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Coolant


RoughRider

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Guys,

Do we have to add some coolant with water to reduce the heat of the engine ??

What if we use tap water to get the job done?? ..... & what benefits one can get by using "Coolant" ??

Appreciate ur valuable comments....

CHEERS :sport-smiley-004:

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water has the best cooling properties but it has its limitations

1.water has lower boiling point and when the water starts boiling engine overheats.

2. water has higher freezing point and in colder climates water freezes (freezing water=cracked block)

3. corrosion

Antifreeze/Coolant extend the freezing and boiling points of water while preventing corrosion.

you have to use manufacturer specific coolant because some cars are sensitive what kinda coolants they use on their car.

Ex: VWs use G12, Chevy uses dexcool (even though dexcool is the worst coolant ever!)

Edited by blkr6
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You could use battery water, in that case u might as well us coolant with battery water cos its gonna cost you big anyway. In VW's we use G12 it actually helps the engine retain heat not the other way around.... this actually helps the car come to its running temp very fast... If you do come across some G12... try this out.. make sure its in a plastic bottle and put in some water and see what happens.. it heats up.. u could even see some smoke :sad-smiley-058:

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Water alone in the cooling system will work fine. By adding coolant at correct ration will help increasing the boiling temperature a bit but thats insignificant in a failed or a faulty system.

Surely coolants have an edge over water when it comes to lubricating the system and anti rust campaign, but not to the extent as shown on commercials.

The biggest practical advantage is when the system is leaking when filled with coolants,very visible and significant due colour.

MINIACE

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Guys,

Do we have to add some coolant with water to reduce the heat of the engine ??

What if we use tap water to get the job done?? ..... & what benefits one can get by using "Coolant" ??

Appreciate ur valuable comments....

CHEERS :sport-smiley-004:

whats the car you have..

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Guys,

Do we have to add some coolant with water to reduce the heat of the engine ??

What if we use tap water to get the job done?? ..... & what benefits one can get by using "Coolant" ??

Appreciate ur valuable comments....

CHEERS :sport-smiley-004:

'RoughRider',

Now you can buy cans which are ready mixed with coolant. Yellow color 4 liters, It is better to use that instead of mixing with tap water.

I had a bad experience by mixing tube well water my tube well in the garden has plenty of Iron deposits due to that radiator got blocked.

Sylvi Wijesinghe.

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Water alone in the cooling system will work fine. By adding coolant at correct ration will help increasing the boiling temperature a bit but thats insignificant in a failed or a faulty system.

Surely coolants have an edge over water when it comes to lubricating the system and anti rust campaign, but not to the extent as shown on commercials.

The biggest practical advantage is when the system is leaking when filled with coolants,very visible and significant due colour.

MINIACE

Thats so true i found 4 points in mine when i got the current vehicle including a rusted oil cooler

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Let me add one more thing,

Lots of guys say that the toyota coolant is great (and I believe it to be true) but I saw in somewhere that you should never mix it with older green coolants. So if you are going for toyota red make sure to flush the old one completely or it'll sludge up.

AFAIK adding coolant (antifreeze) to the mix increases the engine temp as water has the best heat carrying ability but antifreeze prevent rust and we are getting the best of both worlds by mixing them.

If you're worried about tap water get a distilled water can from a chemical (medical supplies)shop I think they are cheaper. as I remember a 4l can was around 500/=

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Using tap water for the last 20 years or so. Never had an issue attributed to it. For older cars it really does not make a difference.

'VVTi,

Old cars have bigger radiators and their water running tubes also much bigger than new car radiators, so tap water and tube well water did not do any damage to older car radiators.

Only new cars have the problem if you do not use the coolant with the correct mixture with good water.

Sylvi Wijesinghe.

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One of my friend did use well water in his Maruti 800, despite I was insisting on using Coolant to prevent rusting. He did not heed, ended up with a rusted engine block and badly blocked radiator in his van. Now he has changed to coolant in all his vehicles.

By the way always follow what the manufacturer say. And Sylvi is very correct, these days the engines are designed with low tolerences to save cost, minimize weight etc...

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One of my friend did use well water in his Maruti 800, despite I was insisting on using Coolant to prevent rusting. He did not heed, ended up with a rusted engine block and badly blocked radiator in his van. Now he has changed to coolant in all his vehicles.

By the way always follow what the manufacturer say. And Sylvi is very correct, these days the engines are designed with low tolerences to save cost, minimize weight etc...

That really isn't proving people need to use coolant. That just proves how bad the quality of maruti's are. I can tell you right now I use water in all my vehicles and have not had any problems. Until recently the majority of people didn't even know what the heck coolant was, yet cars were still on the roads right?

This whole higher boiling point argument isn't a selling point either. If the boiling point was an issue for me, I would start worrying about what's actually causing it.

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What's wrong with Dexcool?

Dexcool eats away headgaskets in certain GM engines. so many engines like 3.1, 3.8 and Notrtsar Caddilac engines all have head gasket problems. i have changed my buddys transam headgasket twise and found out its the Dexcool coolant is causing it.

