The cooling system in any internal combustion engine is meant to extract the excess heat from the engine while the engine is running, the coolant is the medium through which the heat is extracted. Unfortunately, many car owners, out of ignorance or economic factor, make use of water instead of coolant.
Coolant contains certain additives which is the reason why it is preferred to using coolant instead of ordinary water. The additives are;
- Anti rust property
- Anti freeze property
- Anti evaporative property
The anti rust property prevent the metal surfaces from building up rust, thereby preserving the internal parts of the engine. The anti-evaporative property comes to play in the sense that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. The engine needs to operate at certain optimum temperature for it to manage fuel efficiently. These optimum temperatures are close to, or most times exceed the boiling point of water. At this point, ordinary water begins to evaporate and that accounts for the water level going down in the radiator without visible leak.
The anti-freeze property only applies to region with extremely cold weather, and this property is basically to prevent the coolant freezing up within the coolant channels or passage. Below is a visual example of the result you get when you use ordinary water in your cooling system instead of coolant.
