What antifreeze should I use for my Pinto

[James Doulton]

I was chatting to a colleague about my Melos (I do work some of the time but chatting about kitcars helps to establish a common interest and is an important part of team building), anyway I was telling him about the Wondaweld that I had used to seal my leaking core plug and that I was intending to drain it tonight and replace it with antifreeze. He said that I should make sure that I don't use red antifreeze, only the blue stuff. He reckoned that the red stuff is more acidic and will eat through my rubber hoses. That's a bummer as I just bought 5 litres of the stuff from Halfords. Is he right?

[Big Vern]

Not heard of that before, surely rubber hoses wouldn't be attacked by acid - oil and methanol possibly but not acid surely. Sounds like he's thinking of electrochemical degredation - see website below. If it has the correct spec on the can then the colour usually means nothing, typically it just identifies the supplier. We have blue, green and orange at work and they are all the same spec.

Just make sure you dont mix water based and waterless coolant.

 

http://www.automotivecare.com/your-engine-101/cooling-systems/

[Dave Adams]

I use the green stuff that peugeot use. i deliver a lot of antifreeze and blend it in the tank for bulk delivery they are either a glycol or methanol base. mostly glycol....

[28ullkq4hau58]

that reminds me i need to get some anti-freeze ,,i,v run out ,,,

[Big Vern]

Just remember folks the 'new' waterless coolant that is starting to appear (very expensive at the mo) cannot be mixed with water or water based coolants.

[1xf87h8w80hlh]

it is NOT waterless you just can not mix with other coolants

[Big Vern]

Waterless coolant contains NO water - see below

http://www.evanscoolants.co.uk/faqs.html

[Paul Sheridan]

Thats an interesting one BV, would that be a useful addition to use in the  Astra Turbo engines we build?

[Big Vern]

Would have thought not putting them in an Astra would be the best addition to the engines you build :-)

[Paul Sheridan]

Could put one in the Phaeton, but tyres and diff's wouldn't last very long :-)))

[1xf87h8w80hlh]

if you read this you can mix with water. this is a CON its a pre mix that all maufacurers use and i know the speks that they give are bull i work for a deler

[Big Vern]

You obviously didn't read how it works! Having worked with a company that developed waterless coolant the whole point is For the coolant NOT to have H2O in it. Modern engines run coolant temperatures at or around the normal boiling point of water, whilst glycol anti-freezes raise slightly the boiling point of water, they degrade over time and should be replaced every three years if they are to remain effective. At boiling point water is staring to change state resulting in oxygen nucleates (bubbles) forming on the cylinder walls in the coolant jacket (interesting to see this in action) this prevents heat transfer to the coolant, controlling heat rejection is more important than ever these days as modern gaslone direct injection engines run 'close to the edge' on peak cylinder pressures and temperatures to minimise exhaust pollution. Since the 'control' of heat rejection into water based coolant is no longer reliable enough waterless coolants are being employed. They are currently expensive but as the become standard prod. Line fill the price will come down. Remember waterless coolant is designed to last the life of the car so overall it's relative cost would be low.
In an emergency you can top up a warerless coolant system that has leaked with water to get you home but in effecting repairs the coolant system must be flushed and replaced with new waterless
I doubt you are using waterless at a dealer yet - more likely to be 'long life' coolant which is probably the last iteration of water based coolant - halvoline XLC being the spec.d coolant for Ford, JLR and others.
To my knowledge only Bentley are using waterless as a pro. Line fill.
How that explains things:-)

[Dave Adams]

Part of the point of modern pressurized cooling systems is that the higher pressures raise the boiling point quite a lot (lower pressures reduce it a fair amount) and for that reason vacuum distillation is becomming much more popular. even if waterless coolant is availabe there is no earthly reason to use it in a pinto.