Posted by Gordon Maney on Monday, August 18, 2003 at 6:51AM :
In Reply to: Re: What causes a "heat sink" type of condition? posted by Willy-N on Monday, August 18, 2003 at 2:56AM :
As Mark says, the engine was producing heat up to the moment you shut it off. When you did shut it off, you cut off the escape route for that heat, via the cooling system. Coolant temperature rises. Sometimes very dramatically.
It applies to air cooled engines, too. The worst victim of this is your lawn mower. You should always let it idle to cool before shutting off.
Unfortunately, most people don't like mowing their lawn, so the abuse the mower trying to get done soon, and then shut it off right away. The engine temperature goes through the ceiling, and contributes to extreme wear of internal parts.
Plus, they don't spend any time making sure the cooling fins are clean.... it goes on.
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