When an automobile engine overheats and the radiator water begins to boil, the car can still be driven some?
Ashley asked:
When an automobile engine overheats and the radiator water begins to boil, the car can still be driven some distance before catastrophic engine damage occurs. Why? What determines the onset of really disastrous overheating?
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When an automobile engine overheats and the radiator water begins to boil, the car can still be driven some distance before catastrophic engine damage occurs. Why? What determines the onset of really disastrous overheating?
March 17th, 2010 at 12:21 am
It can but you must remove the radiator cap to release the pressure and even after that you can’t do much more than idle speed. Run the heater as well to dump some of the heat out the heater core Parabola750
March 20th, 2010 at 7:09 am
Most of the engine parts have tolerances that allow for expansion caused by heat. When the temperature of the engine heats beyond a certain point, these tolerances are no longer enough to compensate and you can start to get metal on metal wear, or worse, some parts can buckle and crack. What temperature that occurs at is a crap shoot. The engineers always leave some extra room in the tolerances as a fudge factor or safety factor. When you exceed that safety factor, the engine will be damaged. George