How long can a car engine run at idle until it overheats?

[randay]

wow. Is this really the status quo for car threads here on ATOT?

 

[marvdmartian]

Originally posted by: jtvang125

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: jtvang125

Originally posted by: Armitage
It should run indefinitely.

So the cooling system is efficient enough to keep the engine cool even without air moving to the engine?

Only if there are fans to pull air through the radiator. There absolutely must be airflow through the radiator for a car (in very cold weather, some semi trucks may not need this because their cooling systems are massively over-engineered in order to be able to stand pulling several tons through places like AZ in the summer at 80 mph and 130 degrees, but I'm not sure).

The fans in an engine compartment are not to blow air on the engine, they are to pull air through the radiator.

ZV

Yes, I know the fan is not meant to blow air to the engine but to draw air from the outside and through the radiator to cool the coolant. I just wasn't sure if this was efficient enough to keep the coolant cool for an extended amount of time.

Yep! That fan, though it doesn't look like much, will pull more than enough to keep your cooling system running in normal temp range. "Back in the olden days", when we had mechanically powered fans on the engines (run via belt from the crankshaft pulley.....thus the term "fan belt"), that wasn't always the case, and sometimes you found yourself stuck in traffic, dropping the engine into neutral so you could rev it a little and get that fan running faster, to cool your engine. But those fans nowadays are electrically powered, and thermostatically controlled, so are quite efficient.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

On a new car, indefinately. On some older ones, that still have belt driven fans, you might have a little issue, but not much. I only have to worry about it when it gets above 110 here in AZ. Cooling systems are generally very efficient in vehicals.