Been searching with no results on what anti freeze to use with aluminum heads.Had the intake off my car to fix a leak and noticed that electrolisis is working on it already in 3000 miles.What are using to stop it? Thanks Joe
I don't think the coolant choice is as important as what water you mix with it. You should only use distilled water.
the coolant is'nt going to stop it, the distilled water will help, if you look on the net you can find a radiator cap that has an anode rod on it, this will not stop it either but it will slow it down drasticlly,
that stuff is cool, does it work good on the road though? if it does there is your answer (thanks for that)
Never use Dexcool. Unless you live near me. I make lots of money un-Dexcooling cars and resealing gaskets. Go with the anode idea. Also check the voltage from the coolant to ground (no shit) with a DVOM. I think 1.5 volts or less is OK. Put the pos lead of the DVOM in the coolant. Is your radiator not grounded? If it's floating on all rubber pads, run a ground strap to it.
I have a friend with a 215 Olds in a 37 Chevy and he said he uses straight anti-freeze. I thought this might lead to heating problems but we went from San Diego to St.Paul and back with him in our group and he had no problems. I also have a 86 Chevy Sprint with 276K on it (39mpg still highway) and I have always run straight AF in it after Doug with the 215 Olds told me that.
Evans NPG in my truck. No water ever. Runs cooler, even in 108* temps and 98% humidity in the Texas sun. Lasts forever. Expensive, but it's the last time you'll ever have to buy it.
Supposedly the boiling point on the NPG coolants is so high, you can run an unpressurized cooling system. That might mean you could get away with running a stock radiator in an A with a modern V8. If that's the case The price of that stuff wouldn't be so bad.
Just because a coolant does'nt boil till (just an example) 700 deg the engine can't take that heat, if thats the case why even use a radiator and just fill the engine with it and go, see what i'm trying to say?
are you talking about an iron block with aluminum heads? i've run good old prestone for many years in vintage japanese cars with this same configuration, and never had a problem. i always change it once a year the corrosion inhibitors are supposed to stop this, these new ones i have no idea about so i just run what i've been using since i was a kid. don't run it straight it's not designed to work correctly that way and i wouldn't run it much more then 50/50 unless you live in central Minnesota or something. A lot of people don't know this,but straight antifreeze is actually flammable. Never run anything but distilled water, the minerals in non distilled can wreck havoc on aluminum parts. one more thing to check, check your grounds, one thing that can destroy aluminum engine parts is current returning to ground through them, it basically becomes a battery.
You can also hit it once a year with Nalcool. It is an inhibitor package that keeps the PH of the coolant from becoming too acid.
A stock A radiator is pretty large. The main reason I know of for not using one is because they were never built to run pressurized and wont hold up structurally.
I run prestone in my sbc with aluminum heads, 50/50. I never use distilled water, water is the harshest solvent on the planet if it is low on minerals it will leach them from anything it can. I haven't had a problem with my heads, or my aluminum intake either for that matter. But I do run good grounds. If you are having a problem, or you are concerned I would be after an anode. About any speed shop catalog store can hook you up.
Evans NPG is around $32 per gallon. You've got to flush all the coolant/water out of your engine & radiator before adding Evans. Never add water to Evans...ever. So if you spring a leak in the cooling system somewhere for some reason, be sure to have spare Evans, or a whole bunch of water or regular coolant/antifreeze on hand.
But in Cold SD here straight Antifreeze will freeze and you wiil overheat. I know that in Yuma AZ, people use it straight, as water will evaporate. Here we mix it 50/50. I use a little bit of Snuggle fabric softener in mine. Helps with the tensoin of the water molecules and runs cooler. Smells Good to! A trick I picked up in my dirt track racing. CJ
Interesting post. Just getting ready to change the antifreeze in mine for the first time and a ton of aluminum (including the radiator) is involved. Lots of food for thought. Are there any outstanding sources for various types of anodes? I assume there are some that can hang into the radiator via a tiny chain as well as the type that replace the drain plug or radiator cap. I like my current cap so I am not crazy about changing it out, but am interested in other good options.
I have to agree with you about water being unfriendly to metals. I also think coolant must be used to prevent corrosion, especially when aluminum is present, but how are you so sure tap water is less likely to cause corrosion than distilled water? Most radiator and aftermarket parts manufacturers seem to recommend, sometimes even mandate using nothing but distilled water along with antifreeze. It may be because the minerals present in tap water can be harmful to some extent. I'd bet the main culprits are electrolysis and coolant that has been overused.
Late models have had aluminum heads for 2 decades. If you're getting corrosion it's something related to either the water used for mixing or electrolysis due to how your engine and radiator are grounded/ionizing. But not the antifreeze composition. good luck
the minerals in tap water when heated form compounds that will eat the holy hell out of aluminum parts, thats why you run distilled water with your antifreeze. every service manual I have for a car with aluminum cooling system parts has a large warning about using only distilled water.
I premix distilled water and antifreeze 50:50 and store it in 5 gallon containers so I always have the right stuff on hand to top off.
I'm with you on this. I see so much more corrosion problems with the dex cool systems. The new "gold" or universal extended life stuff seems to work well. It took a while for GM to realize that Dex Cool and Plastic don't go well together .
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