Air Cooled Vs Liquid Cooled Motorcycle Engines
What is Liquid Cooled Motorcycle Engines?
Many bikers use liquid cooled engine but they don't know why use liquid to cool the engine even many garages don't have any knowledge how to change coolant and when. Most of 150 to 390cc bike like R15, R3, Pulsar 220,200,400, CBR 150,250 when goes showroom for servicing mechanic change engine oil but not change coolant because they don't know about coolant
As the name dictates, liquid cooled motorcycle engines have their heads without fins and surrounded by the liquid cooling system. The liquid cooling system uses a coolant (the green liquid that you see) to keep the temperature of the engine at an optimum level. The coolant flows through the channels and absorbs the heat from the engine and comes to the radiator to lose that heat. Sometimes one can even hear a fan located in the reservoir whirring with all its might. That happens when the air inflow of the radiator is not optimum, so the fan brings in the air forcefully to dissipate the excess heat.
Liquid cooled engines have a constant working temperature and are designed with such purpose. The reason why if the liquid cooling mechanism fails, it can even lead to piston seizure due to excess expansion and can also damage the engine.
Change coolant time: Every 3000 thousand kilometers after change coolant. because coolant is very important for the liquid cooled engine.
What is Air cooled Motorcycle Engines?
It is no rocket science; the engine of the motorcycle is cooled naturally by the outside atmospheric air. This is the reason why you will find the engine heads of the air cooled motorcycles have fins on them. The basic reason behind this is to increase the surface area of the engine in contact with air for quicker heat exchange.
The basic thing about air cooled engines is that, they have a high heat tolerance, which means the parts of the engines are rated to perform over a higher temperature range. This is very important in extreme conditions where the winters are really cold and the summers are extremely hot. The parts of the engine are made in a way so as to accommodate the expansion of the metal in the hottest of climates.
Many bikers use liquid cooled engine but they don't know why use liquid to cool the engine even many garages don't have any knowledge how to change coolant and when. Most of 150 to 390cc bike like R15, R3, Pulsar 220,200,400, CBR 150,250 when goes showroom for servicing mechanic change engine oil but not change coolant because they don't know about coolant
Liquid cooled engines have a constant working temperature and are designed with such purpose. The reason why if the liquid cooling mechanism fails, it can even lead to piston seizure due to excess expansion and can also damage the engine.
Change coolant time: Every 3000 thousand kilometers after change coolant. because coolant is very important for the liquid cooled engine.
What is Air cooled Motorcycle Engines?
It is no rocket science; the engine of the motorcycle is cooled naturally by the outside atmospheric air. This is the reason why you will find the engine heads of the air cooled motorcycles have fins on them. The basic reason behind this is to increase the surface area of the engine in contact with air for quicker heat exchange.
The basic thing about air cooled engines is that, they have a high heat tolerance, which means the parts of the engines are rated to perform over a higher temperature range. This is very important in extreme conditions where the winters are really cold and the summers are extremely hot. The parts of the engine are made in a way so as to accommodate the expansion of the metal in the hottest of climates.
Which is the best and why?
As for now there are no favorites; they are both good and bad in their own rights. Just remember a single thing, air cooled engines are ones which work on lower RPMs, hence expect these bikes to give a higher Fuel Economy figure. Liquid cooling bikes have a higher compression ratio and work at higher RPMs, hence they give a lower fuel economy, but the cooling mechanism has nothing to do with that.
Unless you have higher capacity engine which is also high revving in nature, there is no compulsion whatsoever for a liquid cooling system. The simple question here comes is, are you willing to spend-on the extra on the liquid cooling system’s maintenance? If the answer is yes, then both the options of liquid and air cooling are open to you; even oil cooling for that matter. But in case you are not willing to spend that extra, then simply go for a bike with air cooling mechanism. That way the maintenance will be less and also there would be less worries about coolant reservoir damage and coolant leakage issues.
Unless you have higher capacity engine which is also high revving in nature, there is no compulsion whatsoever for a liquid cooling system. The simple question here comes is, are you willing to spend-on the extra on the liquid cooling system’s maintenance? If the answer is yes, then both the options of liquid and air cooling are open to you; even oil cooling for that matter. But in case you are not willing to spend that extra, then simply go for a bike with air cooling mechanism. That way the maintenance will be less and also there would be less worries about coolant reservoir damage and coolant leakage issues.
Very good article
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