Mixed metals and impressed DC current

Hi guys,
Sorry for the rather technical first post, but my searching through the forum hasn't really turned up anything. I have a rather large (43"x7") aluminum radiator kicking around that I'd like to use in a loop, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to the best way to do it without worrying about galvanic corrosion. One thought I'd had was to impress a volt or so between the rad and computer ground to prevent corrosion. Has anyone tried this with mixed metal loops, and if so what were your results like?

Sounds like a computer-killing short waiting to happen to me.

If you're mixing metals, just use a corrosion inhibitor in the fluid.

ATMINSIDE said:

If you're mixing metals, just use a corrosion inhibitor in the fluid.

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Bingo. Check out the "water wetter" class of automotive products. You don't need antifreeze, the glycols inhibit heat transfer and don't do anything for the problem you're trying to solve. The water wetter type products generally have the corrosion inhibitors you need plus a surfactant which helps a little with system bleeding.

JeremyCT said:

Bingo. Check out the "water wetter" class of automotive products. You don't need antifreeze, the glycols inhibit heat transfer and don't do anything for the problem you're trying to solve. The water wetter type products generally have the corrosion inhibitors you need plus a surfactant which helps a little with system bleeding.

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Is something like Water Wetter on its own sufficient to prevent galvanic corrosion of the two different metals? Ideally I'd like to keep the number of additives to a minimum, but if just WW and some PTN is enough that might work as well. I didn't want to have to move to a heavy EG mixture.

MrTeal said:

Is something like Water Wetter on its own sufficient to prevent galvanic corrosion of the two different metals? Ideally I'd like to keep the number of additives to a minimum, but if just WW and some PTN is enough that might work as well. I didn't want to have to move to a heavy EG mixture.

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Water wetter is typically used to avoid corrosion in automotive coolant systems where multiple metals are mixed.
http://www.redlineoil.com/Products.aspx?pcid=10

In my experience, yes. My experience with aluminum in my loop was pretty minimal, however. You might want to look into a product that Amsoil sells call "Dominator Coolant Boost". Their standards based testing indicated excellent protection against aluminum corrosion in an automotive application, even when compared to Red Line's similar product. Plus it changes color if the pH of the solution starts going acidic, which I think is super neat.

https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-prod...tor-coolant-boost/?page=/storefront/rdcb.aspx

Ignore the marketing stuff and look at the corrosion tests.

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We generally steer people away from anything aluminum due to problems people experienced in the past, but if you're hell bent on trying it, a product such as that in your loop is essential. There are no guarantees, but your odds are light years better than running distilled water.

Good info, thanks guys. I probably won't be building anything until Skylake hits, so I might just grab some corrosion inhibitor and test it to see if there are any issues.