What do you put in your radiator?

[Jayahalasi]

Water?
Coolant?
What kind?

[red95svx]

A 50/50 mixture of water and antifreeze. Any ethylene glycol based antifreeze is fine. Just make sure it's the green stuff, not the pink stuff. I use Prestone.





Dave

[ensteele]

I put in antifreeze and water. There may be preferences on what brand of antifreeze to use, but it is more important to change it every year or so than what brand to use. Some members may chime in here to give reason why some are better than others. I use a major brand myself. :)

[SVXtra]

I use a 50/50 mixture of water and Prestone anti-freeze. Then every two years a radiator flush with BG Cooling System Flush. Then I use a bottle of BG Universal Super Cool in between flushes.

[ssnsltd]

distilled water and as little antifreeze (lowtox stuff) as I can get away with. I usually add some Waterwetter and water pump lube/oil.

[Pearlywhites1992]

distilled water and as little antifreeze (lowtox stuff) as I can get away with. I usually add some Waterwetter and water pump lube/oil.


I just refilled mine with a pre-mix NAPA product: it was
already half water/ half antifreeze fluid.

[Jayahalasi]

i'm using prestone 50/50 aswell I was wondering if that was good.. or if there was anything better.

thanks

[red95svx]

Anything is fine as long as it's the right type and changed on a regular basis.




Dave

[ssnsltd]

FWIW
The less antifreeze one uses, the better the system will cool. Yes, antifreeze raises the boiling point and lowers the freeing point (only if one stays 60% or below), but antifreeze does a poor job of exchanging heat.
Pure water with an additive like WaterWetter™ or the PurpleIce™ does a much better job of cooling.

Just remember to add some antifreeze for winter :)

This is a pretty good basic article
on the cooling system (http://www.centuryperformance.com/coolingsys.asp) .

[Dengue]

A 50/50 mixture of water and antifreeze. Any ethylene glycol based antifreeze is fine. Just make sure it's the green stuff, not the pink stuff. I use Prestone.





Dave
pink stuff? I think mine is orange, is that bad? I put it in with my new radiator over a year ago...

skip

[ssnsltd]

Ethylene glycol (EG) or Propylene glycol (PG) based formulas work fine. If you have pets or kids you should go with the PG Sierra (http://www.sierraantifreeze.com/)
Just follow the instructions on the label, the formulas do vary. If you have not changed and flushed in two years, and you don't have or are not sure what kind of Antireeze you have, it is a good idea to do so. No Antifreeze lasts forever, and "crap" builds up in the system.

I have seen Yellow, Green, Red, Orange, and variouse shades there-of as far as colors go. IF I remember right the “long life” stuff is red.

[SVXtra]

The advise of two year flushes while good for older cars is unnecessary for many new cars with long life coolant. My 01 IS300 and 03 GS300 both contain a long life coolant that is rated for approximately 80,000 miles according to my owners manual. I have come to trust these extended drain intervals because they are approved by both Lexus and my mechanic who chemically tests the coolant several times a year and always finds it to be in top condition or "as good as new" he says. But I still have the coolant flushed twice a year in my 67 Mustang because that's the way its always been done over the decades.

[benebob]

Anything is fine as long as it's the right type and changed on a regular basis.




Dave

Cool, we figured we'd go with a mixture of available air for ours. Hocrest seems to think that since planes are air cooled and go really fast our race car should be air cooled as well. Thanks for backing him up on this one :rolleyes: :D

[Phil Hill]

De-min/De-ionised water (yes I know they are different, but which ever is easiest to find), minimum antifreeze you can get away with, and WaterWetter.

[red95svx]

Cool, we figured we'd go with a mixture of available air for ours. Hocrest seems to think that since planes are air cooled and go really fast our race car should be air cooled as well. Thanks for backing him up on this one :rolleyes: :D


Very funny :rolleyes:

Just don't mix the red air with the green air.


Dave

[red95svx]

pink stuff? I think mine is orange, is that bad? I put it in with my new radiator over a year ago...

skip


Yeah....like that GM DexCool stuff. Orangy-pinkish. I guess it's not good for our radiators.



Dave

[benebob]

Very funny :rolleyes:

Just don't mix the red air with the green air.


Dave


Opps, maybe that's keeping us from being the fastest car around the course. I'm guessing mixing the two causes the stickers on the car to produce less horsepower.

[sperry]

I don't remember the colors, but there are two types of coolant when mixed together can result in a sludge that will kill your motor.

I thought it was the green vs. orange that would turn into sludge. Here's what I could find on google but it doesn't mention the sludge.

Don't mix the green, silicate-type antifreeze with orange antifreeze, Donald adds. The organic acids in orange types will cause separation of silicates in the green type, which greatly reduces corrosion protection.

However, there was a service bulletin about VW's that's along the lines of what I remember hearing:

http://www.detnews.com/2002/autosconsumer/0212/19/d01-32628.htm

Bottom line is, I just stick to the normal green stuff and distilled water.

[mbtoloczko]

I've been doing some reading on antifreeze lately. I've found that there are many different formulations, and just as many claims as to why one antifreeze should be used instead of another. In an attempt to make a rational judgement, I went and found what Subaru recommends. Subaru policy is that they recommend an antifreeze that is free of silicates but does contain phosphates. I also found out the Subaru antifreeze does use organic acid technology, but not the same stuff that is found in DexCool (2EH). It seems that the Japanese think that silicates are bad for water pump seals. The phosphate is used because it causes the formation of a film on the aluminum parts that protects the aluminum from erosion. However, I have also read that this film reduces heat transfer into the water (although the source for this info wasn't authoritative). If the film does have this effect, I figure that Subaru probably took into account the reduced heat transfer when designing the cooling system. In the end, I could find no antifreeze that satified Subaru's recommendation except the Subaru OEM antifreeze, so that's what I went with. (Actually, I bought a gallon of antifreeze from the local Toyota dealer because my local Subaru dealer wasn't even aware that Subaru has its own antifreeze formulation. How pathetic.)

I also found out that the "Subaru Cooling System Conditioner" is something to avoid. My parts guy in the Seattle area told me that ever since they started using this stuff, they have been seeing many radiatior failures. red95svx also mentioned the same thing about this stuff in a thread here.

As far as the ratio of antifreeze to water, there are some points here to be kept in mind. Antifreeze does reduce heat transfer efficiency, so less antifreeze is better in that regard, but it does contain necessary anti-corrosion agents. If you go less than 35% antifreeze, it would be good to dump in an anti-corrosion package. Redline Water Wetter would be a good way to go here. Its silicate free, so it satisfies Subaru's recommendation, and as a bonun, Water Wetter actually includes a water pump seal lubricant. At the opposite end of the antifreeze/water ratio, there is nothing to be gained by using more than 50% antifreeze unless its required by your climate.

[Chiketkd]

Great info Mychailo! :)

Per our discussion via PMs, with the n/a mods I'll be installing in the next month or so, I plan on purchasing the PWR aluminum rad and running a 40/60 mix of water/antifreeze w/ redline water wetter.

I'll also get a new bar & fin trans cooler and install it in series with the PWR trans cooler in my inner fender (as opposed to on the radiator where I have it now).

This should hopefully keep both my engine and 4EAT happy with the extra stresses I'll be placing on them!

-Chike