BHPian vishy76 recently shared this with other BHPians.
Coolants and their types
BHPian Vigsom. Thanks to him for the expert inputs!
Coolant. A very simple yet crucial component in the era of modern (comparatively) high compression ratio engines. It’s a fluid that is second only to engine oil in an internal combustion engine, yet is ignored most of the times.
In the olden days, the word “coolant” simply implied “water”. Water with its high specific heat capacity (which basically means it needs a lot of heat in comparison to other liquids in order to raise its temperature by a specific amount) was perfect for car radiators in theory. The high specific heat capacity ensured it could transfer a large amount of heat easily from the engine block to the radiator. There were two downsides or shortcoming however: