And turns rust to iron nitrate, or nitrite. Not really sure of the chemistry, but the results are no more rust, the water p***ages become dark gray/black. No more brown mud in the bottom.
Get in the napa marine catalouge. They have zinc anodes that screw into the drain plugs. I would do a better job of grounding all components, especially have a ground between the engine block and the radiator. Aluminum, copper, lead and coolant make a great battery. Aluminum being the least noble metal gets all the electrolysis.
Drive Magazine had an article on coolant and they did not recommend distilled water. It is missing something verses unprocessed water and tries to get it from the metals in the motor. Tap water in most locals, like Calif, is very hard which also eats up the cooling system metals - first hand experience on that. We have stores here with hi tech filtration systems so I have reverted to using this water verses distilled, with good results. We use deionized water at work and it is also missing something and is corrosive to certain metals. All waters are not equal.
not to sure about using the the "DI" water,, some hot shot engineer at work ,,years ago came up with a bright idea he forced us into using in our feed water tanks for our boiler,,,,,,,,,not real good with black pipe and cast iron
I had read an article that said propylene glycol (PG) based coolant was less corrosive than conventional ethylene glycol (EG) based coolants. This is usually marketed as being environmentally safer and not harmful to your pets if they were to ingest it. here is a link to the Sierra antifreeze website. http://www.sierraantifreeze.com/benefit.html Here is some info about water. In a nutshell, don't use tap water because it contains chlorine or chlorides. Chloride ions makes metals corrode even when the liquid has protective additives. Use distilled or deionized water. But if preventing corrosion is your objective then deionized water is the better choice. Since it is these ions that allow water to conduct electricity (and corrosion is a galvanic/electrical process), then tap water is in fact more corrosive to metals than deionized water. The ions in regular water facilitate the movement of electrons that cause corrosion. While we're on the subject, you might also be considering distilled water. While the distillation process extracts water and leaves some of the ions behind, depending on the vigor of the distillation, ions still get transported in the distillation process. What distillation does remove are dissolved organic substances (coming from bacteria, fungi and such). So distilled water still has a higher capacity for corroding metal than deionized water, but not as high as tap water, and definitely not anywhere near that of salt water.
wow that just reminded me of when i got back from vacation, and i saw a spot on the driveway. my intake gasket was leaking! it was under warranty! so it cost me nothing, and i sold the truck a while ago. too bad i didnt know or i would have changed it to the green stuff! i heard that dex ****ed, wow i never knew why? i love the hamb! i learn soo much! about evens coolent that stuff rocks! i used it in my bikes!
Can anyone come up with more specifics on "Nalcool"...like what is it, what does it do, where can it be bought, etc...
I used it as a fleet mechanic. WE had a test kit of strips, to check the PH. Then add the little bottle of magic to make it right. The good part was never having to change the antifreeze. The antifreeze doesn't go bad, just the chemical additives get used up. This replaced them. We got it from the Truck parts place. I would think any heavyduty truck supplier that sells to fleets would stock it. "NALCO" chemical co. products were Nalprep to flush and Nalcool to treat. A heat system product like "8-way" could also be added for the same protection.
***mins diesel engine company has spent millions of $$$ trying to figure out why their engines had the wet sleeve liners being eaten up with electrolosis or cavitation...they all have water filters on them now that keep the water treated...their engines have lots of aluminum combined with steel parts...Nalcool has been used by the trucking industry for years along with a few other products that are supposed to do the protecting of the internal water areas...check out your local Heavy duty truck parts outlet...Freightliner,Peterbilt, KW,etc...ask what works best for them...RR
Remember ! orange is bad jaguar uses pink seams to work Bmw uses BLACK also seams to work we used jaguar pink in all new Aston Martins Distilled water is a must!!! just my .02
If you plan on running your cars at the dragstrip run water only[buy it in bulk outside your local groc store]colant is vry hard to cleanup from the track
So if youve been using Dex Cool you should replace it with the yellow stuff or exactly what kind & brand ? This is in a 2000 LeSabre
You can filter your tap water with a simple in-line carbon filter found at the plumbing supply or even Home Depot. Takes out the chlorine and depending on the micron rating on the filter, might remove SOME of the hardness elements(but not many). Reverse osmosis water found in water stores and vending machines tends to be acidic in PH and not a good choice for metal contact. I use soft water that has gone through a radial flow carbon filter in our vehicles, as well as to do the laundry, dishes, shower, etc. Here in Phoenix the water can be over 20 grains hard with a TDS of over 500 in most homes. Municipal water supply must be made "safe", thats not the same as "good". <---We run soft water in our scale steam locomotives and rarely have problems with scale.
