Evans Waterless Coolant Superformance?
 

Anyone have experience purging the coolant system in preparation for running this stuff? Specifically a spf with a windsor? It’s intriguing as it runs NO pressure!

Thanks
Steve H

I have no experience, but I have read that no amount of water or glycol can be mixed with Evans. You can never drain all the water from an engine coolant system.

I would think that Evans would have instructions on how to do this, but if not... My guess would be that you need to flush the water with something that will absorb water and will easily evaporate. Alcohol would be my choice. It will absorb water, it cleans well, and it evaporates. It might take a couple of flushes. I expect you have to make sure the alcohol has evaporated, as it could be a bad thing to mix into Evans. Flushing some Evans through may be necessary. I know it is expensive.

Those are my thoughts for you to consider and make your own decisions. They are not instructions. I am an ignorant hill billy at heart and should not be misconstrued as some type of knowledgeable person you can trust. Any actions you take are your own responsibility and at your own risk.

Steve, I used Evans and was totally happy with it, except the price. I had furious overheating after boring my RAT out to .070 from .060. Did everything I could think of and everything others suggested. Even to the point of taking the water pump apart to see if perhaps the impeller was slipping on the shaft.
Anyway, I thoroughly drained the entire cooling system including all the hoses. Then I used my big shop vac as a blower to blow air through the whole system by duct taping its hose to the upper radiator hose, with the thermostat removed. Ran that for an hour at a stretch, to give the vac a break, and did this for two full days. You definitely don't want to have ANY water in the system with the Evans.
Did the trick. The engine still ran hotter than my gauge would register but I never had any pressure build up and never any coolant puking.
When I totaled the car, for the second time, I drained the Evans through coffee filters and have about 5 gallons sitting in the garage. I sent in a sample to Evans to analyze and was told that it was just like new so maybe I'll use it if I ever have to rebuild my tiny little engine in the current Cobra. It is an excellent water pump lubricant and totally prevents the ugly corrosion that can come from aluminum interacting with some other metals. My 3 1/2¢ worth.
BTW, I'd be willing to make someone a smoking deal on my Evans.:)

Hi Steve,

When I did it I was replacing the radiator, water pump, overflow tanks and all hoses at the same time, so it was mainly the 385 series block that needed purging.

Before disassembling the old parts, the coolant was drained and filled/run with distilled water and drained to remove most of the coolant. After draining the radiator and removing all the above-mentioned parts that were being replaced, the top end water was gone.

High volume, low pressure air was used to purge much of the remaining prior water/coolant from the system, also raising the rear of the car. Then did a pour through of 2 gallons of Evans Prep fluid through the block to scavenge old coolant/water from the block. Again blew out with air.

Then left high volume, low pressure commercial blower air running through the block for a couple days to speed evaporation of the remaining water/prep fluid. It might have been easier to remove the block drains, but with my old block I didn’t want to risk bigger issues.

I realized there was likely a small amount of water still in there. My plan for that was to first ensure once filled with Evans, the water content was well under the Evans max limit. I bought a small refractometer to measure that. Upon initial test it was under the limit, but not to my comfort level.

I then drained about a half gallon at a time from the radiator and added more Evans, running it and testing again, 2-3 times. That brought that water content well down in the low acceptable water content range. My second plan was to then periodically drain and replace a bit more Evans after initial periods of use to ensure any water content was getting circulated and removed.

During this entire process I was running everything I did by a very knowledgeable and helpful Evans tech named Pete. The number I’d recorded for him was just there main number 888-290-2665. This was a couple years ago now.

Keep in mind that Evans is more viscous (I believe is the term) than typical coolant/water and is able to seep or leak through small holes and imperfect seals that coolant/water won’t get through. So it requires a sound system with sound sealing methods.

This video from Evans Prep Fluid demo on a Ferrari may be helpful. Also included the Install/Prep page that video is on:

https://youtu.be/GvBAyps69-c

https://www.evanscoolant.com/how-it-...-installation/

Best of luck in your consideration and if you decide to go that route!

Brent

Thanks All
 

Just curious, my buddy keeps raving about The stuff, but i have zero cooling issues so it sounds like alot of work to fix a problem that doesn't really exist...

