. Blockages in the cooling system usually have catastrophic consequences. Prolonged use of water will result in scaling of the cooling system, which will result in flow restrictions. Cylinder heads, gaskets, blocks and in some extreme cases, your pistons and con-rods suffer due to overheating. Prevention is always better than cure and if you have been using water only, a stitch in time saves nine, it is never too late to do the correct thing.

Coolant is specially formulated to keep the scaling and corrosion away. You will notice that a car that has always had coolant all its life will have clear and clean radiators and pipes with no sign of scaling or corrosion. You will enjoy good years of driving pleasure with such an engine. The same thing that happens to humans with blood clots is what happens when scaling starts in the cooling system.

When dealing with the radiator always remember that the coolant is always under pressure and extremely hot. You can get serious burns if you are too quick to remove the radiator cap — it’s advisable to wait for the engine to cool down before opening the radiator. Always make sure you put the right fluid in the right reservoir. Coolant comes in different colours, red, blue, green, yellow.