Air Cooled Engines vs. Liquid Cooled Engines

The cooling fluid and one needs a radiator to transfer heat from cooling fluid to air.

What's the difference between air and water?

I'm going to assume that you're a youngster or someone older who needs to get out more . . .

Air-cooled engines rely on thin fin radiators encircling the cylinder of a piston-crank engine, and forced air flow over such cooling fins increases efficiency. Even though some cooling will occur without forced air, the amount of heat that can be dissipated is a function of fin surface area, temperature difference between engine and surrounding air, etc. The more heat dissipated, the lower the temperature of the engine.

Water-cooled engines work much the same way, but water is used as the heat transfer medium, which is pumped through a radiator with or without forced air to cool the radiator. Of course, in an automobile, fans are used to force air over the cooling fins of the radiator.

Wikipedia to the rescue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_cooling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-cooled_engine

Air cooled engines require no radiator or coolant (fluid). They use air flow over the engine which typically has fins on it to increase the surface area so that larger amounts of heat can be conducted out if the engine internals. Liquid cooling uses internal passage ways to allow fluid to circulate around critical parts to absorb the heat and then carry it away to a radiator where it can be released to the air that flows through it.

Not on point,but my grandmother bought anti-freeze for my dads VW for x-mas in 1958. It was one of the first VW's in Oklahoma