The cooling system in your car has a lot of plumbing. We'll start at the pump and work our way through the system, and in the next sections we'll talk about each part of the system in more detail.
Thepump sends the fluid into theengine block, where it makes its way through passages in the engine around the cylinders. Then it returns through thecylinder head of the engine. Thethermostat is located where the fluid leaves the engine. The plumbing around the thermostat sends the fluid back to the pump directly if the thermostat is closed. If it is open, the fluid goes through theradiator first and then back to the pump.
There is also a separate circuit for the heating system. This circuit takes fluid from the cylinder head and passes it through a heater core and then back to the pump.
On cars withautomatic transmissions, there is normally also a separate circuit for cooling the transmission fluid built into the radiator. The oil from the transmission is pumped by the transmission through a second heat exchanger inside the radiator.
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