The invention relates to a device for supplying an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle with fuel having a feed line which leads from a fuel tank to the internal combustion engine and having a return line for the purpose of returning the fuel to the fuel tank and having a cooling device for cooling the fuel fed back into the fuel tank.
Such devices are often used in today's motor vehicles with diesel internal combustion engines and are known in practice. Here, the cooling device has a radiator which is mounted in the return line and is exposed to the relative wind of the motor vehicle. Cooling the fuel serves to keep the temperature in the fuel tank below an envisaged value. The maximum temperature which should not be exceeded in the fuel tank depends essentially on the material of the fuel tank and, in current plastic fuel tanks, is about 70.degree. C. Cooling of the fuel in the return line is necessary in the case of systems for internal combustion engines referred to as common-rail systems, for example, because here the fuel fed back via the return line is heated particularly strongly by the internal combustion engine.
The disadvantage with the known device is that the radiator, which has to be mounted in the relative wind, makes it very complex in construction and costly to manufacture.
The problem underlying the invention is to configure a device of the type stated at the outset in such a way that its construction is as simple as possible in terms of design and it can be produced at a reasonable cost.