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what are pros and cons of air cooled and water cooled engines ?

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Old 28-12-2009, 01:39 PM
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herbie
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Default what are pros and cons of air cooled and water cooled engines ?

just wondering as the old porsches was air cooled so they could not of been bad .
Old 28-12-2009, 03:52 PM
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tabetha
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With air cooled a major pro has to be less components, vastly easier to manufacture cheaply and easily, easier to work on, but larger due to needing surface area.
The major downside to air cooled is noise, that is why porsche had no option but to go water cooled, as the water jacket kills a lot of the noise of the engine, water cooled can maintain temps more accurately to the desired level.
Just my thoughts.
tabetha
Old 28-12-2009, 03:54 PM
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zetec-Sam
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harder to control temps in an aircooled, more likely to overheat in traffic etc. Also, the fins on aircooled engines vibrate, alot, which makes them very noisy.
Old 28-12-2009, 03:55 PM
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AlexF
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as above - you also have an emissions problem with air cooled engines as you can not run the engine at the correct temp all the time.

Alex
Old 28-12-2009, 10:46 PM
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foreigneRS
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temperature distribution
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