Dog days of Johnsburg summer require coolant and oil for your car to keep its composure

In the dog days of a Johnsburg summer, it’s nice that there’s no snow to shovel, that there are pools where you can swim, there are festivals where you can stroll while enjoying the event and the warm weather. But, for your car, summer comes with a cost.

That summer heat you enjoy (when the thermometer in Johnsburg doesn’t get too high) is a challenge for your car’s engine (and on those days when the thermometer really climbs, it’s a downright risk).

Engines get hot when they run. That’s true in the middle of winter. But it’s a whole lot more true in summer. Most car engines operate between 195 and 220 degrees. That’s the lower end of the baking scale in your oven. But what about on extremely hot days?

To keep your engine operating in the safe zone – that range of temperature where you won’t damage the engine – you need a proper flow of coolant running through the engine and you need a sufficient supply of good quality engine oil.

The coolant runs through the engine and carries away much of the heat. But that’s not enough. Your engine also requires engine oil.

The engine oil flows through passages in the engine block, heads, crackshaft, camshaft and other parts to ensure there is lubrication between moving parts.

If you think about an engine without that lubrication, the temperature is going to spike quickly. Metal parts will begin to glow red and then white. And, as the temperature of the parts climbs, the metal will soften making it more susceptible to scoring and damage.

Without engine oil, it’s only a matter of minutes before the engine parts become so hot that they freeze up. When the heat dissipates, parts have melted together. The engine is ruined.

Even when you have engine oil, the effectiveness of the oil is dependent on the quality of the oil. Is it fresh? By fresh, we’re talking about whether the chemicals and detergents in the oil have broken down from use or age?

Once the chemicals and detergents have been used for a certain amount of time, or have reached a certain age, the oil is no longer able to do its job of properly lubricating your engine. Between the time that the oil is fresh, and the time that the oil’s chemicals and detergents have completely broken down, the quality of the oil is slowly diminishing.

This is why your car’s Owners Manual will recommend how far you will drive, or how long you will wait, between oil changes. It’s not something you want to take lightly, especially on hot summer days in Johnsburg.

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