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This whole higher boiling point argument isn't a selling point either. If the boiling point was an issue for me, I would start worrying about what's actually causing it.

i know you are lil bit slow im just letting know..... its not an argument or selling point etc.... its just a disscussion about coolant

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'VVTi,

Only new cars have the problem if you do not use the coolant with the correct mixture with good water.

Wrong only shitty built vehicles like chinese vans and indian vehicles have that problem i guess.. and if some idiot does things like remove the fan belt when wading through a puddle of water of course that vehicle would be screwed up... hmmm if only we had an example for such a fool..

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One of my friend did use well water in his Maruti 800, despite I was insisting on using Coolant to prevent rusting. He did not heed, ended up with a rusted engine block and badly blocked radiator in his van. Now he has changed to coolant in all his vehicles.

By the way always follow what the manufacturer say. And Sylvi is very correct, these days the engines are designed with low tolerences to save cost, minimize weight etc...

Are you kidding me? how much weight do you think they'll save on making an aluminium (which is already light) radiator even smaller?? 2-3kg at most? That's probably as much weight you'll be adding to the vehicle after your family is returning from a good dinner.

Like JD said, if your vehicle overhears with mere water that means the engine is way hotter than it should be. The next morning you wake up in sri lanka and find that the temperature is below 0 degrees Celsius, you're probably better off with coolant.

Edited by Watchman
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That really isn't proving people need to use coolant. That just proves how bad the quality of maruti's are. I can tell you right now I use water in all my vehicles and have not had any problems. Until recently the majority of people didn't even know what the heck coolant was, yet cars were still on the roads right?

This whole higher boiling point argument isn't a selling point either. If the boiling point was an issue for me, I would start worrying about what's actually causing it.

My dad has never used anything but water in his vehicles in the many decades (though he doesnt have 50 years of experience) with no such rust issue, and I have continued that habit.

The funny thing is that most of these people who want to spend thousands and thousand of ruppees on a redundant need for coolant are the same people who dont fall asleep at night due to a few hundred bucks they lost because their allion did only 12kmpl while their neighbour's allion did 13kmpl.

Edited by Watchman
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Dexcool eats away headgaskets in certain GM engines. so many engines like 3.1, 3.8 and Notrtsar Caddilac engines all have head gasket problems. i have changed my buddys transam headgasket twise and found out its the Dexcool coolant is causing it.

What's the alternative coolant you used on it? And did it solve the problem?

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My dad has never used anything but water in his vehicles in the many decades (though he doesnt have 50 years of experience) with no such rust issue, and I have continued that habit.

The funny thing is that most of these people who want to spend thousands and thousand of ruppees on a redundant need for coolant are the same people who dont fall asleep at night due to a few hundred bucks they lost because their allion did only 12kmpl while their neighbour's allion did 13kmpl.

I was thinking. Maybe the idiot used saltwater in his radiator. Would explain how an engine block would get rusted so badly.

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My dad has never used anything but water in his vehicles in the many decades (though he doesnt have 50 years of experience) with no such rust issue, and I have continued that habit.

The funny thing is that most of these people who want to spend thousands and thousand of ruppees on a redundant need for coolant are the same people who dont fall asleep at night due to a few hundred bucks they lost because their allion did only 12kmpl while their neighbour's allion did 13kmpl.

Correct me if I am wrong, but if coolant has a higher boiling point (Water boils at 212 degrees. A 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze boils at 223 degrees.) this means the overall heat of the water would be lesser when using coolant right ? which also means that the radiator fan will need to work less harder to keep the liquid at the correct tempreture, in turn saving energy/fuel for the car. ( It could be a very small benefit, but still something right ? )

Then you have the issue of visibility of a leak due to the florescent coloring... and the anti rust properties of coolant. So in a way you could say coolant is better than water, and its not like you replace it every month..

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Correct me if I am wrong, but if coolant has a higher boiling point (Water boils at 212 degrees. A 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze boils at 223 degrees.) this means the overall heat of the water would be lesser when using coolant right ? which also means that the radiator fan will need to work less harder to keep the liquid at the correct tempreture, in turn saving energy/fuel for the car. ( It could be a very small benefit, but still something right ? )

Then you have the issue of visibility of a leak due to the florescent coloring... and the anti rust properties of coolant. So in a way you could say coolant is better than water, and its not like you replace it every month..

In my opinion you would be wrong. If the coolant can get hotter it only means that the coolant wont evaporate away. But that doesnt mean the fan has to work less. Purely for illustration purposes let me use a few rough numbers. Say hot water comes out of the engine at 90C. The radiator-fan works at X speed and can reduce 30C. So when the water goes back to the engine its 60C. But if you use coolant that means it can merely take engine temp beyond 100C. And in fact the fan would have to work extra hard to bring the coolant down to 60C.

All this time we havent considered water's and coolant's specific heat capacity. So lets just say that its an open argument with way too many variables to come up with a simple YES/NO answer.

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