This paper presents temperature control of engine cooling system using a controllable magnetorheological(MR) fan clutch. An appropriate size of MR fan clutch is devised and modeled on the basis of Bingham model. Subsequently, an optimization to determine design parameters such as width of housing is undertaken by choosing the reciprocal of the controllable torque as an objective function. Under consideration of spatial limitation, design parameters are optimally determined using finite element analysis. A sliding mode controller is then designed to control the angular velocity of the MR fan clutch using experimentally determined parameters. The designed controller is experimentally implemented and control performances of the MR fan clutch system are evaluated.