Water/anti-freeze ratio make this big of a difference?

[281pony]

ive been having a problem with my car running hotter then usual and i think i figured it out by accident.

i had probably 85/15 anti-freeze to water ratio in my radiator and the car ran hotter afterwards. now today i added water to it, so it was probably 65/35 now.

the car ran a little warmer, like 3-4 degree's, but it had more consistant temps and didnt heat up as much once it was shut off. ran at 195-200 in 90+ degree stop and go weather, and went to 209-211 once it was shut off. yesterday it went to 222 once shut off via autometer gauge.

so im wondering does the mixture of them make that much of a difference? i always heard 50/50, 60/40, ect. is the ideal mixture, but i never thought it was such a big deal.

ran good enough to play around with a camero entering the freeway even

 

[stang22]

You still run a fan clutch or electric fan?

Coolant takes longer to heat up and longer to cool down. Water heats up faster and cools down quicker. I have always used a 50/50 ratio, which I believe is just about everyones recommendation on a daily driver.

What thermostat are you running? I use a 180 and when I am sitting in traffic my cars temp gauge goes up a little bit, but nothing to worry about. As soon as the thermostat opens, it goes back to normal.

Tim

 

[mikeflys1]

Antifreeze by itself doesnt carry much heat so it definately makes a difference when you have too much.

 

[88_GT_5_oh]

i run 50/50 give or take.


it doesn't really get so hot that i have to worry about it that much, but in the winter if you don't enough antifreeze (like at least 60%) it will FREEZE up on you, but thats why we have block heater i guess

 

[281pony]

stock fan, stock radiator, unknown thermostat really. im going to replace it soon with a 180 so i know for sure.

thats interesting though, i never read or thought about the coolant much. ill have to mix it next time i drain the radiator. maybe sooner rather then later, it is finally getting hot outside here.

 

[88_GT_5_oh]

if its an unknow t-stat replace it with a 180, around here i change my t-stat every fall and every spring cause in the winter i like to run a 192 so it heats up nicely, and really doesn't get a chance to get much hotter than 190 anyway, and i 180 in the sumemr so it cools off better. this is in my tempo BTW i did this when i winter drove the stang as well for that one winter

 

[HISSIN50]

water transfers heat 2.6 times better than E/G antifreeze.

 

[89MustangGX]

water transfers heat 2.6 times better than E/G antifreeze.

Thank you! I have always known it was better, but never knew exactly how much.

 

[HISSIN50]

Thank you! I have always known it was better, but never knew exactly how much.