is liquid cooled better than air cooled?
i can't seem to find good info anywhere.
liquid vs air cooled
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Depends.
Liquid cooled tends to keep the engine working at a lower temperature, and makes it easier to heat the inside of a passenger car.
Air cooling has fewer parts and therefore is simpler to operate and maintain. No radiator or hoses to break.
I don't think you can find a car today with an air cooled engine. But in a scooter, air cooling is fine because the engine is almost entirely open to the atmosphere and unless you'll be running it flat out (or towing something), adding a liquid cooling system will just complicate things.
Liquid cooled tends to keep the engine working at a lower temperature, and makes it easier to heat the inside of a passenger car.
Air cooling has fewer parts and therefore is simpler to operate and maintain. No radiator or hoses to break.
I don't think you can find a car today with an air cooled engine. But in a scooter, air cooling is fine because the engine is almost entirely open to the atmosphere and unless you'll be running it flat out (or towing something), adding a liquid cooling system will just complicate things.
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It's a trade-off. Most 50-150cc bikes don't create enough heat to need liquid-cooling, including the buddy. Liquid cooling on a 150 is a bit of overkill, but on a 250, I would say it's a good thing. It's usually the racing bikes that benefit because they run at such high RPMs and such fine tolerances, that the extra cooling helps. I have 11 vehicles, and only the one with 4 wheels is liquid cooled. All my bikes from 50cc-1100cc are either air or oil cooled. None have liquid cooling. The more complicated the system, the more can go wrong.