Safe Operating Temperature

[jacob80]

So basically just dump a bottle of water wetter in and fill the rest with straight water?

 

If this works, this will be AWESOME!

[Tony D]

Where did you get that from? I know that's not what I said.

 

(Sigh!)

 

Dude, you live outside Omaha...straight water is SUICIDE in your neck of the woods.

Edited August 30, 2010 by Tony D

[jacob80]

[jacob80]

I'm hearing a lot about tracks not liking coolant being used anyways, its said to be very difficult to clean up.

 

I'm going to go ahead and try using a bottle of water wetter and distilled water and see what that does for me. I'll report back my findings and let you guys know.

[Tony D]

For a track, absolutely -- most only allow water wetter and water. Get a 24psi cap to add boil-over.

 

But for a DD, make sure the glycol is to the limit for low temperature expected. I run around 10% here in SoCal as from my testing with industrial compressors I've found anything more affects heat transfer. I don't need more than 25F protection, so I don't need 50/50, and most people don't. Run as little Glycol as you need to on the road, and use the higher pressure cap for more boil-over protection. It really helps with the nucleate boiling issue.

 

Even with a 16psi cap, and a three row radiator, I'm not getting 'hot'. Airflow OUT of the engine bay will help. Do some experiments with the back of the hood unlatched on the saftey catch, and then progress to a couple of 3" diameter holes on each inner fender well (four total) for airlfow through the radiator at speed, as well as less front end lift at speed.

[jacob80]

I would do the hood trick, except for the fact that mine is missing!

 

I will be putting water/water wetter mix without any glycol as I just want to have temps down for the Midwest Z Fest track day on Friday. I'm not worried about cold temperatures at this point in time.

 

I'll have to check and see what my radiator cap rating is. You would recommend a 24psi cap?

[jacob80]

WOW!

 

Distilled water/water wetter mixture did it for me! I cannot believe how well that worked. I never saw a temperature over 186 while driving! I've never had something work so well for me!

 

Granted I did put a new water pump on, I believe that I had some bad coolant. It was brown! I'm not sure why the coolant is getting so brown, I'm almost positive its rust, but man, I can't get rid of it! It has a sulfur smell to it and stains things if you spill it and let it dry, very odd.

 

I also noticed that my water was pretty dang clean right up until the thermostat opened. I had the cap off burping the system and I could see almost all the way down to the bottom of the end tank, but when that thermostat opened up, it went completely rust color and I couldn't see anything (yuck!). Is this a problem, or something that is expected? We had the block hot tanked, but I'm not sure how good of a job they did because when we got it back, the coolant passages were still rusty

 

At any rate, its staying cool and I 100% recommend a distilled water/water wetter mixture!

[Tony D]

Hmmmm, 200+ now down to 190 in an anecdotal testimonial of an unscientific test... Good enough for me!

 

At least you have some background on what the car was doing before. What shape was the water pump impeller in? If it wasn't erroded severely then likely it didn't have much to do with the change at all. Was it leaking?

 

I found mine stopped 'puking over' after shutting down. I would puke out about 1 gallon every 3000 miles running on the freeway then stopping. You could hear water in the head after shutdown "pop pop pop" from the steam pockets forming. After I put in the recommended water wetter there was no more "pop pop pop" and I stopped that little pukeover each time the car was run hot and shut down (like for fueling, or generally stopping.) Went from a gallon/1.5 gallons per 3K miles to NOTHING in over 8000 miles!) Noted a similar decrease in temperature as well---except that the ONLY thing I changed was the addition of water-wetter to my coolant.

 

Which is why I asked in a by-the-by way if you were using it...

 

Good to see it seems to have worked. My paypal account for donations is bigheadedgod@.....

[jacob80]

The water pump had never been changed, and we were told that the motor had 70k miles, so I figured why not. That water pump actually seemed perfectly functional and the impellers were not corroded in any way, nor was it leaking. I just replaced it for good measure.

 

I may or may not have the puking over problem, but I do know that every time I go to check my radiator fluid level, its always a little lower than I checked it to be before. Perhaps that issue is gone now, but I contacted MSA yesterday because I'm using their aluminum Afco radiator and they didn't have any higher pressure radiator caps (grr!). The cap on there now is a 13psi, but if I'm not seeing temps over 186 fahrenheit, do you think I'll be fine without?

 

Do you have any insight as to why the rust monster is taking a dump in my radiator?

[Tony D]

Aluminum Radiator, Ferrous Block, Oxygenated and Aerated Water in contact with vergin ferrous block without molybdate or other passivating/corrosion prevention compounds present.

 

When a block is virgin, there has to be some corrosion inhibitor (usually a phosphate of some sort in the old days) in the water, or it starts rusting. It's that simple.

 

Flushing with slightly acidic, then basic should take out the corrosion and 'the black stuff' -- then you have to get a proper passivating agent into the water and run the engine to let it deposit in the coolant passages to try and arrest thebare virgin casting from starting to oxidize.

 

It's one of the reasons still, distilled, demineralized water is the best for the block...it's relatively inert. Start adding stuff to the water like salts, organics, and the rate of corrosion goes up quickly. Filling from a frothy garden hose nozzle is not the greatest. Lots of free O2 disolved within the water (along with chlorine) sitting in that clean virgin block...

 

I know someone who ran pure DE Glycol in a 100% solution in his block since day one. Now, hundreds of thousands of miles later not a speck of rust anywhere, and a head that looks like new when the gasket was changed last year. Yeah, it doesn't cool as good as pure water, but his block and head coolant passages look like new! All depends on what you are willing to trade for...

 

A 16psi cap should be available at most parts stores, or radiator shops. A 24psi cap will take some looking, but they are out there.

 

I saw one car where they put a screw-in cap. The relief was via a traditional PRV (pressure relief valve) with a threaded outlet and male threaded inlet. This was screwed into a bung on the radiator top, and had a check valve setup on another line from the recovery tank. Pretty trick, and one of those days that convinced me to 'carry the damned camera everywhere, you never know what you will run across that is cool that you want to do on your own car!'