no antifreeze

[danny g]

hello,


I want to flush my radiator again. I did it about 35k miles ago and it helped. I was thinking of draining it putting in water and flush stuff and driving around with it like that for a week or so. Would this hurt anything. I dont think it should being its summer time. Let me know i could be crazy.

Thanks,

 

[Matto]

I would just take a water hose and theres a cap somewhere on the car, and what you do is you flush all the old stuff out with the water, then once that is done put the cap back on and refill the car with new antifreeze. Sorry I'm not real good with details, I did mine in auto mechanics but I can't exactly remember which cap it was.

 

[danny g]

Thanks for the quick post but that wasnt my question. As I said...... I already did this before. i know how to do it. I was wondering if i could drive around with only water and the flush for a while to really clean the radiator out. i want to know if this will screw anything up.

thank you

 

[Matto]

Thanks for the quick post but that wasnt my question. As I said...... I already did this before. i know how to do it. I was wondering if i could drive around with only water and the flush for a while to really clean the radiator out. i want to know if this will screw anything up.

thank you

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm not a mechanic, but, if I were you I wouldn't do that. I'm not sure if it is necessarily bad for the engine, but like said, I took auto last year and I've never heard of anyone doing that to their car, and my teacher never suggested anything like that. He just said to flush it out and refill it with new stuff.

 

[danny g]

thats true. I never heard of it either. But just because i never heard of it doesnt mean it cant be done or if no one has ever does it means it is a bad idea. my main worry is the boiling points. Straight water should have a lower boiling point than with antifreeze. will this warp anything? Any idea?

Thanks again

 

[Matto]

thats true. I never heard of it either. But just because i never heard of it doesnt mean it cant be done or if no one has ever does it means it is a bad idea. my main worry is the boiling points. Straight water should have a lower boiling point than with antifreeze. will this warp anything? Any idea?

Thanks again

Thats what I was thinking as well... I can't imagine it'd keep the car too cool seeing as how antifreeze has additives and all that good stuff. Maybe someone with a bit more mechanical knowledge will chime in, though

 

[VictorII]

Best to follow the instructions on the flush. You could damage the hoses by leavng it in too long. The flush compound works fairly quickly anyway. Here's a hint, when you refill after flushing, use distilled water instead of regular water with your antifreeze. Less minerals. And also use Red Line Water Wetter. It will neutalize the ramaining minerals and chemicals, make the coolant mixture more effective and lube the water pump.

 

[stallion98gt]

good write up here:
http://www.bullittarchive.com/Maintenance/basics/flushing_radiator/

 

[VictorII]

Also, if you don't want to guess on the mixture (50/50), premix half distilled water and half antifreeze in a clean gallon jug.

 

[bdcardinal]

its not bad to run pure water with the flush stuff for a few days. just make sure that when you refill it to NOT use distilled water. just get the 2 gallons of prestone from costco for $11 and mix that with tap water and youre good to go. btw at teh dealer we didnt use distilled water because the distilled water eats up the aluminum.

 

[danny g]

ok, I am gonna do that and let all know. I plan on running just water and cleaner for 1 week. If somethng goes bad ill post it.

Thanks and wish me luck.

 

[Go HoTO!]

Water is FINE. The engine will run a lot cooler than with a 50/50 mixture and you will see HP gains. HOWEVER, there are other additives in coolant that prevent corrosion problems and adjust the pH. They contain phosphates and TT that coat the internal components. Water alone will rust the crap out of the system in a short period of time.

You may want to think about going with a 25% mix and then hit it with some redline water wetter. Don't forget to change it back in the winter.

 

[Go HoTO!]

BTW distilled water should not pose any problems with aluminum as long as the pH is between 7 - 9. Distilled water generally has a pH of between 7.0 and 7.5. I would think distilled water would pose more of a problem with steel than aluminum. You need some calcium in the water in order for the phosphates to react properly to prevent corrosion. I am NOT a mechanic and I don't play one on TV, BUT I have been an Industrial Water Treatment consultant for 10 years and the same pricipals apply. If the coolant has the proper additives, the best choice of water should be distilled PERIOD. But a safe bet might be to use lower hardness water with about 50 - 100 ppm of calcium.

I will read a few bottles of coolant the next chance I get and look into this issue a little more and then you my opinion. The thing is, I am sure they may make these products as a "one product fits all" situation to work with all types of water, so you give up some too.

 

[huesmann]

But doesn't antifreeze kind of go against the purpose of using water wetter?

 

[Venom_Nitrous]

DO NOT run with just water in it for more than 15 minutes or so. If you want to flush the inside out, like doing a rinse of the engine block which is what I suppose you are doing, drain it, then fill with just water, let it idle for 5 minutes and drain again. Or you can get a flush kit that adapts the hose to the rad. cap and pumps water through. If you don't use antifreeze it will corrode everything in no time, overheat because antifreeze conducts and expels heat much better than water alone, and it has ingredients in it to prevent corrosion. Distilled water ONLY. How can distilled water corrode worse than tap water. If you run just tap water it will boil and leave behind minerals which will clog everything up.

 

[bdcardinal]

ive taken apart motors that have been corroded by distilled water. it eats away at the metal. also you can get away without using coolant, what do you think they do in NASCAR. there are some NASCAR teams that use a 50/50 mixture of water and water wetter. actually water alone cools substantially better than water/coolant mixture. we had someone run pure coolant and the car overheated in no time. the reason that coolant is used is to prevent the water from frezing and cracking the block. also coolant has additives that help prevent corrosion and lubricates the waterpump. we had a prestone guy come to our school and he said to use tap water especially in european cars.