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down_home's avatar
down_home
Explorer II
Jan 30, 2014

Waterless Engine Coolant

I had probably run across the subject sometime but....
I was watching Wheelers and Dealers and they used a chemical, to purge all traces, of water, rust etc, from the cooling system, of a TR6 and installed somewhat expensive, I gather, waterless coolant. It didn't generate any pressure, in the system, as water and antifreeze, when it expands does.
Big bonuses was it cooled better than water/antifreeze and absolutely no corrosion and the coolant was for life.
Sounds just like want I want in the diesel pusher, if it doesn't break the bank.
Anyone familiar with it and how are the results?
  • Definitely check with your diesel engine manufacturer to insure that that coolant meets their specs for cylinder liner protection.

    I don't recall anyone with a diesel choosing this route.

    Caterpillar ELC, Fleetguard ES Complet OAT-- YES.
  • wildernesshd wrote:
    Is it Evans coolant?


    They didn't say. The kept the green color bottle label side opposite the camera too.
  • That stuff is most likely Evans Waterless Coolant.
    It is awesome sauce!, and you can run a zero-pressure radiator cap. But it's also fairly expensive ($48/gal), and requires a bit of effort to clean out the entire cooling system before you pour it into your radiator. You need to remove every drop of water.
    As far as I know it is compatible with ALL vehicle cooling systems.
    When it comes time to drain my coolant I'll be replacing it with Evans, but I'm not looking forward to that project :R
    Cheers
    -Mark
  • Only gets thick in extremely cold conditions and does not freeze, expand, and break engine blocks like ethylene glycol water mixtures.

    Nice when a person parks a rig for the winter in Novolosk Siberia, or plans a quick jaunt out to the asteroid belt.




    I do not trust products that do not furnish supportive technical data. Like thermal transfer values, thermal expansion data, penetration of cast iron (cylinders or liners) at elevated temperatures.
  • Factory fill might be interesting but I am not switching.
    I would like to know how much thermal energy it holds compared to 50/50 EG mix.
    May as well publish boiling point and slush point.
  • If it's EVANS which is the only waterless coolant I'm familiar with quite a few 7.3L owners switched over to it some years back. As mentioned it's a zero pressure coolant, HOWEVER, one thing to consider if it's the same formulation as it used to be it's basically a mixture of PG and EG coolants and it actually has less cooling capacity than the normal water/EG or water/PG mixtures since the main cooling capacity comes from the water in the coolant mixture and not the glycol component. It wasn't really an issue with the 7.3L engine since it had such a robust cooling system to start with, but other systems might not fair as well. This subtle fact is never discussed or documented for obvious reasons, but AFAIK it is in fact true. What to me knowledge that has never been thoroughly tested and documented is how much difference there actually is in the cooling capacity/effectiveness of the two systems.

    As mentioned it can be a bear to get all the water out and one way IIRC was after filling your system was to drain it a couple of times and save the drain and cook it on your stove to remove more of the water and then refill. Quite a hassle, but it was important to do to get those last traces of water out.

    Just something to consider if you're thinking of going this route.

    Larry
  • smkettner wrote:
    I would like to know how much thermal energy it holds compared to 50/50 EG mix. May as well publish boiling point and slush point.

    Evans does publish their specs…Boiling point for their Heavy Duty Coolant is 375ºF and freezing is -40ºF. According to their MSDS it's a mixture of ethylene glycol (<70%), propylene glycol, and a corrosion inhibitor.

    Evans does not make claims that their coolant has a higher heat capacity than a water/EG blend for one simple reason... Because it doesn't!

    The specific heat capacity of water at 210ºF (~ engine operating temp) is 1 BTU/lb/ºF and the specific heat capacity of PG is 0.67 BTU/lb/ºF. In terms of heat capacity, water wins hands-down. However, water boils at 212ºF… which is (no surprise) right at the designed operating temp' for most ICE's.

    So the benefit is not that Evans "cools better"…. rather their EG/PG mix has a boiling point that is much higher than the engine's coolant operating temperature. As a result, with Evans coolant the engine's cooling fan will run less frequently (assuming the fan switch/temp sensor is adjusted or replaced with one that has a higher temp setting) which conserves fuel, the cooling system does not need to be pressurized, the coolant will not "boil over", and the chance of cavitation is greatly reduced. In addition Evans is non-corrosive and has low toxicity.

    -Mark
  • I don't care if someone uses uranium hexafluoride to cool an engine. If those pistons and block gets to 260 degrees you'd better find a good place to pull or start thumbing through the yellow pages for a scrap iron dealer paying the highest prices.

    Coolant has a NASTY habit of pitting wet cylinder liners and other hot spots like around valve seats. Nalcool 2000 has been used for decades as an additive to try ans thwart erosion that puts pea-size holes into water jacket liner areas. In addition any company that sells safety pins to nuclear reactors that conveniently "forgets" to post clear and cognizant data that shows one of its MOST IMPORTANT RESPONSIBILITIES in this case BTU heat transfer ability in comparison to straight H2O and H2O Ethylene Glycol mix loses my interest instantly and forever.

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