A vehicle control device for a vehicle including an engine that is a power source of the vehicle, and a heating unit that heats a coolant of the engine includes a water temperature determination part that determines whether or not a temperature of the coolant is lower than a predetermined value, and a heating control part that performs an operation limitation to stop an output of the heating unit or to limit the output of the heating unit to a predetermined upper limit value or lower, when the water temperature determination part determines that the temperature of the coolant is lower than the predetermined value.

A method for ventilating a crankcase of an internal combustion engine using natural gas as a fuel source may include filtering ambient air through an air filter. The method may also include heating the filtered ambient air by a jacket heat exchanger. The method may further include directing the heated ambient air through an inlet of the crankcase to purge blow-by gases including natural gas from the crankcase.

A flow control valve is arranged to simultaneously perform coolant flow control and variable split cooling, according to control of a path opening degree of the flow control valve. The flow control valve can perform four-port control for variably controlling four ports at once by operation of the flow control valve, and thus can implement variable temperature control for increasing a temperature of an engine, rapid warming-up of the engine, while performing split cooling at the same time.

A control method for a cooling system is provided. The system includes a vehicle operation state detecting portion having an ambient temperature sensor, first and second coolant temperature sensors, a coolant control valve unit that adjusts opening rates of first, second, and third coolant passages and a controller. The method includes determining whether an output signal of the ambient temperature sensor satisfies a predetermined an ambient low temperature driving condition and whether an output signal of the first coolant temperature sensor satisfies a predetermined first low temperature driving condition when the output signal of the ambient temperature sensor satisfies the predetermined the ambient low temperature driving condition. The coolant control valve unit opens the first and coolant passages and closes the second coolant passage when the output signal of the first coolant temperature sensor satisfies the predetermined first low temperature driving condition.

An external heater operation determination system includes, in a vehicle: a first device to be heated by an attached external heater; a second device, separate from the first device, to be cooled by a refrigerant; a circulation device configured to circulate the refrigerant through a circuit; and a temperature detection device that is configured to detect a temperature of the refrigerant and disposed such that if the refrigerant is not circulating through the circuit, the temperature of the refrigerant detected by the temperature detection device in the circuit does not rise even if the external heater is operating, whereas if the refrigerant is circulating through the circuit, the detected temperature of the refrigerant changes. The external heater operation determination system includes a determination device able to determine that the external heater is not operating on a basis of a change in the temperature after the circulation of the refrigerant.

An auxiliary heating system comprising interconnected piping which forms a closed fluid flow circuit for permitting a passage of coolant therein, and having formed chamber openings along a length thereof to receive at least one heating element which projects into the closed fluid flow circuit to be in direct contact with, and heat, the coolant. A pump is provided for circulating the coolant, along with a flow switch for monitoring flow of the coolant through the closed fluid flow circuit, wherein if the flow has ceased through the closed fluid flow circuit, the flow switch instructs the system to deactivate the heating elements.

A vehicle fan shroud de-icing assembly includes a vehicle radiator, a fan shroud installed to the radiator, a fan and a heat providing member. The fan is installed to the fan shroud adjacent to the radiator and is configured to selectively move air between heat transferring fins of the radiator. The heat providing member is attached to one of the radiator and the fan shroud. The heat providing member is positioned and configured to provide heat to the fan shroud and/or radiator in order to melt ice, show and shush retained within the fan shroud or on surfaces of the radiator.

The integrated flow control valve according to the present disclosure is a cam-lift type integrated flow control valve, and an additional valve is integrally formed with at least one of a plurality of valves, this additional valve is configured to be moved upward and downward in response to vertical movement of the corresponding valve to open and close an additional outlet except for a plurality of outlets which are opened and closed by the plurality of valves. In an engine system according to the present disclosure, a flow of coolant flowing into a heater, an oil cooler, a radiator and an exhaust gas heat exchanger in the engine system is integratedly controlled through control of the above described integrated control valve, so that it is possible to effectively control a flow rate of coolant as well as a temperature of coolant.

A cooling water heating apparatus includes: a housing having an inlet through which cooling water flows in at a first side and an outlet through which cooling water flows out at a second side; a sheath heater housed in the housing and electrically connected to an outside through an electric circuit to heat the cooling water in the housing; and an overheat preventing device housed in the housing to be submerged under the cooling water in an upper side of the housing in a gravity direction, the overheat preventing device having a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) device connected in series to the electric circuit of the sheath heater to allow the PTC device to control energization of the sheath heater.

The housing includes fastening parts formed integrally with the housing main body and fastening holes formed in correspondence with the fastening parts. The housing main body is fixed to a heating element with fastening members passed through the fastening holes and screwed to the heating element. The fastening holes include at least three fastening holes. The opening of an inlet port is formed inside a triangle that is formed by connecting the three fastening holes.