Here's my take on air cooled engines from my few years of flying small planes (air cooled engines) after I got my pilot's license. The advantage of air cooled engines is, yes, their simplicity which is important as far as weight and reliability are concerned - no coolant to carry around and leak out and no pumps to fail. The downside is shock cooling and cabin heat. When you pull the throttle to descend, the engine starts putting out much less heat while the air still flows through the cooling fins. The result is rapid shock cooling of the engine which results in stresses and increased wear. The other disadvantage is cabin heat. Putting aside the uncomfortable fact that the heat output is variable with the engine output, there is the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning given that there is only a thin wall of steel between the cabin air and the exhaust. Unfortunately, numerous crashes can be traced to the soporific effects of CO.
For cars, liquid cooling offers much better heating, consistent engine temperatures resulting in (theoretically) longer engine life, and quiter running as the water jacket deadens some of the sound.
-Dave W
--- In diesel_mercedes@yahoogroups.com, "Nate" <vwnate1@...> wrote:
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>
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> Max Asked :
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> But why air cooled? Just wondering , seems liquid would be a better choice?
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> Max
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> My poor son goes crazy whenever this question comes up because of my standard answer :
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> Air cooling is vastly superior because you cannot possibly overheat an air cooled engine due to the limitless availability of free coolant , anywhere you go......
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> Of course , thie presupposes you keep said engine in a proper state of both tune and maintenance .
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> -Nate
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