Antifreeze - Do's and Dont's

[lencilliers]

I came across this informative site about anti-freeze and thought I would share this with you guy's.

http://donsnotes.com/home_garden/auto/antifreeze.html

Makes for interesting reading

[Landyluvver]

interesting. LR just specify Ethylene Glycol but just like with their oils, do not take into consideration water hardness.
most of us buy anti freeze coolant concentrate, add it to the cooling system and then top up in order to get a 50:50 blend.
this assumes that the water is of an acceptable quality.
also commonly found is the premix. does this imply that demin or distilled water is used in the factory? also if the pH of the water is controlled?
i have seen many a head gasket blow on older cars because of corrosion of the head eating its way under the head gasket.
should the manufacturers not specify premixed coolant?

[lencilliers]

It seems the safe thing to do is either buy premixed - this can be quite expensive
Or mix yourself 50% with destilled water
I am now flushing my system and have gone the VW-G12 Anti-freeze route mixed with distilled water.
It seems like electrolysis can be a real problem with all the minerals in normal tap water, even when topping up only distilled water should be used

[Landyluvver]

i believe the Castrol antifreeze is recommended for Land Rovers.

[pretdave]

Hi lencilliers
The Article does have some good info. One warning though - it is specific to American conditions. So the colour coding in particular has no relevance in South Africa. In fact an attempt to follow the colour coding could lead to big problems:
Midas and other spares shops in Cape Town - I cant speak for the rest of the country - have their shelves full of antifreeze in all the colours of the rainbow : beware that many of these antifreezes are nothing but coloured water and will destroy your motor - not immediately , but over after a year or two. If you should come across antifreeze products with the names Everon ,Ryan or any other brand name with similar packaging - think carefully .......
A further warning: the same coloured water suppliers offer great deals to workshops : after all a few litres of coloured water sold for R250 has a lot of jam for everyone. So insist on knowing waht your friendly indepedant Landy service centre is using - more than likely a rubbish brand.

Dave

[chrisbad]

Why not use 100% antifreeze and no water? Are there any negatives in doing so?

[Landyluvver]

100% antifreeze has about 20% less ability to remove heat from the engine than water does.
50% seems a compromise between heat transfer and corrosion.

[nobile]

What is recommended as a flush for landys? With previous cars I have always taken the pipes off bottom of rad and flushed with hose pipe. This gets all the junk out of the system. Not sure that it would be the correct thing to do however? I was quoted 3k to recore the intercooler and main rad at silverton(ouch). I have been meaning to change my antifreeze as it looks a little miff in the bottle (green slime around edges). What do you guys think of the flush story?

[Scrat]

Why not use 100% antifreeze and no water? Are there any negatives in doing so?

Similar discussion came up on the off-raod bikes, they boil easily in the mountains...

In short no, 100%anti-freeze will make it worse as
1) Anti freeze has a higher viscosity, it is "thicker" than water and thus flows slower through the cooling system;
2)Anti freeze cannot carry heat away as well as water.

Water is for cooling but induces rust and freezes below zero...anti freeze fixes that and only that.

As for flushing, I just add water, run the engine warm, then cool down and drain the water...then fill with premix.

[pretdave]

n
Use of distilled water for make up of coolant is ideal. Remember that rain water is actually distilled water - courtesy of Mother Nature.
De ionised water is also good - the type you can get from a water treatment jug with a carbon based filter.

Water from a water softener is no no.

nobile
I think your flushing system is OK. Only downside is you are left with a good amount of ordinary tap water in the system. Not a train smash - but if you wish to be fastidious - do a final flush using collected rain water.


Dave

[lencilliers]

I have noticed when flushing you can only get about 7-8 liters of water out of the Td5 cooling system, that means about 6litres of water remains in the block.

[pretdave]

What is recommended as a flush for landys? With previous cars I have always taken the pipes off bottom of rad and flushed with hose pipe. This gets all the junk out of the system. Not sure that it would be the correct thing to do however? I was quoted 3k to recore the intercooler and main rad at silverton(ouch). I have been meaning to change my antifreeze as it looks a little miff in the bottle (green slime around edges). What do you guys think of the flush story?

Any idea what brand is "looking a bit miff" ?

[Landyluvver]

apparently all the Ethylene Glycol based ones have a limited life and do suffer sedimentation if left to stand long enough. in the engine it is continually agitated and stays in suspension.
a 2 yearly flush and replacement is however a good idea. what i like about this type is that if you have a leak somewhere, it leaves a tell tale green mark and makes finding the leak easier.
at the end of the day any antifreeze has to be miles better than no antifreeze.
chemistry 101 says any chemical that is put into solution into water will modify the freezing and boiling point of water.
the boilng is also important as suppressing the boiling point will reduce the risk of damage to head gaskets and radiators. boiling will immediately pressurise the system and unless the pressure is relieved, resultant damage will occur.

[Die Hard]

i got my D1 for a year now, I will be taking it again to radiator king for a flush, check & refill. I will do it on an annual basis, a small price to pay to make sure ur cooling system is tip top. I will ask Radiator King what they throw in. Last year it set me back R220-00. taking into account time & effort, I think it is a small price to pay. I suggest an annual change is the best option.

[JohnDough]

Be very careful of leaving antifreeze lying around. The active ingredient is extremely poisonous.... a teaspoon full per 10kg's of body weight can kill someone. MIL’s can be lucky it has a horrible taste