re: GTV6 coolant bottle caps

[Jay Negrin <jmnegrin@domain.elided>]

date: Mon, 5 Nov 2001 13:59:46 EST
From: Pottree@domain.elided
Subject: GTV6 coolant bottle caps

>>SNIP>>

You have just water in it now --
what kind of water?  Corrosive potable water or gentle as a babe
distilled?
(Jay Negrin will get on me for the H2O comments, but I would be
suspicious of
a cooling system that has had tap water dissolving it for very long).

Charlie
LA, CA, USA


You betcha, Charlie.

Distilled or de-ionized water is more corrosive than tap water.  pH is
lower, due to dissolved CO2 from the atmosphere.  Usually about 5.5 or
6.  Yes, that is slightly acid.  There is NO buffering effect, because
there are no salts of anything yet dissolved in it.  Water with nothing
in it "wants" to dissolve whatever it is in contact with.  That, my dear
sir, is corrosion of a sort, at least.  The hardest drinking water you
could stand would work better in a cooling system, as far as corrosion
is concerned.  What you have to worry about are the dissolved minerals
"plating out" on the inside of your motor.  Other than reducing the size
of the cooling passages in the motor (AND RADIATOR), this will, to some
smaller extent, reduced the efficiency of the cooling system.

The big flap last time around was whether to use distilled/de-ionized or
tap water in the cooling system WITH coolant/anti-freeze.  The
coolant/anti-freeze/anti-boil-over/corrosion inhibitors in approximately
a 50/50 ratio has always been a given.   Straight water, for a short
period of time, should not present a problem, unless there was a problem
already lurking about waiting to be discovered.

Jay Negrin
ARO Southern California
76 Alfetta GT - problably could use a "freshening up" of *it's* coolant,
come to think of it.
"freshening up" = replacement

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