shaggy911

doing a cooling system flush.

should i use distilled water or just plain tap water.
Location Seattle. Water here is close to soft, not too hard (higher mineral content) neither too soft (lesser mineral content).

or does it make a difference?

James92

yes, distilled water is much better, no minerals at all. If you don't know what you're doing I suggest you take the car to the dealer for a cooling system flush. You cannot leave any air pockets in these engines the dealer uses a vacuum pump when doing a cooling flush on our cars to completely remove all the air pockets. Hope this helps.

ztheusa

In Seattle, tap water would be fine.

In Wolf Point Montana, tap water would surely gum up the works.

But a drain and refill takes exactly 2 gallons. 1 of coolant and one water. Might as well just bite the bullet and spend 2 bucks on a gallon of distilled!!

Bill Dearborn

Early C5 service manuals recommended drinkable tap water. Near the end of the run the manual said de-ionized water.


Here is the 97 manual recommendation:

1. Fill half the capacity of the system with 100 percent DEX-COOL® coolant.
2. Slowly add clean drinkable water to the system until the level reaches to the base of the neck.

Here is the 04 manual recommendation:
Use a 50/50 mixture of DEX-COOL antifreeze and deionized water.

Problem is finding de-ionized water so I continue to use drinkable water.

Bill

TheDVS1

The stores don't seem to be carrying de-ionized anymore, so I've been using distilled. Has anyone found de-ionized water lately?

turbopower

Wow I didn't know the factory recommended de-ionized water. I personally would not use de-ionized water as it is very agressive. It is looking to absorb minerals off of anything. I worked at a power plant that produced de-ionized water and all piping had to be stainless or PVC. I would just use distilled to be on the safe side, but thats just me.

shaggy911

Thanks very much.

I read somewhere that distilled water is like a sponge and will react with the cooling system metals.
Is this true?
I find it hard to believe as i have read in numerous places recommendation to use distill water.

I asked my dealer and they said they use tap water.

shaggy911

Is such a cooling tower for a power plant a fully closed system or does it cycle air in and out?

shaggy911

whats the difference between distill and de-ionized water?
distillation is condensation of evaporated air. I dont know if that breaks apart ionic bonds.
...

garage-ghost

Plain tap water from any system will cause some scaling. Amount depends on the hardness of the water. Which one to use, depends on how long you plan to keep the car. Tap water scailing probibly won't become evident in only a couple years but in the long term could cause problems.
I have used only distilled water in all my vehicles for the past forty years. I have never had any cooling system problems.

crAzy

I have well water that i have used on my LT1 camaro. Have not had any reason to do the corvette yet. But over the years the water down in the well i use was perfectly fine. Its even my drinking water that is not filtered. Only thing that may go through it is water softener.

2002rich

For your reading enjoyment
http://www.no-rosion.com/

FYI - I use tap water, no-rosion products and antifreeze

The link below is from another site where there are Q&A about the subject matter. I just copied and pasted one of the responses because it supports the principles of No-Rosion.

http://stason.org/TULARC/vehicles/vw...et-phosph.html

A counter point from Jens:
It is not such a good idea to use destilled water, best is tap water which
has been boiled in a pot so that the calcium is left there and cannot harm
your cooling system. Destilled water is too aggressive.
[Jan]: I checked with some chemists on alt.chem and they cannot see why it would be too aggressive.

This is one of those debates where there isn't any clear answer. IHO

turbopower

We didn't use de-ionized water for the tower.

We would inject it ino a gas turbine used in a Co-Generation Plant. We would inject it into the combustion process to control emissions. The water had to be pure with no minerals so not to deposit minerals on the internals of the turbine.

De-ionized water is more agressive than distilled water as it is basically pure water with no minerals. You should see it in a bottle it was crystal clear and had a polished look to it as it was so pure. It was great for washing a car with as you didn't even have to dry your car off cause once it evaporated there were no minerals to leave deposits.

ZeeOSix

... I wouldn't use de-ionized - only distilled water in the cooling system.

shaggy911

but why?

Say you mix it with DexCool or whatever antifreeze, wouldnt the first priority of this coolant solution of antifreeze and h20 in equal proportions be to avoid corrosion, therefore extend life of the system.
Well second priority since its first should be to absorb and dissipate heat. regardles...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze_(coolant)
The purpose of antifreeze is to prevent a rigid enclosure from undergoing physical stresses and catastrophic deformation due to the expansion that occurs when water turns to ice. Compounds are added to the water to reduce the freezing point of the mixture below the lowest temperature that the system is likely to be exposed to, and to inhibit corrosion in cooling systems, which often contain a range of electrochemically incompatible metals (aluminum, cast iron, copper, lead solder, etc.).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-ionized_water

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-ionization_of_water

h2o in contact with metals should produce some sort of oxidation of the metal. pure h20 that is. Distilled but ionized h20 is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidation

ZeeOSix

Because using distilled water keeps insoluble minerals out of the system. Insoluble minerals can cause seal wear, etc. Same reason many manufactures these days say do not use coolant with a silica base ... it's like putting super fine sand in the system which will "sand blast" and may cause seal failure.

Distilled water is 75 cents/gallon at the grocery store. IMO, why not use it ... buy you can use whatever water you can find - creek water is pretty clean.

And as mentioned by others, de-ionized water is "hungry water" and wants to react with everything it comes in contact with to try and re-stabilize itself.

pat-b

i use distilled water myself if just adding water. but what about getting the 50/50 pre mixed stuff? Problem solved

tricep

Maybe you could just take a leak in there...

fisher auto

I'm pretty sure all of us vette owners care enough to keep an eye on all of the services needed for them and would never get to a point of scaling or whatever else could happen . I understand your just trying to not have a problem, but if you didn't put any coolant and strictly water and live in a cold climate then yea, BAD Idea. But otherwise Tap is fine and yes distilled is better. And you don't need a vacuum pump to get the air out!

shaggy911

yes yes, i understand what distilled water is.

My question is why the preference over de-ionized water.
The aggressive thing you talk about is an urban legend. look at the link i posted about water re-ionizing itself even in "de-ionized" form. What you refer to is an urban myth.
Once it does there is no ionizing after being mixed with antifreeze.