Waterless coolant

[Masher]

I was watching Wheeler Dealers the other day (as you do) and they decided to replace the water in the coolant system with a new waterless coolant. With water freezing from 2 degrees downward and boiling at 100 degrees plus creating pressure in the system, the waterless replacement won't freeze and boils at something like 200 degrees. I see an advantage in reducing pressure in the system but not sure if you will necessarily get better cooling (it is claimed you will). Water costs basically nothing and the replacement coolant is £90. Apparently it is important to purge the system completely of water before filling with the replacement coolant. To do this they used high pressure air lines and ultimately ran the car to 'warm' to evaporate off the last water.

I am wondering about the viscosity of the waterless coolant (flow through the engine, effect on the water pump...), whether it actually gives better cooling and ultimately whether it is worth £90 and the hassle.

Anyone got any experience?

Cheers
Mick

 

[alanchester]

Story in April's Porsche Post where they recommend it to a 996 driver.

 

[edh]

Seems pointless unless you have a specific problem. Having a coolant with a higher specific heat capacity than standard coolant could be handy if your car is getting hot, although ultimately I'd have thought you would reach the same limits of cooling ability of the radiator. Maybe you could use 0w20 oil? []

I don't think many people use just water as a coolant anyway - and bear in mind that under pressure the boiling point is higher than 100C, and the freezing point is lower with a glycol mix. I have seen claims for the water wetter additive that it lowers coolant temps a bit - which could be handy on turbocharged cars.

Spend the £90 on trackday fuel []

 

[Masher]

ORIGINAL: edh

Spend the £90 on trackday fuel []

So rare to find clarity of thinking along these lines []

Just wondering of two other things though:
1. Corrosion caused by water. Avoided by the waterless fluid? (could be another type of corrosion caused by the waterless fluid of course since the engine was not designed with this in mind).
2. Water, when heated, causes a pressure build up. IF this pressure is associated with component failures (gaskets etc) then a liquid with a higher BP might avoid this pressure and therefore possible component failure?

Not sure I'm convinced to make the change but the subject interested me so I thought I'd throw it out there...

Cheers
Mick

 

[edh]

Presumably this is the stuff?
http://www.evanscoolants.co.uk/

I can see a possible benefit in the 911 engines that are prone to bore scoring, which according to Hartech is the result of localised hotspots, arising from poor coolant flow. Higher BP coolant may reduce this.

Most coolants have corrosion inhibitors I think?

It's still not high on my list of priorities...At Rutland MarkK was trying to convince me of all the wonderful weight savings I could make on my car, but I think in the end we agreed that it was probably a better idea just to drive it.. []

 

[Masher]

Weight saving... I can never bring myself to completely rip the guts out of a car to save the last 20kg and then spend a fortune replacing parts (glass and panels) to shave another 100kg. Different if it was a race car. I lack commitment sometimes []

Drive it? Nice thought. Need to get it back from Augment first. Run into a couple of electrical gremlins but they're confident it'll be sorted very soon. Bursting for a track day []

Cheers
Mick

 

[Indi9xx]

It's not quite a chocolate teapot, it's more like a special kind of ceramic teapot which is theoretically less likely to be lethal if filled with TNT due to the cunning use of a plastic bag within the teapot (patent pending).

If anyone wants to buy some of my H2oPlus, its like water, with exactly the same boiling point as water, and can be mixed with anti freeze just like water, and is 100% compatible with all water cooled Porsche cars for the bargain price of £45 for a big bucket of it.

The benefit of H2oPlus is it is absolutely garaunteed not to contain nuts, so can be used without endangering coolant drinkers with nut allergies.

 

[Waylander]

ORIGINAL: Indi9xx

It's not quite a chocolate teapot, it's more like a special kind of ceramic teapot which is theoretically less likely to be lethal if filled with TNT due to the cunning use of a plastic bag within the teapot (patent pending).

If anyone wants to buy some of my H2oPlus, its like water, with exactly the same boiling point as water, and can be mixed with anti freeze just like water, and is 100% compatible with all water cooled Porsche cars for the bargain price of £45 for a big bucket of it.

The benefit of H2oPlus is it is absolutely garaunteed not to contain nuts, so can be used without endangering coolant drinkers with nut allergies.

My thoughts exactly, if it ain't broke don't fix it

 

[Masher]

^^ that's just drawn a line through the whole car modification market. Plenty of perfectly serviceable car parts have been removed, only to be replaced by parts which may offer an improvement (or conversely introduce a new problem). Maybe you have a point []

Cheers
Mick

 

[Frenchy]

Around £500 to fill my 997 with it after flushing with fancy flush stuff..............i will stick with good ol Cumbrian H2O .....................Top Stuff !! []

 

[ChasR]

The biggest issue for me is finding a coolant which 'keeps'.

Most of the blue coolants I have used have seen the water go rusty within a year, even on a rebuild engine. I have rarely seen this with OAT, especially with some of the longer life items (Ford's 10 year stuff has served me well). Glytasyn G48 didn't seem too bad the last time I used it.

For those saying coolant is coolant 260k on an original water pump and mostly original hoses in a car which allegedly has a reputation for overheating and potential water pump and HG failure makes you question things . I bought the car at 110k FWIW .