texaco elc coolant like we use in big diesels will protect from electrolsis got in all my stuff even my 99 monty
OK, you're gonna think I'm writing a book, but here's my experiences for the last 35-40 years on coolant: In approx. '76 I bought a GMC 4X4 w'350 sbc, ran this truck till about '90 or so. Used green anti freeze and good old GA tap water, changing every couple of years. About '79 I installed an /edelbrock SP-2P aluminum intake manifold in attempt to attain better gas mileage, results debatable. This truck spent quite a bit of time on beaches and fording salt marshes to clam flats. As a consequence it rusted out to the point you couldn't open or close the doors on an uneven surface! So I junked the truck about '95 or so but kept the engine. This year I tore that engine down to rebuild/blueprint/balance/modify for my roadster project. There was almost no rust in the water jackets and the exterior of the freeze plugs was far more rusty than than area exposed to the coolant. You buy your distilled water, I'll take mine from the tap, chlorine and all! In '95 I bought a '94 Lincoln Mk viii which has an all aluminum engine. Dexcool came on the market and I read an article in HRM about it that had pix of radiator interior, both green and Dexcool. And Dexcool pix showed less "blossoms" at the tubes in the radiator So about '97 I flushed and installed Dexcool, again with that awful chlorinated GA water. I ran that mixture for about 7-8 years with no problems or corrosion, then flushed and did the same again and it's still in there with no problems. I bought an '03 Chev Silverado with Duramax diesel in Jan. '03. It has a cast iron block and Aluminum heads and has never shown any tendency to heat up past the thermostat opening point with the factory installed Dexcool! More than likely I will flush and refill with coolant soon, and it will be Dexcool and GA tap water! Good friend who is a world cl*** technician @ local Chev. dealership says that the secret to using Dexcool is that it only works well in a "closed" system which has a coolant reservior which allows the coolant to flow into a reservoir as it heats up and expands to a point above the system pressure rating, where it is held until the engine is shut down, cools, and draws the coolant back into the system by vacuum. Let the coolant level get low from a leak or whatever, allowing air to get into the system and you get a sludged up mess. Dave
Hey the raditaor cap that has the anode is called the RAD CAP. They work perty good. My dads friend came up with them. They sell them at monument car parts in concord and pacheco. i cant think of any where else.
My wife has a 2006 impala. It has 91,000 mi. I noticed a little rust looking stuff in the overflow or coolant bottle. I decided to flush and fill it. I took the bottom hose off and got the water hose. NEW looking dex-cool came out. So I took the overflow cannister off and the rust looking stuff was only a little s*** on the inside of the tank! The radiator and engine had NO corrosion or scale at all. I flushed it just to be safe and filled with dex-cool and a little water. Now I have a question to the gentleman who said straight anti-freeze will freeze. I left a jug outside my shop one year. I checked it when it was way below freezing out. ZIP..NADA...still liquid. Why would I want to put something in my car that freezes...THEN dilute it 50-50 with water besides?? Lippy
Antifreeze and water are to be used as a mixture. Please check the Link below for an explanation on something that I have experienced many times from customers, and myself included. It makes no sense mentally I agree, but it is a hard cold fact... http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF6/680.html This is taken to the cold that we get in Northern SD, and Alaska is a little more extreme obviously. CJ
I am now using some premixed anti freeze from the case dealership.It is what we use in tractors to stop electrolisis it contains dc4a. Seems to be ok.
Sorry to bring the dead back up, but I didn't want to start a whole new thread when there's this perfectly good one right here! Recently over the weekend I had to pop open the aluminum radiator in my roadster, and it looked pretty yucky inside. The thing only has a few hundred miles on it now, so it definately shouldn't be looking the way it does inside. Reading this thread I noticed someone said the radiator has to be grounded. Is that for real? The radiator is rubber mounted except for the radiator stays that run to the firewall. Is that not enough?
I use straight water with Redline Water Wetter, No Antifreeze, and if you are going to race a vehicle you can use it with no problems. But do check with your local track. In Cali and North Carolina its okay.
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