I just have water in my cooling system at the moment as i wanted to check for leaks before filling with coolant water mix.

I was wondering if this has any effect on cooling.

I know it has antifreeze in there and also stuff protect from rust but are there any other advantages?

coolant has the added effect of being a water wetter and increases the thermal conductivity of the water or something like that making it a better coolant

correct me if im wrong

IIRC it lowers the surface tension of the water too to make it 'thinner' as well as increasing its thermal conductivity.

Because of reason connected with the above be aware Antifreeze will find its way through leaks plain water won't.

If your cooling system has been cleaned out you might want to consider using a modern OAT antifreeze coolant they last longer (5years) than the older types.

OAT coolant is bright orange, yellow or pink and dosen't mix with the old fashioned stuff.

Don't forget the coolant contains lube for the water pump - without it the pump will damage its seals & leak very quickly.
Also cause internal corrosion, hotspots for HGF failure etc etc.

also stops as said rusting on internals

right then!

Will change asap!

Thanks once again!

But be aware that modern antifreeze is incompatible with some of the older engines... Okay, we talking 60s (and earlier) technology here but people have rogered their rather expensive cooling systems on classic cars using new expensive antifreezes which were designed for older cheaper stuff!!!!

Might be important for those people driving with Xflow engines which my big brother told me were only technically possible once the bronze age turned into the iron age cos bronze engine blocks kept on bursting.....

^^^^ wot they say.

but there is a limit on concetration - can't rememebr what that it 50/50? where the thermal properties of the mix diminsih - said in a better way, you don't want to run just anti-freeze and no water.

(AF is sweet so pets like to slurp it up but it is poisnous to them so mop up any spills)

The old treatment for AF poisoning, however, was quite nice!!
Intravenous alcohol. Works on the principal that AF poisoning kills you because of the poisonous metabolites of the glycol. But alcohol dehydrogenase (the enzyme what breaks down alcohols) has a greater affinity to ethanol than AF. So they kept you sozzled with intravenous alcohol for a few days whilst you breathed out the glycol through your lungs....

Unfortunately, someone invented a drug which blocks the metabolism of glycol by the enzyme so it's not done anymore.....

But... if your pet does drink AF just get it pi$$ed for four days continuously and it should be fine

i thought that was methanol?!

It's for both methanol and glycol....

You see alcohol really is the answer to all life's little problems

quote:

---

Originally posted by BenB
But be aware that modern antifreeze is incompatible with some of the older engines... Okay, we talking 60s (and earlier) technology here but people have rogered their rather expensive cooling systems on classic cars using new expensive antifreezes which were designed for older cheaper stuff!!!!

Might be important for those people driving with Xflow engines which my big brother told me were only technically possible once the bronze age turned into the iron age cos bronze engine blocks kept on bursting.....

---