Wagner Lipnharski wrote: <> > I really never understood why the radiator fan just take the heat from > the cooling liquid and blow it back over the engine... ... probably > because the external air is cool, the heat from the cooling liquid heat > the air, but not so much as the external engine temperature, so that hot > air helps to refrigerate in someway the engine... is that right? > > Wagner. The large radiator area is required because the internal combustion engine is very inefficient, wasting most fuel energy as unused hot air, also the radiator heated air will not lose heat to a hotter body such as that of the engine. Recall that some air cooled engines simply use heatsink shaped heads. -- Steam engines may be out of fashion, but when you consider that an internal combustion engine would require recovery of waste heat by transfer (heat exchange) just before top dead centre then fashion becomes rather redundant, USE STRATIFIED HEAT EXCHANGERS ! and external combustion. You heard it first from: Graham Daniel, managing director of Electronic Product Enhancements. Phone NZ 04 387 4347, Fax NZ 04 3874348, Cellular NZ 021 954 196.