I can get them for cheap. but will they cause any negative effects on the corrsion issues

 

Hi,

I was told that there is a special coolant/additive required if you use aluminum radiators or engine components which are in contact with the coolant.

Jens

 

I'm already puting dca in what else is there?

 

Hey Nogo73, where can you get aluminum radiators cheap? I am interested if you have a hot lead on them. Scotty

 

$169-179 for an alumium radator its through preformance auto bodies in cedar falls I post the number tuesdaygot to have a stick thou

 

If I have a choice, I'd rather stick with brass. The problems with dissimilar metals leading to corrosion don't just stop with internal protection - anywhere two different metals are in contact the more corrosion prone one will crud out, and that includes mounting points, etcetera...

Since radiators are made from fairly thin metal pieces in the first place, there isn't much metal to lose to begin with. I have had a few go-arounds with aluminum cores, and I absolutely won't have one unless there is no choice at all.

Overall - brass tends to be much more forgiving of abuse because aluminum has a much higher tendency to corrode.

I'm going to see if I can find some info on just why corrosion happens, so I can explain this better. In brief - corrosion takes place because of an action similar to what happens in a battery. For corrosion to happen, there must be a difference in materials, an "ANODE" material, a "CATHODE" material, and a path for electrical flow (electrolyte).

Wherever these conditions are met, the one material will donate particals to the other. If you look at a "corrosion cell" there is always a deposit on one material, and holes in the other.

The problem with aluminum is that it is an excellent "DONOR" material, and somewhere I have a chart that lays out the relative donor properties of different metals...

On some ship hulls, to get around this problem bars of "Donor Material" are welded on to act as sacrificial areas to prevent more vital areas from being attacked by corrosion instead. The sacrificial material (such as zinc, for instance) erodes rather than something else - like the props as an example, which are made of brass.

The corrosion cell in that case is the ships hull (ground), the props (metal number one), the surrounding sea water (a prime electrolyte), and the steel of the hull. The zinc bars are purposely not painted, and are consumed instead of the propellers.

Strange but true...