Question on antifreeze for coolant- what type?

I'm running clear PC ICE with an anti-corrosive Red UV dye right now, but I am seeing that a lot of people like using antifreeze.

My question to those are (and I couldn't readily find the answer in other threads), what kind of anti-freeze? Are you using the Green stuff, or the Orange 'Dex-Cool' stuff?

I know that Dex-cool has some kind of anti-sludging properties, as well as no glycol and less chance of corrosion, but how would this work in a typical WC setup?

Anti freeze is ethylene glycol the green and red bits are just pigments so that people dont drink the stuff.

Just look on the back of the bottle and read the ingredients... or if you want stuff that is clear (without the pigments) you can buy pure analytical grade ethylene glycol from sigma chemicals.

I've always used Prestone brand green antifreeze. I've had the same mix in my loop for several years(3-4, can't remeber exact, been a long time since I filled it ) now with no corrosion or growth whatsoever.

Ethylene Glycol alone does not contain the anti corrosives that anti-freeze does. EG changes the specific gravity of the water it's added to, thus changing it's freezing point. Since it's an alcohol, it's molecules disperse evenly between water molecules and won't separate without distillation.

Either the green or the red type will work in your system, just most prefer to have greenish water in their system over a pink color.
We use a greater dilution over what is in a car, 3-5% is just fine, as we don't usualy need the sysem to actually resist freezing, so the color is diluted as well.
If you use a waterblock with an aluminum top on it, 10% is recommended to stop the battery effect corrosion that happens from mixing metals in a waterloop.
There's also Pentasyn <sp?> that is the blue anti-freeze used by VW and other imports makers. That looks cool.

I use the plain old green AF found at the local gas station.

Its Pentosin Diggrr was refering to, an anti-freezing agent and corrosion inhibitor used by German automotive industry(VW, BMW). G11 is Blue, G12 is Red.

just whatever you do, dont use dexcool.

Spawne32 said:

just whatever you do, dont use dexcool.

Click to expand...

Yeah, i figured that as there are documented issues with sludging with Dexcool.

I'll probably use the Pentosin since I can land it cheaper than PC Ice from my VeeDub dealer.

Thanks everyone.

The toyota dealer antifreeze is red Pentosin. Pentosin is really a good way to go as it is silicate free and is about the slowest thing to cloud tubing as far as antifreezes go.

Remember though that if you have any indoor pets, you might want to go with a propylene glycol antifreeze instead just in case of a leak as ethylene glycol is very poisonous if ingested.

ethylene glycol killed Dumbledoor

Really though yeah be careful if you have pets. My cat came in and was investigating the container that had a little bit of water/pentosin in it that I used to fill my loop. It took a second before it clicked in my head to get her the hell away from it.

You're not going to get any growth with PC Ice, there's no real reason to switch to antifreeze it's taking a step backwards since you lose the non-conductivity.

Thats a myth. PC Ice and all of the other "nonconductive" fluids are no more or less conductive than any other combination of the same glycol and bases (generally what antifreeze and other anticorrosives use) everyone else is using. Hell, if you want the same level of "non-conductivity" use pure distilled water. Water itself is not conductive but dissolved metal salts and metal ions (like the copper, aluminum, tin, and/or lead ones you're going to get in your fluid no matter what you use) are conductive.

Moto7451 said:

Hell, if you want the same level of "non-conductivity" use pure distilled water.

Click to expand...

And change your coolant occasionally. Most mixes are non-conductive to begin with, but none I've heard of will stay that way indefinitely in a practical cooling system.

Has anyone done controlled tests to see if the "non-conductive" coolants stay that way any longer than other formulas?

Exactly my point.

No but I'm half tempted to do one myself. Maybe SSS would know some people to contact?

Give in to the temptation, Moto. You know you want to. (And I'd love to see your results.)

Moto7451 said:

Thats a myth. PC Ice and all of the other "nonconductive" fluids are no more or less conductive than any other combination of the same glycol and bases (generally what antifreeze and other anticorrosives use) everyone else is using. Hell, if you want the same level of "non-conductivity" use pure distilled water. Water itself is not conductive but dissolved metal salts and metal ions (like the copper, aluminum, tin, and/or lead ones you're going to get in your fluid no matter what you use) are conductive.

Click to expand...

I've tried the distilled water route and I lost a graphics card after a leak. I switched to PC Ice, leaked in the same place (I hadn't figured out the source) and the liquid sat on my graphics card without causing a single problem. So I don't see how you can say that nonconductivity is a myth unless you have experience with distilled water leaking on your system parts and not losing anything.