Keeping your engine's cool

摘要

Most narrowboats on English canals have some form of keel cooling, as do some boats that use estuaries and ports where fine silt and mud can block more normal seagoing heat-exchanger cooling systems. 'Keel coolers' or 'skin tanks' are usually just a double skin of steel boxed onto the side of the hull. That might sound simple, but the actual design is very important due to the amount of heat that needs to be dissipated. Generally, a typical modern diesel engine is roughly 30 percent efficient which means that fuel, when combusted in the engine, only uses 30 percent of the heat for power and the rest is not utilised; a second 30 percent goes through the exhaust, 30 percent goes into the coolant and the final ten percent is radiated from the engine itself.