What do you put in your radiator?
 

Water?
Coolant?
What kind?

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

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. :)

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.

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.

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

thanks

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




Dave

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 .

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

skip

Ethylene glycol (EG) or Propylene glycol (PG) based formulas work fine. If you have pets or kids you should go with the PG Sierra
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.

Flushing every two years depends on the car.
 

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.

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

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.

Very funny :rolleyes:

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


Dave