What's the best antifreeze/coolant?

[tsuehpsyde]

Hmm, looks like I'll have to pickup some Iodine today and drop a few drops in my loop.

 

[tsuehpsyde]

Hey, check out what I found.

Clear Iodine for the win! Got a few drops in my loop now.

 

[Otter]

I was going to go clear but if I can go blue, nice.

Is 1:10 Solution general for all Antifreeze/DI Water?

Yes, for all glycol-based antifreeze, though "racing coolant" and other non-antifreeze additives will have different ratios. If you have only copper and brass in your loop, you can probably get by with 5% antifreeze instead of 10%.

 

[Otter]

hum i did a bout a 50/50 mix i have to redo that my temps went to hell after that mistake and im not shure why?

Because antifreeze is too thick. The pump has a much harder time forcing antifreeze through the loop than plain water, hence the flow rate drops, and the temps go up.

 

[Herr Rogers]

What material are the fittings that come with the BIX and most reservoirs? They look like silverish. BTW, I am using brass, and these silvery barbs only. I'm going to do 15% anti-freeze just in case.

 

[Joe Camel]

Because antifreeze is too thick. The pump has a much harder time forcing antifreeze through the loop than plain water, hence the flow rate drops, and the temps go up.

although that may play into the problem some too, the real reason is that antifreeze is worse @ moving heat than water. (there is really NO better cooling fluid than straight-up H2O!)

 

[firstdegreeab]

No Glycol, Lowers TC

It's a proven fact that any type of antifreeze will lower the thermal conductivity of the cooling system. The only reason why you might ever want antifreeze in your system is if you are experiencing below freezing temps. hence the name anti-freeze. From personal experience in my motorcycles, I know that water wetter for certain has dropped my operating temp a couple degrees. I don't use antifreeze in any of my bikes because i know they will never see below freezing temps. Just distilled H2O and the correct ratio of water wetter. I know liquid cooling for computer will never see the temps that a water cooled engine sees, so algea growth is a factor. Has anyone toyed with Distilled H2O, water wetter, and a drop or two of iodine?

 

[Joe Camel]

WOW, awesome 7th post, firstdegreeab!!!

welcome to the forums!!! (if you havent already been...)



your dead on! performance wise, there is NO reason to use antifreeze!

-but-

its the easiest anti corrosion additive... and thats why its used in PC cooling.


since ww (and hy-per / Zerex above) have the corrosion protection (and supposedly lower water tension in the fluid) but arnt freeze resistant or thick, *i* think youve come up with an excellent fluid mix!

 

[Herr Rogers]

I'm trying to figure out if you are being sarcastic Joe Camel. Didn't we already know what firstdegreeab wrote?

 

[firstdegreeab]

I hadn't heard of Valvolines super coolant or hyper lubes super coolant, they sound like pretty good stuff.

 

[outhouse]

each of our rigs are set up different and so are the needs

but to answer the ? ive been with dex-cool gm and its sweet 5 years or 150,000 miles lol the vw stuff is also good.

i would not use the stuff but when i had a mc350 pump that would work on and off i used the dex-cool and it fixed the problem so i still use it and my tubes are clean after a year or so as well the copper still looks good inside the loop

 

[Senater_Cache]

If you have mixed metals use 10% Zerex Antifreeze and 87% Distilled and 3% perf. enhancer (like WW but stay awy from WW IMO). If you have straight Copper reduce the antifreeze to 5% and up the water to 92%.
If all this is too complicated...use HydriX.

 

[tsuehpsyde]

Someone over at the [H] mentioned that using Iodine can cause a white buildup in your loop. Any truth to it? I'm watching out for it, but I plan on switching out my loop mixture anyway in a week or two. Just don't wanna have to alcohol bath any parts.

 

[citronym]

Someone over at the [H] mentioned that using Iodine can cause a white buildup in your loop. Any truth to it? I'm watching out for it, but I plan on switching out my loop mixture anyway in a week or two. Just don't wanna have to alcohol bath any parts.

From what I've been reading, just about anything can cause that white buildup in your system. Especially Water Wetter. Iodine may cause it, but I've never heard of it specifically causing it, and at any rate I doubt a few drops of iodine would cause the buildup as fast as a percentage of antifreeze or other additives would. I'm still going with the 5% antifreeze and some iodine (for all copper).

I've also gathered that some tubing clouds faster or easier than other tubing. The cheap HD tubing is probably the worst.

 

[blide30]

This is what I'm using not sure of all the ingridients but it seems to work fine. The only thing is I have noticed some evaporation? I figured it would just last forever like antifreeze....

P/N CL-W0044
UV Sensitive YES
Major Material Ethylene Glycol
Capacity 500 cc

 

[nikhsub1]

I use Hy-Per Lube, I have for years. Water Wetter should IMO not be used ever. It will muck up the system with a funk that will turn brown. In regards to the whitening of the tubing, I have found this to be releated to the type of tubing used. Masterkleer, vinyl, clearflex will all get a white film quickly no matter what is used in the loop. There is a discussion over at procooling here. I have found Tygon to be much more resistant to the clouding, yeah it costs more but I won't use anything else. Here are a couple of pics, one with Clearflex and one with tygon.

Here is Clearflex after about 3 months:



Tygon after about 3 months:

 

[citronym]

ICK, that white stuff is evil. I went with MasterKleer, I may reconsider and try the Tygon just because of the cloud resistance. Otherwise it just wasn't cost effective IMO, I'm def gonna think about it.

 

[EagleClaw]

Off topic: Very nice setup you have , so clean...Nice job

I will be setting up mine over the next few weeks and I am going to use Pentosin and a few drops of Iodine with distilled.

 

[Otter]

although that may play into the problem some too, the real reason is that antifreeze is worse @ moving heat than water. (there is really NO better cooling fluid than straight-up H2O!)

Yep, that too. Nothing beats H2O.

 

[nogard666]

What about glycol being very corrosive to some of the glues used in acrylic reservoirs? I know the Swiftech reservoir I have specifically says if a coolant with glycol is used in it it will nullify the warranty due to the corrosive effects of the glycol on the glue used to hold the reservoir together, even with anti-corrosive agents added.