Methanol

[eXCeSS]

well after having a nice discussion with bongo (w/cing god im my opinion) he recomended that i use distilled/methanol/ww. methanol absorbs heat well and if i leak it will evaporate. but this also will happen in my tubes..


would you recomend using using methanol in my system? im gonna use it prolly like 80 to 20 with water. thanks :D

[nikhsub1]

I don't recommend it but it should be OK. Methanol can be hard on plastics though (I think). Water Wetter will leave a nasty residue so I would avoid it and use Hy-Per Lube or purple ice or zerex.

[Since87]

Originally posted by eXCeSS
methanol absorbs heat well and if i leak it will evaporate.

Breathing methanol can cause brain damage. If you are going to use it, make sure that it doesn't leak and evaporate.

[NeoMoses]

I wouldn't recommend methanol. It is corrosive to many metals, and can also attack many plastics. There's a thread from a couple of days ago about it destroying a Plexi res, I think.

The best anti-corrosive I've found is Dex-Cool antifreeze. Just use a 90/10 mix of distilled water/Dex-Cool and you won't have problems.

[eXCeSS]

is any antifreeze good?

can i do just water and aitfreeze? or do i need something else?

[srwven]

Any anti-freeze should perform well enough for this type of application(small radiator and small amount of water).

[penquissciguy]

You want to be careful that the antifreeze doesn't leak and evaporate, as the ethylene glycol that it is made of isn't good to breathe either. Also, be sure not to spill any if you have pets. It tastes sweet and they will lick it up.

Ken Worster

[n3xu5]

Mosr people i've seen use distilled water and antifreeze, but a lot of others also use distilled water and a additive like purpleice or supercool, etc.

For a long time i wanted to try Windshield wiper fluid but alot of guys here persuaded me not to hehe.

Windshield wiper fluid: 33:66 ratio
33% Methanol
66% Water

[amok time]

Cant you make distilled water by boiling water? No I'm not cheap, just got moths living in my wallet.

[n3xu5]

Originally posted by amok time
Cant you make distilled water by boiling water? No I'm not cheap, just got moths living in my wallet.

Ummm, i think that works but a gallon of distilled water at Krogers or the local grocery store costs what? 99 cents? :)

[I.M.O.G.]

Originally posted by RonnieG
Since typical PC WC don't experience freezing and/or boilovers then ethylene glycol isn't necessary, and it reduces performance (50/50 will have 85% the performance of pure water).

Glycols don't inhibit corrosion, it's the job of the corrosion inhibitor package in the coolant which could be several different compounds that could vary between formulations.

Dex-cool uses organic acid corrosion inhibitors. It's for cars with aluminum rads; some say it doesn't protect lead solder as well as the good old green coolants so it's probably not a very good choice for those with soldered copper/brass rads... unless it has the lead anticorrosive tolytriazole. And yes, it contains ethylene glycol, so it reduces performance. It's also more toxic.

As for water wetter et al, these were designed because slippery glycols are prohibited from the racetracks, not because they can increase your OC by a GHz. And take the performace claims with a grain of salt. Snake oil???

If you can't find glycol-free additives then conventional green antifreeze will do.

You probably won't need to mix 50/50 unless you have aluminum in your system, in which case you SHOULD change coolant regularly because the aluminum anticorrosive gets depleted over time (the silicates).

Also note that some antifreeze have coarse silicates which may damage (from abrasion) your pump. If you have no aluminum get silicate-free, like Toyota's red, or other japanese coolant.

If you have aluminum then I recommend dex-cool since the organic acids last MUCH longer than silicates. That's why it's called extended-life coolant, upto 5 years in your car.

30-40% coolant is probably a good trade-off between performance and corrosion protection. Remember that even an "all-copper" system may still have lead/tin solder in the heatercore and/or WB. Putting in too little coolant could mean insufficient corrosion inhibitors in your system.

As for methanol stay away from it. Poisonous when ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin. It won't protect from corrosion.