Waterless Coolant

[rseaville]

Just watched Wheeler Dealers on Sky, they used a waterless coolant in the cooling system, it's boiling point is 370 and freezing point of -40. Because it contains no water there should be no pressure. So the question is will this help prevent the 2.2 petrol's from blowing head gaskets all the time and help other engine's with over heating probs? Yes it's dear stuff at £70ish for 5l but it's cheaper than a head gasket and could be great when offroad and running hot with the risk of boiling a water based coolant.

[gregster]

Sounds like good logic mate...

I guess it will still expand with heat, just not boil...but I wonder if expansion pressure and heat, albiet without boiling would still warp a head or cause a headgasket to fail.

[mskiba]

Watched the same program, Im sure they said boiling temp was 180 degrees c. Impressive how he got it to operating temp and then just popped the rad cap off and the fluid did not overflow or even spit around the palce. it really does seem like the fluid does not expand under heat ?

Interested in this stuff myself now

[andytats]

I was watching that too
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C317035

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15558985

[vauxsqueeks]

[Retro Pedro]

Without meaning to stray off topic but it is relevant to the same subject
I run distilled water/anti freeze mix coolant in my 2.8 since getting it back running earlier this year. Noticed it does run hotter - temperature guage is at a 1/4 now as opposed to previously 1/8 on the guage. It goes up to about 1/2 when required to work harder on open road then I reckon thermostat opens and it returns to the 1/4 mark so not concerned about it. I've also got quite an air flow restriction (number plate, winch) in front of my grill so I reckon that's what the issue is.
Kept my eye on it at the last picnic and it stayed at the 1/4 mark all day long when playing - lower revs and only going up the rev scale for a short period when required to climb the slopes.
Got the idea to go for distilled water when changing the coolant on my daughters Fiat Punto - Fiat handbook specified distilled water. Thought that can't be a bad idea to run with distilled water rather than tap water that could contain higher impurity/hard water elements.
I did check on tinternet and it does appear that distilled water does have a slightly lower boiling point.

[Rifleman]

Thats the fan/s working mate, not the thermostat.
Thermostat is closed when engine is cold, to restrict the flow of coolant. This allows the engine to get to its normal running temperature as quick as possible so it is at its most efficieant.

[rseaville]

Ferrari bought 500 gallons of it for there race engines so I would imagine they have tested it.
I think the biggest gain from it is that there is no pressure in the system from boiling water. There should be no hot spots formed by steam in the engine and so reduce any twisting of the engine.
The thermostat will still open at the same temp to cool the engine but it won't bubble up when hot causing these hot spots to form.
Would the lack of pressure in the cooling system make it less likely for a head gasket to blow or get less collant leaks from elsewhere?
My only concern with it is that i've not seen any anti corrosion data on it.

Rick.

[adz4837]

You beat me to this post I just watched it on the sky planner and posted straight away lol

[Drift]

I wouldn't think distilled water would make any impact on an engine design nigh on 40 years old.

I dont think the boiling point of water is the issue if the metal/head is way beyond that temperature, the water just finds the weakness in the gasket after the damage is done. At best you would just slow the process down.

[gregster]

I suppose distilled would do any harm when in a hard water area like down here Ste...if the amount of kettles we go through is anything to go by, the limescale cant be doing any good to the inside of the rad, heater matrix etc..
You are alright up there, I think your water is softer than ours..

[meooo]

Its not just the water....

[Nopainnogain]

In my drag racing days with marginal cooling systems/rads,we used to use water wetter,it comes in about half litre bottles and you just tip it in, it reduces the surface tension of the water to help heat transfer.the stuff is like magic,as you tip it in,the temperature guage used to fall.

[coops555]

I have wetter water in mine at the min and now it runs a good few deg's cooler than it did ( about 5 less as sits a just below 80 now on motorway and was 85 before ) added it a few weeks back when did a coolant flush and new anti freeze

[Nopainnogain]

You get alot better results with water wetter if you dont use antifreeze,of course this isnt ideal in a road car but in the summer season of drag racing it was fine.i understand that the old blue ethyl glycol type antifreeze is the worst for heat transfer but the more modern OAT antifreeze( red or yellow stuff)has only a marginal effect.

[igotababyfrontera]

I just use the pink antifreeze and water mix in mine and never had any issues with temperatures, it runs just under 80 degrees apart from when im offroad going up hills where it goes to halfway and then back down. At 70-80mph on motorways makes no difference still sits at 80 degs.

I think this waterless coolant would be good on old and classic cars, things that wont get 10,000 miles a year in.

[DarrenH_2.2]

i know its an old thread, but it came up in a search, and also featured in another new wheelerdealers

the cooling system is pressurised (by pump action) to approx 1 BAR above atmospheric, which is regulated by a PRV in the radiator cap. this in itself raises boiling point of normal water, so with normal coolant mix which also raises it, you'd expect it to be knocking around 120C. there are coolant galleries in the block and head plus areas of the headgasket deliberately narrowed to create localised high pressure spots and promote flow around critical areas. in the cylinder head around the combustion chambers is one example, temporarily speeds up the flow for obvious reasons.

the downside is that there is not a product that can outperform plain water in terms of thermal conductivity, i.e its ability to shed heat. this applies to normal glycol coolant too, the higher the percentage the worse it gets at shedding heat, but its a beneficial compromise due to raised boiling point, and no rust!

from the product specifications it says the only real benefit of waterless coolant is to be had from increasing the engine running temp and its ability not to turn into steam at higher temps. unless you changed the thermostat to over 120c that would make those null, so the only real benefit is protection against random overheats, maybe if the pump impeller fell off or something stopped "normal" coolant flow.