Payne

I have an EWP to install and need to figure out what I am going to do for coolant.


What do you suggest for a moderate climate car? I live in the San Francisco Area, so most of the time its 45-95 degrees, but I do visit my folks in the high desert a few times a year, so it could see 20-120, but rarely.

I know people have really good luck with water wetter, but what do I run besides the distilled and water wetter? Dexcool?

Thanks!

-Jason

Miaugi

From what I have learned here, plain water is a "better" coolant than a water/antifreeze mix. Also a good point someone brought up is that if you dump coolant on the track, water will evaporate and not cause as much concern as a coolant mix which is very slippery. Now all that being said, since your car is occasionally exposed to sub freezing temperatures, I would suggest water, water wetter and at least a 20 - 25% coolant (dexcool) to protect it from ever freezing.

c4cruiser

For what you describe for use of the car, I would stay with what came in the car. If it's your 02 Z06, then a 50-50 mix of DexCool and distllled water will handle all of the climates you may be driving in. The 50-50 mix will protect the system to -37 degrees. While you may not see those temps, driving at 65MPh in 20 degree temps may cause freezing in the radiator if the percentage of antifreeze is not high enough to handle what amounts to a wind chill as the air goes thru the radiator. Water alone in the radiator will freeze under those conditions.

Water by itself will cool better, but antifreeze (in addition to being able to prevent freezing) has rust inhibitors and other chemicals that keep the system from corroding and providing some level of lubrication for the water pump.

As far as HPDE/open track days, most places will not force you to dump your coolant in exchange for pure water. It would be hard to drain fluids in the pits and risk spills everywhere. Then you have to deal with the drained coolant.

A purpose-built race car can use water and something like Water Wetter to keep temps down, but a cooling system in a race car is designed to keep the car cool at speed; in city traffic, a race car would overheat in a very short time.

AU N EGL

water and water wetter

VetteDrmr

Stick with what's in your car. You need to run, IIRC, at least 40% Dexcool to keep the additive package and corrosion inhibitors high enough to keep the aluminum in your engine (which is just about everything but the rubber hoses) from corroding.

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

L98Terror

Wind Chill Isn't the coolent inside?

FasterIsBetter

Anti-freeze has several properties that you need in your car. First, as the name implies, it keeps the coolant from freezing. Second, the mixture has important anti-corrosion additives that you need in an aluminum block. Running straight water can lead to some serious metal erosion from turbulence if you don't have the protection of the anti-freeze. Last, although anti-freeze does not have the same heat transfer properties of water, which is more efficient at drawing heat from the engine and giving it up in the radiator, it boils at a much higher temperature. Water, as we know, boils at 212*F at sea level. The pressure in the system increases that slightly. But the anti-freeze increases the mixture boiling point substantially. Race cars that run only water and WaterWetter run higher pressures in their systems to offset the lack of anti-freeze. WaterWetter does help with some anti-corrosion properties and helps the water stay in contact with surfaces better, but for a car that is being driven on the street, you must run anti-freeze. 50/50 mix is best, with a bottle of WaterWetter added for good measure.

BTW, someone recently told me that DexCool tends to eat gaskets. Anyone know if that's true? You can change your system over to regular old green anti-freeze, but just be careful to fully flush the system and get all the DexCool out, as mixing them will cause the DexCool to gel and mess up the engine. I have not done anything with my '03 Z, but if the DexCool can cause gasket failures, my thought would be to get rid of it and go with the "old fashioned" ethylene glycol based anti-freeze.

VetteDrmr

Wind chill only affects things that use evaporative cooling (like people). Doesn't affect our cooling systems at all.

Have a good one,
Mike

Payne

So dex, distilled, and water wetter it is?

The only time I've had problems with cooling is 2 drivering on a 116 degree day at an autoX, and I have a EWP to install to help with that.

Best,

-Jason

VetteDrmr

Just figured out that EWP stood for electric water pump. I thought those were used mainly by the drag racing folks. I could see it working for an autox car, but I'm not so sure if it could keep up if you were running a DE for 20 minutes.

I'm not saying it won't, just that it's something to consider.

Have a good one,
Mike