Regulating Valve

A liquid cooling system for an internal combustion engine, comprising:

• an internal combustion engine and heat transfer system having a cooling water outlet, a radiator circuit, a bypass circuit, and a circuit for a vehicle interior heating system;
• a housing defining a cylindrical valve chamber, said valve chamber having a periphery, one inflow port and three outflow ports, wherein
• i) the inflow port is connected in a fluid-carrying manner to the cooling water outlet of the internal combustion engine;
• ii) the outflow ports are connected to the radiator circuit, the bypass circuit, and the circuit for the vehicle interior heating system;
• and
• iii) the inflow port is located along the periphery of the valve chamber housing in between the outflow port leading to the radiator circuit and the outflow port leading to the vehicle interior heating circuit;
• a valve body rotatable within the cylindrical valve chamber about an axis, said valve body defining a surface comprising axially displaced ends and a flowoff edge, said flowoff edge comprising an axially extending elliptical indentation, said valve body being operable to close off the inflow and outflow ports in a predetermined pattern by rotation of the valve body about the axis so that the inflow port and the outflow ports leading to the radiator and the interior heating circuits can together be completely closed off simultaneously, and the outflow port leading to the bypass circuit is completely closed off by the valve body only when the inflow port, the radiator circuit port and the vehicle interior heating system circuit port are completely open to flow.