Every now and then there's a thread about cooling and the amount of antifreeze used gets mentioned sooner or later. Well, here's a tidbit to consider.

The waterpump went bad on my 97 T-Bird daily driver. So after making the change out, I used pure water to test for leakage, and left it that way for 2 weeks. This evening I drained all and replaced with a 50/50 mix. During those two weeks my temperature ran 5 to10 degrees cooler. I drive half highway and half city back and forth to work. The temps were consistantly cooler than ever before.

 

I've heard it speculated....
Now we know for sure!

 

Dont you always run a 50/50 mix in the summer??? I always have for all my vehicles...that goes up to a 75%+ mix in the winter...

 

I normally run 50/50 year round. These past two weeks were an exception.

 

The water part of the 50/50 mix is the part that actually cools the motor. The coolant is there simply to raise the boiling point and lower the freezing point of the water. If you run straight water, your engine will run cooler, but the coolant may boil if you really push the motor, and it WILL freeze in the winter.

 

no anti-freeze is fine in the summer.....in winter lack of AF would cause the water in your system to freeze - upon expansion of said water (for those who don't know water expands as it freezes) various parts of your precious motor and some things attached to it will crack....including hoses, radiators, pumps, or even worse - your block.

 

Antifreeze also keeps your engine and radiator from corroding.

 

AND lubes your water pump

 

Stewart components says to use rust inhibitor and water if you are not in a freezing climate. I did that. My temps were cooler.

However, my Stewart stage 2 pump started leaking at the seal in 1.5 years. I put a napa pump back on it with a new radiator, aux cooling fan and 50/50 mix.

Doesn't go over 220 (guage) in the 90+ FL heat in traffic with A/C on after exiting highway.

 

I didn't think Ford calibrated their temp guages. A pet peve of mine.

I made the mistake of running pure antifreeze once. It overheated big time.

 

I posted something similar a few days ago after I had tried out Red Lines' Water Wetter. On the back of the bottle, it shows the comparative differences between using 50/50 antifreeze/water, 100% water and water with Water Wetter. Water appears to cool better than the 50/50 but offers no corrosion protection. Water and Water Wetter cools the best, and they claim to offer corrosion protection.
I'm running one bottle of Water Wetter and water, no Antifreeze. My radiator is about shot anyway, but I have noticed a significant improvement over using antifreeze and water.

 

Make sure you use distilled water only...
The minerals in tap water may over time clog up the radiator and corrode the metal parts on your engine. I run two bottles Redline water wetter and pure distilled water.....No problems yet.

 

Anti-freeze (also know as: ethylene glycol) does not transfer heat as well as water, that's a known fact. So any car with water in it vs glycol will run cooler.

NEVER put tap water in your radiator, always use distilled water. The chemicals in tap water will foul the radiator much much sooner then if you run distilled water. You can tell when you look down the neck of a radiator and see the white scale build-up inside the radiator on the tubes...tap water used here...or just look at the shower head in your bathroom.

Water wetter has nothing to prevent corrosion, so I put in RMI-25 as this will deal with the coolant system corrosion issue.

GTLocke13 is correct, if you run water it will freeze the block if you leave her out during a cold winter night. So I would only suggest 100% water if you park her in a garage and make sure water wont freeze in your garage.

http://www.batterystuff.com/cooling/...cts.htm#wetter

 

I could not have said it better

 

Well known that water cools better, etc.
I run the minimal amount of antifreeze.

An antifreeze expert rec. about 60-65% water if you can get away w/ it. Have always figured 50/50 was for selling it.

 

this is a big deal ............

 

add a can of water pump lube. has the same effect.

no real need for antifreeze in warm climates.

 

I'd like to respectfully disagree. Coolant, ethylene glycol, is very effective as a coolant. I've used pure ethylene glycol - no water - in my Corvettes for years. I do know that liquid cooled piston fighterplanes such as the P-51 Mustang.P-38, and Spitfire used pure ethylene glycol - no water- and I was told that some army vehicles such as tanks used pure ethylene glycol. One reason for using pure ethylene glycol is that it is a dielectic - it does not conduct electricity - and therefore is not corrosive. Water is conductive and will cause aluminum and copper in a cooling circuit to form a battery cell and corrode. Distilled water is however much less conductive and is better than tap water. (Some writers in this forum have discovered this.)

Ethylene glycol is not as effective as water as a heat conductor and it will cause your engine to run warmer. However it boils at about 260 degrees F. Because of it's high boiling point it will not pressurize your cooling system until you reach 260 degrees. I think my cars were running a little over 200 degrees (the Corvette temperature guage is not that accurate). Because the cooling system is not pressurized, you can safely open the water fill cap when the engine is hot - no spewing. Also the cooling system is not as prone to leaking not being pressurized. Bad things with pure ethylene? It seems to be harder on water pump seals. I think they fail a little faster. Another possible problem is that it will freeze in very cold climates. However, it contracts when it freezes so it should not damage your engine - but I think cranking the engine will be difficult if the water pump empellers are in a solid block of ethylene!!