Chillin' Out With The Trusty Radiator
We will begin this article with a basic physics lesson. Moving parts cause friction; friction causes heat. Excessive heat causes at the very least wear and tear on those moving parts and at the worst causes those parts to fail. What is needed, then, in any mechanical device where friction causes heat is a way to cool those parts and thus ensure their continued use. In the case of the automobile, the part that cools most of the moving parts of the engine is the under-appreciated radiator.
Still not convinced? Try rubbing your hands together quickly for a minute. Now notice how warm the palms of your hands are. Now imagine that your hands are metal pistons and that excessive heat is causing your pistons to wear out and not slide freely in the cylinders. And imagine this happening every single time you turn on your car and drive it; we are talking serious abuse to those moving parts and without cooling them off they will fail.
Luckily for all of us the radiator does the job admirably. By pumping a mixture of water and coolant (anti-freeze) through a series of chambers in the engine block the engine is kept cool enough to function the way it was designed to function. Then, in a rather clever example of engineers knowing so much more than the average guy, the super-heated water/coolant leaves the engine block through a hose and returns to the radiator to start doing its job all over again. But wait, you say, how does the water/coolant cool off enough once it returns to the radiator? A combination of outside air and a fan cool off this fluid so that by the time it is back in the radiator it is capable of beginning again.
As long as that coolant move smoothly through the engine block and the returning hose everything is okay. But if there should be a blockage, or if the flow is sluggish for some reason, and it is an excessively hot day, then the driver will have problems signaled by steam rising from the hood of the vehicle and that signals problems that need to be dealt with immediately.
The good news is that replacement parts, whether they be aftermarket new or used parts, are not that expensive and they are relatively easy to replace yourself. A novice mechanic can go to a You Pull It salvage yard, pull a radiator off a salvage auto, and do the replacement work themselves with little or no prior knowledge and do the whole thing for maybe $100 tops. You might get some grease on you, might skin a knuckle or two, but in the process you will also save several hundred dollars and that is well-worth some lost skin and a few cuss words.
