What do we think of WATERLESS COOLANT ?

Apart from the cost, what are peoples opinions? I've seen some good reviews and the arguments seem sound. Seeing as I'm about to put a new engine in and the system is dry, I'm tempted to go for it... Trouble is a little voice is wispering "snake oil" in my ear (that voice has been wrong in the past though).

I've not used it.

What do you see as the benefit to you from using this?

Have you ever overheated. I'd worry about servicing in the field, you can normally find water.

Assuming the cooling system is in good order and provides adequate cooling I can't see the myself.

The no Oxygen thing doesn't hold IMHO as you will still have air present in the expansion tank (less Oxygen granted, but not zero).

For an all out race car where you might see benefits and possibly be able to reduce coolant volume (therefore weight) then it might be worth it.

Finally I'd agree with Matt's thinking as well on water availability for a road car situation.

sounds like a bad cure for an overheating engine.

If you are worried about the chance of over heating you could always try
water wetter - - - > http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=74&pcid=10

Not try'd it myself yet (definitely thinking about when I finish the car)but
claims to reduce temp by up to 20 deg, so it certainly looks impressive and
you still use good old H2O.

Some info here.
Most impressive thing: No pressure in system at all, no matter how hot it gets
Least impressive thing: The cost

[Edited on 13-3-14 by 40inches]

I have been thinking the same thing as the OP but then I read its quite flammable......one tiny leak and you could be in trouble

Once the cooling system is sorted I shouldn't have any leaks but its a new build, with lots of non-standard parts and I almost expect a few issues when its first on the road. For that reason I will stick with water/ anti-freeze in the new build.

I have used water wetter in my current Striker, after 7-8 years I am still not sure it makes any difference

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Originally posted by peter030371

I have used water wetter in my current Striker, after 7-8 years I am still not sure it makes any difference

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Water wetter is just a surfactant with corrosion inhibitors added. there is an oxide/gas later between the water and the block which acts as an insulating layer and the surfactant breaks this down.

I have used dishwasher tablets for the last 5 years in aluminium engines to great effect. In older engines the crud that comes out is amazing and in my locost it lowered the water temp enough to make it usable ( using a polo rad with 400hp engine).

Cheers!

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Originally posted by v8kid
Water wetter is just a surfactant with corrosion inhibitors added. there is an oxide/gas later between the water and the block which acts as an insulating layer and the surfactant breaks this down.

I have used dishwasher tablets for the last 5 years in aluminium engines to great effect. In older engines the crud that comes out is amazing and in my locost it lowered the water temp enough to make it usable ( using a polo rad with 400hp engine).

Cheers!

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Dishwasher tabs in the car!
Probably safer than car parts in the dishwasher, domestically speaking

Surely the selling point that it boils hotter is acctually a bad point. - Surely its not the fact the water is boiling thats bad for an engine, its getting too hot, so hotter water thats not boiling is just going to damage the engine further?

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Originally posted by snapper
Dishwasher tabs in the car!
Probably safer than car parts in the dishwasher, domestically speaking

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It's not as thermally efficient than water so if your cooling is marginal then best to avoid.

Personally I would not bother, decent OAT antifreeze with water is far cheaper and I'm tight

I think the big plus is having zero pressure.
I work with pressure systems everyday and if I could get the same performance without the pressure i'd take it everytime.

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Originally posted by nick205

quote:

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Originally posted by snapper
Dishwasher tabs in the car!
Probably safer than car parts in the dishwasher, domestically speaking

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Do we deduce that you've been caught with your bits in the dishwasher then?

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quote:

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Originally posted by v8kid

quote:

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Originally posted by nick205

quote:

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Originally posted by snapper
Dishwasher tabs in the car!
Probably safer than car parts in the dishwasher, domestically speaking

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Do we deduce that you've been caught with your bits in the dishwasher then?

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At least they would be very clean bits

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I believe that it's banned in some racetracks in the US as it's flammable and very "slippery"?

Having said that, I have a friend that's an Evans distributor and he obviously has it in his car. In addition to not boiling, not corroding (relatively speaking) and zero pressure, the main bonus is that it never needs changing - so those that say it's expensive are only looking at initial costs, not whole life cost.

oh - and you can add water in an emergency - but you'll need a full (expensive) drain and clean if you want to go back to waterless.

The use of ethylene glycol based coolants was one of the big advances in engine technology, glycol with OAT corrosion protection takes a lot of beating.

If conventional OAT coolant isn't doing the job something is far wrong.

Be aware dishwasher detergents can be very different chemically some contain Citric Acid while others contain Sodium hydroxide and Sodium Hypochlorite both of which are strong alkalis which eat aluminum and magnesium and rusts ferrous metals.

[Edited on 14/3/14 by britishtrident]

What people don't seem to see is that nucleate boiling phase heat transfer is significantly better (like 10-30%) than standard forced convection, removing boiling points could actually reduce the cooling efficiency.

Cooler coolant temps suggests it's highly possible it's not pulling heat out of the block/head fast enough or it has higher specific heat capacity, as the heat transfer coefficient to the rads/blocks won't vary much between fluids. If it has vastly higher specific heat capacity than water then fair enough, but they don't claim that and there's very few liquids (at room temp) that have a higher specific heat capacity than plain old water, so I'd want to see

1)More data that proves it's not just less efficient at removing heat but doesn't boil either.
2)Head/block temp comparisons under lab conditions
3)An explanation as to why pressurised systems are such an issue, there's been countless millions of them trucking around and assuming there's no fault with them there's no problem with them being pressurised.

[Edited on 14/3/14 by coyoteboy]

I think you're confusing water-wetter (which claims to reduce coolant temps) with waterless coolant. Evans doesn't run cooler - they specifically point out in the blurb that it may run up to 10 deg hotter due to poorer heat transfer?

I don't know who you were aiming that at but I was answering an earlier message about water wetter in line with the Evans answer. I can't find anything about Evans running hotter, care to link? But are they talking the engine running hotter or the coolant?

http://www.evanscoolants.co.uk/technical/questions-&-answers/38