best coolant additive

Based on your experiences, what cooling additive would you guys say is the best "bang for the buck" and actually makes a difference (no matter how big or small) considering a large quantity (maybe a jug compared to a little bottle) with price.

I use prestone anti-freeze and it is fine.

$9 for a gallon is cheap too

Zerex racing coolant from "crazy cp".

How much temp decrease do you see with using those too? Thanks.

Not sure, I have always used anti-freeze.


Don't use just distilled water

sup3rcarrx8 said:

How much temp decrease do you see with using those too? Thanks.

Click to expand...

You won't, the additives are for corrosion protection. Straight distilled water would offer better thermal transfer than a mix with a "super coolant" or antifreeze, but would run the risk of corroding blocks over time, most especially if one is running a system with components of "mixed metals"... Eg, copper block and aluminun rad, or an aluminum-topped copper block, etc.

Most aluminum-topped blocks are anodized, but the process isn't foolproof, and if the anodizing layer is scratched or degrades over time, it can expose the aluminum to the water already in contact with the copper.

Better safe than sorry

which ones leave no residue on the tubes? So far all the additives i've tried leave somthing on the tubes.

Is the residue due to the tubing being somewhat porous and absorbing the additive/coolant? Thank god for full copper loops and clear tubing

I'm starting to believe that bacteria can cause a lot of the cloudiness seen in tubes. I know for a fact that antifreeze, while poisonous to almost all animals, doesn't always bother bacteria.

This time around, with antifreeze and Methanol, I'm seeing no cloudiness. I saw a lot when using just antifreeze.

Same here johan. The film I got would absorb color and turn all funky green/yellow. Even after scrubbing and a pinesol enema a lot of my old tubing still has a tint of green.

after many hours of searching i've decided to go with Prestone®
Extended Life 5/150 Antifreeze (DEX-COOL®). the corrosion inhibitors
in DEX-COOL® last alot longer than in standard ethylene glycol based
anti-freeze. i figure if you can go 5 years or 150,000 miles it should
last at least a year in my PC. i'm going to use 25% antifreeze 75%
distilled water.

as rmonster said, adding anything will only take away waters ability
to cool. in small amounts (i.e. <30%), the coolant won't hurt cooling
all that much.

said by
{BC}Helix "which ones leave no residue on the tubes? So far all the additives i've tried leave somthing on the tubes."

Click to expand...

i hear ya {BC}Helix. alot of the additives leave a film on all the surfaces.
something i'm not very fond of myself. i almost went with ZEREX super
Protector, but it too leaves a film. i'm hoping the DEX-COOL®
type doesn't leave a film. anyone using this type care to comment
on this?

said by johan851 "This time around, with antifreeze and Methanol, I'm seeing no cloudiness. I saw a lot when using just antifreeze."

Click to expand...

what kind of anti-freeze were/are you using? also, what kind of ratio
of water/antifreeze/methanol did you decide to use? i was going to
take a chance and not use anything to kill the little cridders, but i may
get some Methanol.

thanks
rich

Methanol would be a good idea. I was using about a 12.5% ratio of antifreeze to water, with Havoline Dex-Cool antifreeze - basically the same formula as the Prestone stuff. I'm sure that there's virtually no difference between the two.

I ended up using about 12.5% antifreeze, maybe about 5% methanol, and the rest distilled.

Yeah anti-freeze works great. No discoloring in tubes and temps seem on par with water-wetter. I say it's worthwhile as you don't need to change mixture and/or tubing as often!

Heck, i've been runnning my mixture for about a year and the Clearflex still looks brand new!

So when using antifreeze in the WC setup, you just swirl it around in the container where you transfer the water from right? Also do you just use tap water or it doesn't matter? Thanks.

I'd use distilled water to insure my water is somewhat free of minerals and whatnot. Depending where you live the tap water can be full of stuff to fairly clean. For a buck a gallon of distilled its cheap insurance though.

johan851 said:

Methanol would be a good idea. I was using about a 12.5% ratio of antifreeze to water, with Havoline Dex-Cool antifreeze - basically the same formula as the Prestone stuff. I'm sure that there's virtually no difference between the two.

I ended up using about 12.5% antifreeze, maybe about 5% methanol, and the rest distilled.

Click to expand...

thanks for the info johan . i'm sure the two share the same
inhibitor agent as to be GM certified.

well i will have a mix of aluminum and copper (DDRBX/MAZE4 GPU) so
maybe i'll try 25% anti-freeze with 5% methanol the rest disstilled.

said by sup3rcarrx8"So when using antifreeze in the WC setup, you just swirl it around in the container where you transfer the water from right? Also do you just use tap water or it doesn't matter? Thanks."

Click to expand...

the liquids will mix on there own once the system is running and the
pump is flowin.

*echoing sonja* do not use tap water. check out this thread from the WC sticky section.
it covers the most FAQ. distilled is the water of choice in the PC/hotrod enthusiast comunity.

rich

[edit] edit for grammar. [/edit]

Products likeZerex etc. are supossed to put a slight coating on everything which helps hold down corrosion. Looks bad but works well.

As far as water. I prefer "Hawaiii Water" which is certified pure and free from any minerals and is highly filtered on top of that. Got it at Safeway. I used to use Aquafina, but I think this is even purer.