An automotive cooling system is designed sufficiently large enough to endure the excessive heat load. In general driving condition, the cooling systems are too large to operate optimally. An experimental study was performed to evaluate a novel automotive cooling strategy using the latent heat of a phase change material (PCM). The strategy is expected to reduce the cooling system size up to around 35% and the engine warm-up time around 60%. The strategy will help improve fuel economy and emissions characteristics of vehicles as a result of reduced total body weight and shortened engine warm-up time by a smaller radiator, as well as more stable combustion mode due to constantly maintained coolant temperature.