Agreed - water needs some help - particularly in corrosion resistance, lubrication, and sometimes surfactant.

It should be more than adequate...with the assumption that you start with a clean system and replace your water/coolant mix every year or two. So long as the color remains light green, you're OK. And even small amounts of coolant will do this.

I was chasing a cooling issue in one of my other cars and drained the near 100% coolant the PO had used. I put pure water in and it still looked like a 50/50 mix color. I did this a couple times and it was still light green....never turned rusty even after sitting several years!! So a little goes a long way for corrosion.

This was in a pure iron system though - engines with aluminum heads/intakes might need closer monitoring and coolant isn't 100% efffective for corrosion protection - some folks go to extremes and use sacrificial anodes (usually a zinc "pendant" hanging in the radiator). But there is nothing that can truly prevent the electrolysis in an iron/aluminum system full of hot water-based coolant! The best you can do is change annually and monitor.

 

Um.....when I lived in Taft, we frequently saw temps in the "teens" in the wintertime.....

Back in the 90's, My brother lived in Novato and left his boat sitting in the street during an entire week when the temps didn't even get ABOVE 25 F!

He also didn't bother to drain the block......you can probably guess what happened.

I guess in my previous comment about heat transfer, I should have qualified it.................Water is NOT the best liquid for heat transfer in any automotive application.....Unless you live in the tropics! (and you don't care about corrosion!!)


Cheers,


Rick

 

Semantics, my fellow aviator! It is always the best liquid for heat transfer. But it doesn't offer freeze protection below 32*, so it's not the best liquid to use if you routinely experience below freezing temps. Which is the vast majority of this great country of ours.

I, however, live in FL, so it feels like the tropics most of the time...even here in N. Fla. We rarely get more than 4-6 hours of continuous temps below freezing on the odd 2-5 days/yr that it actually gets below freezing. But we do have our moments...last year, we actually got some snow, sleet, freezing rain and two whole days where the OAT didnt' get above 25*!! So pure water isn't a sure thing here either. Burned the fronds on my palm trees!

I've got somewhere between 25-30% in my truck right now...should be good for the cold we get, the lubrication needed in the system, and the anti-corrosion help.

 

It's doubtful a dip down to 31 overnight is going to crack a block or cause any problems. I would think it would take extended temps well below 32F, no garage, etc.

 

Depends of course if your block is outside to be sure but it doesn't take very far a dip below 32 to do it though.....Go take a look over on iBoats around May of each year and count the cracked blocks of people that thought it "only made it to 32F or so"...........

having a "mix" also gives you boil protection too......

....so it helps on both ends....... (of the temp scale)

 

Yep, the only way to get the maximum freeze protection with glycol coolant is to mix water with it. Straight antifreeze won't work very well.