Your radiator deserves consideration if you’re looking to have a high performance vehicle. Understanding the basics about radiators and why some people opt for different types will inform your own decisions as a car owner. You’ve probably seen performance radiators advertised on the internet or elsewhere and it’s always a good idea to conduct some basic research about any auto part you are unsure about.

Radiator Basics

Your car’s engine causes a great deal of friction and therefore generates heat as it burns up fuel. That heat has to be removed from the engine or else the pistons will seize up, the cylinders might eventually break and the engine will fail. While the exhaust and lubricating oil both work to minimize this heat, every vehicle needs a good cooling system to keep things running safely and prevent overheating. The radiator holds a combination of the coolant and water, which are released when your car’s thermostat hits a certain temperature. The coolant picks up the heat around the cylinders before returning to the radiator’s small chambers. The radiator cools the fluid back down immediately so that it’s ready to return to the engine when needed.

Tube Redesign

Radiator tubes are the primary cooling source. The heat that the coolant has picked up from the engine dissipates through the walls of these tubes and then through the radiator fins. The earliest radiators were copper-brass and used round tubes. Eventually they were redesigned and manufacturers switched to oval tubes that were a half-inch in size. By the 1940s things changed again because engines were starting to have more power. Over the years companies like GM and Ford redesigned and tweaked their radiator tubes to see what the best solution was. In the 1980s Ford even turned to computer technology for answers. The general problem was that wider tubes were necessary for effective cooling, but they were too bulky. Manufacturers wanted to increase tube width but keep the radiators as lightweight as possible. The solution turned out to be in the material used for the tubes. Switching to aluminum made the tubes 60% lighter than they had been in the original copper-brass radiators.

Now, aluminum radiators are recommended for high performance demands. Not only is it lightweight, aluminum is also very resilient. It resists damage better than many other materials. Radiators have continued to be redesigned and tweaked to further improve performance. Performance radiators are often reinforced with epoxy to strengthen the tubes and prevent failure.

There are a number of ways to get the best performance out of your radiator and to keep your cooling system as efficient as it can be. For example you can use bigger hoses to allow for more coolant to move fluidly through the system. Or you can simply invest in a bigger radiator because this gives the coolant more surface area to cool quickly. With a few simple facts you can ensure that you’re doing everything possible to have an efficient performance radiator and cooling system.