ERAChas - A Simple Coolant Math Problem

[RICK LAKE]

ERA Chas I figured that you would have told Pat that it takes 2 gallons of coolant and 2 gallons of distilled water and about 15-20 minutes to complete this problem. The mixture will be about 95% new and not have the heavy stuff in the block floating around to clog other parts. As far as ways to do this,

IF you have a SOLID camshaft and can idle the motor for 10 minutes we have a in line exchange machine that hooks to the upper hose. Emptys on one side and fills on the other side. When done, top off.

Other way is a vacuum setup that suck out about 80% on the coolant and refills itself with the vacuum. This is good also for checking for leaks in the motor too.

My last thought was adding petcocks to the back of the intake manifold on both sides and using them to remove any air pockets. Bleed offs.
Not sure but a min of 4 gallons of coolant plus 8 gallons to get rid of sound like alot of work. The only plus is the drive for 8 times.
Small side note, it's a long season and we know how the Mets fell into the playoff last year? or was it the years before?? Rick L.

[PANAVIA]

At least he's not running dex-cool

[RICK LAKE]

PANAVIA Steve What's wrong with Dex, Safer than Green for the country. Seals aluminum motors better than Green, Last more then twice as long. I have it in all my cars but 2. Both are over 100K on miles and don't like mixing the 2 different coolant togeather.
The only problems I found with Dex is, It can cause a chemical reaction with waterwetter and higher pressure in the radiator. Removing heat from the motor is about 5% less than green. This is a 50/50 mix for both. We are told that it's safer for the enviroment and the green stuff. Green does kill. Other issue is getting rid of the stuff, We are storing millions of gallons of the stuff and send millions more over to India. They clean it and sell it back to us. Orange can be freshen with a booster kit. So can the green, but still only half the life or orange. I have run dex and now have to run just water at some tracks with wetter due to cleanups and fines.
If I was running more on the street and long trips in the car with an ALL Aluminum motor Dex would be my first choice. Dex doesn't seam to eat aluminum as fast as green stuff either and in some motors that have intake gasket failure the dex seals the leak and extends the life of the motor where green doen't and in most cases means bearing wash from combo of green and water. Dex is about 10-15% better at having a motor last long with a coolant leak if you check. I see this all the time over the years. It depends on the application more IMO Steve. Rick L.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by RICK LAKE

PANAVIA Steve What's wrong with Dex, Safer than Green for the country. Seals aluminum motors better than Green, Last more then twice as long. I have it in all my cars but 2.

That's interesting. Before my last flush and fill this summer, I tried to wade through the coolant literature. All I wanted was a simple answer to "what is the best coolant to use on an iron block/aluminum head engine?" But with that question I had a couple of caveats: I don't care how long it lasts, I don't care whether it's poisonous or not, and I don't care about the mineral level of the water in Europe (because I use distilled water). As best I could gather, the answer was conventional green coolant with all the additives that they put in it -- it beats red, orange, yellow, etc. but it doesn't last as long, it's poison, and, of course, you should use distilled water with it. Now, mind you, I am not positive that I got to the best answer. There's a lot of bogus BS that is floated around on coolant, so I'm really not 100% sure. BTW, I bought AutoZone Conventional Green at nine bucks a gallon, and distilled water at the grocery store is a dollar a gallon. I also added WaterWetter, mostly because Bob P. told me to....

[dcdoug]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I bought AutoZone Conventional Green at nine bucks a gallon, and distilled water at the grocery store is a dollar a gallon. I also added WaterWetter, mostly because Bob P. told me to....

So what % mix do you run? Do you flush every year or every second year?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by dcdoug

So what % mix do you run? Do you flush every year or every second year?

50/50 mix, and a flush/fill every two and a half years.

[dcdoug]

Originally Posted by patrickt

50/50 mix, and a flush/fill every two and a half years.

I have just been using the premixed stuff, mostly because I was lazy.

Might dilute it a bit more though as I top it off as it sounds like others are more like 1/3 anti-freeze to distilled water. Just have to remember to change it before winter.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by dcdoug

Might dilute it a bit more though as I top it off as it sounds like others are more like 1/3 anti-freeze to distilled water. Just have to remember to change it before winter.

Please don't do that. Unless you are having overheating issues, or you're tracking up at Summit Point, you should stick with 50/50. If you don't, something will happen to distract you and you will not change it out before winter and a 1/3 mix is right on the danger line for our area if you have an outside garage.

[dcdoug]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Please don't do that. Unless you are having overheating issues, or you're tracking up at Summit Point, you should stick with 50/50. If you don't, something will happen to distract you and you will not change it out before winter and a 1/3 mix is right on the danger line for our area if you have an outside garage.

Ok, I don't have overheating issues, so will wait till I track it.