Cheers
Steve H

Steve,

Precisely. It is way too easy getting caught up in a change to fix a problem that does not exist.

Jim

Don't think it is allowed on the track.... Can someone confirm.
Blas

Not sure about "allowed" but it would be as dangerous as oil on a track.
Yup it works but it's really messy. My second car came with Evans, I switched back to standard coolant.
Jim

I just did a search and racing bodies do not allow Evan Waterless Coolant on race tracks. This is due to it being glycol based, similar to antifreeze, and that glycol is difficult to remove from the track surface. There are substances that race tracks use to absorb oil and remove it from the track, but they do not have anything for glycol and it makes the track surface very slippery. I did see that Evans came out with a Track formula in 2018 that does not have glycol. Not sure if racing bodies have sanctioned it yet. If you do use it, you run into the same problem that race cars have that are using either plain water, or water and Water Wetter, neither is able to prevent freezing and therefore must be drained from the engine and radiator prior to freezing temps.

While I’m sure it is an excellent product that has specific places for its use where it excels, when I do some reading online on the product there are some cons to using it. While it excels in the prevention of corrosion and the lubrication of the water pump, but I would think that changing and flushing the antifreeze every two years and using water-wetter additive should be enough for 99% of the people here. Prestone antifreeze has a water pump lube in its mix and there are additives you can add if you like.
They talk about head temperatures being hotter to when you use waterless coolant.
I would suggest that a clean fresh coolant fluid fill, investigating the temperature range setting on the switch for your electric fans, installing earlier opening thermostat, eliminating all the air in the cooling circuit, and most of all the proper shrouds around your fans would give most people a bigger bang for the buck.
Blas

Jay Leno uses it on all his cars that have any aluminum content (ie, heads, blocks, radiators). He showed how a part of his was eroded on the inside but you'd never know it on the outside. That convinced me years ago to run it on my `64 GTO.

As for installation, just use their flush and follow their procedures. It's annoying, but it works as long as you can drain your block (ie, get at the drain plugs).

What I liked is that the Evans lasts virtually forever, so even when I worked on the car, I removed and reinstalled it. And what I REALLY LIKE is that it has a boiling point of 375* if memory serves me, AND runs at a much lower pressure. Those two factors gave me peace of mind that I would be very unlikely to blow a hose or something should i get stuck in some bad traffic on a hot summer day.

I plan to switch my 347 over to it soon. (Alum heads, alum rad).

I think Evan's coolant is basically propylene glycol (prestone low tox), similar to ethylene glycol, which both have a boiling point of about 385 degrees. Therefore, it really never turns into the gaseous phase , and never develops high pressures, like water based coolants. Also, because of no water, there is much reduced corrosion. However, glycols have about 50% the rate of heat transfer, and heat capacity, and because of this, the engine needs to run at a higher temperature to transfer / remove the same amount of heat.

Maybe not the best for a high performance engine ? Maybe better for a regular classic car, driver ? Water based coolant is more effective for removing engine heat.

I have evans coolant with a 4 LB rad cap in my cobra since 2012 no issues at all, I recently installed evans in my 65 T Bird so far so good I like it because the cars sit all winter and keeps cooling system corrosion free plus it runs at a very low pressure if any.

Joey.S

@Joey.S brings up an important point, that you need a lower psi radiator cap.

Went for a Spirited 2 car drive one with Evans
 

...At one of the stops, Mike said hey watch this, and pulled the radiator cap off of his '67 327/350 corvette. No drama no pressure no steam no nothing. The comment about it having to be tighter at all the connections seems a bit conflicted, if theres no pressure, its not trying as hard to leak as standard coolant?

My SPF runs cool unless stopped after running hard, then the fans do a good job of hauling the temps back down...

Steve H

Awesome pic!

Thanks
 

Aside from the fact that i look like humpty dumpty...

Don't take this the wrong way, but, I was NOT looking at you! Hell, I didn't even notice there was a person in that photo. No joke!

I'm thinking that the radiator cap pressure ability makes no difference when Evans is used. And, if Evans ever got hot enough to create high pressure, any rubber seals and possibly any aluminum would be done for. Justa thought.

Well, Evans says to use a lower PSI cap than stock. I seem to recall my stock cap was 14psi and they suggested 10 or 8psi for my GTO.