Coolant questions!

[justinray]

I'm going to switch to Evan's 'no water' coolant, but need to drain ALL of mine out first, where are the block drains? Also with a boiling point of 350*, do I need to worry about the same 243* as before? Or what kind of headroom does that give me?

 

[RLDSL]

it will raise your running temp slightly, but with the boiling point at actually 375 deg non pressurized, , you have no worries, you would have to bury the needle before it would boil . you can take a regular stant 7 lb cap and snip off the little thin rod holding the inner disk that pulls down for return coolant and turn it into a zero pressure cap saves wear on the system.

block drain on ea side of engine at oil pan , nice to replace with petcock style drains so if yo have to work on it, drain coolant into clean pan , then filter through cheesecloth and pour back in when done

 

[justinray]

So more or less, I could put that there, and not worry one bit about my temps til they hit 375*?

 

[franklin2]

You can still overheat the engine. Just because the coolant doesn't "boil over" doesn't mean your engine is not running too hot. The same rules still apply as with stock coolant, i would not let the engine get over 240-250. There is a coolant drain also on the oil cooler above the oil filter.

 

[justinray]

If the worry at 240 was due to boiling the water, then what would be the worry with a fluid that doesn't boil til 375*? you're not going to melt the block?

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

240* is 240*. does not matter what fluid it is. the boiling point does not matter as once your engine sees 240*+ bad things will start to happen. the engine does not know what the temp is. all it knows is that it is f'ing hot.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

fleetcharge has a boil point of 265 degrees,mixed 50/50 w/ 15 lb cap.that doesn't mean id want my temp gauge reading over 240 degree's (for any real length of time) just the same lol.
http://www.fleetchargeantifreeze.com/fleetchrg_spec.htm




Frequently Asked Questions
14. "Is Evans advocating operating engines at substantially higher temperatures? Not really. Operating temperatures are normally only slightly warmer than those of water-based coolant. When the engine is stressed and temperatures rise, the cooling system can accommodate that increase in temperature without cooling system failures."

http://www.evanscooling.com/how-it-works/frequently-asked-questions/

Benefits:

Substantial fuel economy improvements through reduced fan-on time and higher thermostat temperatures.

Radiator fan-on time, which draws in the range of 25 horsepower, can be cut more than 50 percent. This saves about 1.37 gallons of diesel per hour of fan run time.
A 7% fuel economy improvement was gained by raising fan-on temperature to 230°F -resulting in reduced fan-on time -in a yearlong test conducted with a fleet of Connecticut refuse trucks.
A 3% fuel economy improvement was gained by using 215°F thermostats in conjunction with Evans Heavy Duty Coolant. This was proven by the SAE Type II Fuel Consumption Test conducted by the PAVE Research Center at Auburn University. The engine fans were locked "on" for both the test and control trucks, eliminating the fans as a variable that could affect the test results.


notice,that's nothing fleetcharge can't handle with ease fyi.
(and how i run mine all the time with it.)

 

[justinray]

Okay, point taken. Part of me was leaning towards being able to get a bit warmer without worrying about boiling, and being able tor run a 0psi radiator cap.

 

[Dave 001]

Part of me was leaning towards being able to get a bit warmer without worrying about boiling, and being able tor run a 0psi radiator cap.

Keep in mind that cavitation is more likely to occur at lower pressures than at higher pressures. Just something to consider.

Dave

 

[justinray]

Hmm, hadn't considered that, but I also thought it wouldn't be a problem with no water coolant.

 

[franklin2]

If the worry at 240 was due to boiling the water, then what would be the worry with a fluid that doesn't boil til 375*? you're not going to melt the block?

I am sure letting the engine get really hot does it no good. It's ******* seals and gaskets, and the metal castings tend to warp. I have also personally rebuilt a John Deere tractor engine that overheated(didn't boil over, just got hot) and after that would not run again. When I took it apart, the oil had cooked itself on the piston rings, and they had seized inside the pistons, so it had no compression. One of the pistons had also swelled up enough that it had scored it pretty bad, but they cylinder wall was saveable.

 

[Dave 001]

Hmm, hadn't considered that, but I also thought it wouldn't be a problem with no water coolant.

Any liquid (not just water) will cavitate at some point. It has to do with heat, vapor pressure, and other variables. I have no idea what the characteristics are of the Evan's product. Just wanted to mention the cavitation vs. pressure connection so that you could make a good decision.

Dave

 

[justinray]

I appreciate all of the information, I'm not onesided on the idea, and if I was I wouldn't have posted it in the first place. Maybe I just change to fleetguard.

 

[RLDSL]

You are hearing from a lot of speculators, how about from someone who has had no less than 3 of their engines saved by this stuff ( along with 3 family vacations )
I've done EXTENSIVE research on this after having one of my diesel cars overheat up in NY and having to spend a fortune renting a uhaul truck and trailer to get it home to rebuild the thing, when just a few extra seconds would have made the difference between safe shutdown and warped head
Turns out that damage does NOT come from temperature... SO LONG AS THE TEMPERATURE IS EVEN! Damage occures when you get air bubbles, air pockets and other points of UNEVEN heating . THis leads to massive stressing of the metals involved, especially when dealing with aluminum , once you get uneven heating and air pockets, you have uneven expansion and its just a matter of time before something bends or cracks or blows out.

I had one trip in one of my cars hauling a little single axle travel trailer in west tx in July in the mountains south west of Pecos and had a thermostat stick climbing a hill on a dangerous 2 lane where there was no safe place to pull over and with a load of kids in teh car and hot and cold running tankers around every curve, I just kept pushing with the temp gauge pegged. I finally topped the hill and the computer killed the engine and a handfull of sensors MELTED from the intense underhood temperature. When I popped the hood, the clips had melted off the air filter box along with numerous other plastic things having had melted from the heat. I let it cool down, unplugged the AMM and got it in limp home and gimped it to a motel and called my parts place to have goodies flown in. After they arroived, $115 and about 20 minutes work and we were back on vacation, ZERO damage to that engine, had that been green stuff, it would have been all over but the $1800-2000 head job on the spot. That was just one of the engines it saved.
Whats really funny is when I called the folks at Evans to thank them, the guy on the phone started chuckeling. and then he told me about some of the race cars that come in after having fan and water pump failures and the guys will stay out and finish a race and just about all the plastic loose stuff under the hood will be a melted gooey mess , but the engines will still be ticking along just fine
This is some serious stuff. I know its hard to wrap your brain around new things, and even harder to believe , but every once in a while, somebody comes up with something that actually works.

With everything weve been through with that stuff, its one thing that even my wife insists that we put in all the vehicles

 

[justinray]

Thats what I was thinking, but until I hear from someone like you that has done it with amazing results, I have to respect everyone's thoughts. So until the sensors start melting I'd be fine, so figure out the melting point for plastic and I'll be good to go. Haha.