Good looks, leather jackets, and slick personality are one way to be cool, but keeping engine temps down under control should always use a little attention too. High temperatures thin down your oil and put your internals at risk. There are several key things in a car that you want to control when it comes to temperature. When you start expanding the output, things start to get warmer and warmer. There are many ways to keep the temperatures down with products such as big radiators, intercoolers, and oil coolers. Every race car has a great cooling system and for good reasons. Is your engine getting the proper cooling? Find out, so not only do you know what to do about it, but also how to do it right!

First things first, before you find out what kind of cooling system you want to run, there's one question you need to ask yourself: "Is your current cooling system working properly?" Sometimes having a well maintained stock cooling system will be enough for a while before you have to upgrade. The first way to check the cooling system is to look around for leaks around the radiator, hoses, thermostat housing, and heater core. If you are not a victim of leaks consider yourself lucky as usually you can find even small leaks here and there. Before you move on, make sure to replace the hoses, seals, or parts that are leaking. Now that you have a sealed system, check the condition of the coolant. The coolant should have a bright green color to it on some cars orange, but usually a nice bright clean color. If yours is brown or has debris and mud floating around, you need to service your cooling system ASAP. You can go to a mechanic to get a radiator flush, but I’ll be nice and tell you how to do it on your own.

Radiator Cooling

To do a cooling system flush you’ll need a water hose, some tools, radiator flush bucket, and of course new coolant. 1.  Place the flush bucket below the bottom radiator fluid drain.  2.  Disconnect the upper and lower radiator hoses from the radiator. Stick the hose with the water running into the upper radiator hose nipple so that the clean water pushes all of the dirt out of the radiator. Keep the hose in there until you see that the water coming out is clean. Next take out your thermostat and put the hose with running water into the hole so that the water flushes out the dirt from the engine and heater core. The next step is optional, but sometimes helps. Take off the hoses to the heater core and flush it with water to get anything that was stuck in there out, since the water has to travel a long way to get to it. Now put it all back together and start filling the radiator with new coolant. When you reach the top, start the car with the heater set to full. As the engine starts to warm up and the thermostat opens the fluid will get sucked up by the water pump into the engine and through all the lines. Keep adding fluid as the system bleeds itself until there are no more bubbles coming out and the system won’t take any more fluid. Close the cap and you have a clean cooling system. There are additives like Red Line  WaterWetter that improve cooling if you’re a fan of additives.

The next step is for the guys that like to push their cars a little harder and go a little faster. An upgraded radiator with electric fans is the way to go. Mishimoto and Koyo radiators are much larger than stock and made of all aluminum. Their large capacities will dispense more heat than the small puny stock radiators and they also look much better in the engine bay. If you have a car in which you are running a front mount intercooler, a larger radiator is something to really consider as the intercooler will block a good amount of air flow that the radiator used to get when the intercooler was not there. With the intercooler in place, the small radiator will have a harder time cooling down the coolant and make the whole system work harder and likely fail.

The Mishimoto cooling fan shroud is a really nice product especially if you have a clutch fan. It has been said that by removing the clutch fan and installing electric fans there was even a small power gain since the crank spins more freely. Electric fans are also more efficient at cooling and take less energy to cool down the radiator. Another reason why these are great for cars with a front mount intercooler is because since there is no more of that "free breeze", these fans will work hard to suck the air through the fins of the radiator and ensure proper cooling. A combination of both big radiator and electric fans will keep you cool through some of the toughest times and is probably going to be as far as you have to go when it comes to cooling your street and track car.

Engine Oil Cooling

Keeping the coolant under control is one thing, but you can also make sure you are on the safe side with the oil. Oil is the blood of your engine and runs through your internals and turbo. Heat can destroy these things which are very expensive, an oil cooler is a great way to make your internals last longer as well as the engine oil to stay healthier for longer. There are kits like Greddy and HKS that have everything you need to install an oil cooler at a great price. There is also a way to install an oil cooler which fits in a tight place that might not get good air flow. Flex-a-Lite is a company that makes an oil cooler with a fan so that you can install your oil cooler in a place that normally does not get much air flow and still have sufficient cooling. Keeping your oil cool has its' pay off so do what is right for your engine and protect your oil from burning up.

Transmission Cooling

Transmission oil coolers are basically the same thing as engine oil coolers. In a transmission watery stuff is not good. Well when oil gets hot it gets more and more watery so if you’re driving hard your oil is turning into a watery like substance. To protect your transmission from this without running heavy weight gear oil to make up for the temperature, the best thing to do is to run a transmission oil cooler. They keep the oil temperatures down and you can also install them in a remote spot just in case there is no room to mount the cooler somewhere in front.

Staying cool is then not only important for your ego, but also very important for your car. One of the best things about upgrading your cooling system is you can do it without many modifications, just to stay on the safe side. Unlike installing 1000cc injectors on a stock Honda Civic. Having a great cooling system not only guarantees you peace of mind, but really makes your car parts last longer. There are many different products to buy at very affordable prices as cooling system parts are not very expensive so make sure to check out the THMotorsports.com section of cooling parts and start protecting your car today.