The internal combustion engine gets very hot. Most motor vehicle engines are liquid cooled. To help cool the engine, the cooling system is an essential part of an engine’s design. The cooling system inside a motor vehicle has a lot of plumbing. The pump sends the cooling fluid into the engine block, where it makes its way through passages in the engine around the cylinders. Then the cooling fluid 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. The thermostat closes when the engine is cold. This is so that the engine heats up quickly to normal operating temperature to minimise wear to engine parts. If the thermostat is open, the fluid goes through the radiator first and then back to the pump.

The radiator is a device that is designed to dissipate the heat that the coolant absorbs from the engine. The radiator is constructed to hold a large amount of water in passages that provide a large surface area that is in contact with the atmosphere. The radiator has a core (which is a large number of water carrying tubes in contact with the atmosphere), the receiving tank, and the dispensing tank. The primary job of the cooling system is to keep the engine from overheating by transferring this heat to the air via the radiator.

We hope that helps answer the question ‘What is What is a Radiator?’!

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