Great Cooling Article!!

[cudabob496]

http://geareddrives.com/Water_Best_Coolant.html

Maybe I'll try it this hot summer! Pure water and a corrrosion inhibitor, with a 20 pound cap. Need to make sure
I put coolant back in before winter.

From a chart it looks like water will boil at 216 with a 16 pound cap, and 228 with a 20 pound cap.

[Strawdawg]

I always see a ten deg drop when I run straight water with RMI-25 which is a water pump lubricant/surfactant plus some other items that prevent antifreeze precipitates when using in with antifreeze.  I have found it to work better than many of the water wetter products.  When one runs straight water, one must run some lubricant package to prevent corrosion and maintain water pump life.

I run a  three pass radiator on one of my cars which keeps the hoses in the factory locations but which requires a high flow water pump to overcome the high flow resistance caused by the three pass core so that water velocity is maintained.  The three pass is nice because it keeps the hoses in the factory positions whereas the two pass requires some rigging.

You neglected to highlight the comments about fast water flow being a good thing instead of a bad thing as we often hear from those that don't understand that one cannot run the water too fast thru the radiator.

Perhaps the most important thing in the cited article was the mention of propylene glycol and how bad it is in comparison to water or ethylene glycol with regard to temperature.  I have seen that first hand in one of my cars.

If you are interested in a more comprehensive write up on cooling systems, I suggest this article

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzezeqah/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/coolingsystems.pdf

for something shorter, these series of tech tips from Stewart are good

http://www.stewartcomponents.com/tech_tips/Tech_Tips_3.htm

Be warned that both dispose of the folk lore about moving the coolant thru the radiator too fast.

[cudabob496]

So, if I go 80% water, 20% prestone, will it cool better but still give the protection needed? I'm doing 50/50 now, but
maybe thats unnecessary in the summer?

[Strawdawg]

yeah...it will do better than 50-50 and should be enuf lube for the water pump.

I like the RMI-25 because it is a lube, a surfactant, and it dissolves deposits created by the antifreeze.  I think some of the surfactants like Purple Ice have been reformulated to do the same.  I never liked the Water Wetter brand because the water would turn rusty in a few months and needed some additional water pump lubricant additive to keep the rust down.  It may have been reworked in the past few years.

The RMI is targeted toward long haul truckers and I have bought it in truck shops, but normally, I order it by the quart and use 8 oz every six months per car.

[cudabob496]

cool, seems like a no-brainer for the summer.

Found this. Going 80/20 water/antifreeze can lower operating temps 10 to 15 degrees!!

http://www.challengers101.com/CoolantMix.html

[cudabob496]

There's a chart here that shows how much protection you get against freezing
for 20% ethylene glycol. Down to 20 degrees farenheit.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol