Radiator coolant- (whats the best to use)

[Guest]

Radiator coolant- whats the best to use?

There are a few options at the local shops. Can we use the red coolant instead of the normal green stuff? Once again whats the best?


TECTALOY 90 PLUS
Tectaloy 90 Plus is a pre-mixed, 33% Anti Freeze/Anti Boil. This radiator coolant is formulated for heavy duty use and is designed to meet the increased demands placed on passenger vehicles today. Ideally suited to modern multi valve engines working under increased loads.
DARK GREEN, 3 YEARS/40,000 KMS


TECTALOY 100 PLUS
Tectaloy 100 Plus is a pre-mixed 50% Anti Freeze/Anti Boil, ready to use second generation organic radiator coolant. Formulated for heavy duty long life use, it is designed to offer the maximum cooling system protection possible. Tectaloy 100 Plus is ideally suited to late model and high performance vehicles.
It is recommended as a replacement for factory fill coolants.
DARK GREEN, 4 YEARS/100,000 KMS


TECTALOY XP7 RED
Tectaloy XP7 Red is specifically formulated as a replacement for any factory fill red coolant more commonly found in late model vehicles. It is easily identified by its distinctive colour. Tectaloy XP7 Red is a premium silicate free glycol based Anti Freeze/Anti Boil providing long term corrosion protection with excellent heat transfer properties. The product contains a colour change warning feature should the coolant require changing prior to the scheduled service period, the coolant can vary in colour from red when functional to yellow if a change is required.
RED, 5 YEARS


Long Life Concentrated Coolant
Nulon Green Long Life Concentrated Coolant (LL) is the ultimate cooling system protection you can provide for your vehicle. It contains the latest hybrid organic acid technology (HOAT) anti-corrosion chemicals which provide maximum protection for up to 4 years or 250,000km (whichever comes first). Guaranteed safe to use in all vehicle cooling systems.


Red Long Life Concentrated Coolant
Nulon Red Long Life Coolant (RLL) provides the ultimate anti-boil, anti-freeze and corrosion protection for all late model vehicles, including petrol, diesel and heavy-duty diesel applications. RLL incorporates the most up-to-date organic acid technology (OAT) carboxylate corrosion inhibitors. RLL is the preferred coolant to use in cooling systems fitted with aluminium radiators.

 

[Guest]

I use Nulon green long life in my car it seams to do the trick..

 

[Guest]

I buy the green Castrol "Anti-Freeze Anti-Boil" concentrate (95% ethylene glycol) and mix it to the appropriate ratio with de-mineralised water.

Some of those premixed ones can be really watered down to watch out you are actually getting some glycol with your water!

 

[Guest]

I'll start the Amsoil bandwagon again and suggest their Antifreeze and Engine Coolant. Heard nothing but good things about it, of course a bit harder to come by though.

Also another I have heard nothing about good reports about (and will be trying in a few weeks time) is Redline Water Wetter

But saying that, I have a couple of mates who grab whatever is on special at Supercheap/Repco and apparently it's been fine for them

 

[bradc]

Generic green stuff for me too. If you do go with red stuff you have to flush your cooling system extremely well to avoid the two reacting and clogging things up, generally not a good idea.

 

[naughtika]

I use the Tectaloy Xtra Cool Concentrated Coolant.. my dad's been using it for more than 10 years and never had issues with it as long as you replace it around 50k kms..

 

[Guest]

Ok thanks for the input I'll stick with the green stuff.

Oh thats the other thing with raitios 50% or 33% Anti Freeze/Anti Boil?

I'm also adding a bottle of royal purple ice.
http://www.royalpurple.com/radiator-additive.html

 

[naughtika]

i think most of them are anti freeze/anti boil..

not sure about the ratio..

what we usually do is flush the coolant and replace it with fresh clean water (tap or demineralized) then when the radiator is nearly full, we fill the radiator with the coolant (3/4) only then the other 1/4 is on the overfill tank..

 

[Guest]

I always mix mine 50-50.

 

[Guest]

DO NOT PUT THAT PINK/RED STUFF IN YOUR CAR,
its is not recommended for our car nor compatible with the green stuff.

 

[Mortz]

I'm using the Mistubishi Coolant which is concentrated and does need mixing. Don't think I paid any more then I would've for something like tectaloy. Seems to be doing well as far as I can tell.

 

[twisted32]

One brand of green coolant is not always compatible with another green coolant. Do not rely on the colour to see if it is compatible. Change your coolant, and only top up with the same coolant.

I tried the Prestone coolant that is supposedly compatible with any other coolant, and I noticed my temps were more erratic than with the Nulon that I had before. Car was my old 99 GT Forester. I was able to monitor water temps via Power FC hand controller. It never overheated, but temps would rise to 92-94 degrees (and thermos kick in) on cool days, where before it would sit @ 88 degrees consistenly. Both coolants had redline water wetter added.
In light of this I would recomend Nulon anti freeze/anti boil

 

[SiliconAngel]

Sorry I didn't see this until now. I highly recommend* using a high % glycerol concentrate and mix with demineralised water at 50/50. The benefits to this are multiple:

• Protects against corrosion

• Increases the boiling point, which means the engine can get hotter before the coolant boils. If the coolant reaches boiling point it will be expelled from the expansion tank, leaving you with superheated gas to cool your engine down,which clearly isn't a good idea. Generally speaking, the higher your boiling point the better.

• Normal undistilled 'tap' water contains large quantities of minerals and chemicals that will both corrode and deposit on the engine and radiator's surfaces, reducing heat transfer. ALWAYS use demineralised water in your cooling system.

*Steve's mention of Water Wetter deserves special mention - in Australia we rarely have to concern ourselves with antifreeze, so non-antifreeze products can be used. Glycerol based coolants actually have lower thermal conductivity than water, so it takes longer for heat to transfer from the engine to the coolant and thus to the radiator. Water Wetter increases thermal conductivity, which is highly desirable. The only thing I'm unsure about is the effect Water Wetter has on boiling point, which is why I'm not using it myself. If it increases the boiling point of water then I'd have no problem recommending it - even if the boiling point is lower than for a 50/50 glycerol mixture, the increased thermal conductivity will result in faster heat transfer and thus overall lower temperatures, so the boiling point becomes less critical.

EDIT: Found further details in a technical paper here. Apparently it doesn't significantly increase boiling point, but they claim its less important than the resultant increase in thermal conductivity. I'd be very interested to see the results of a running temperature comparison between 50/50 glycerol vs Water Wetter in the same car under the same conditions (track day anyone?)

 

[gorgath]

So.....

Had anyone used the TechAloy 90Plus and 100Plus?

Previously, I have been using the 60Plus when I have my OEM rad, but since upgraded into alloy, thinking want to us the above.

 

[Kitty's VR4]

Irwin, I use Nulon which has a recommended formulation for use in Aluminium Radiator equipped vehicles, its what Michaels also recommended when I asked the question!

This is the blurb from the Nulon site for what its worth

 

[fieldy107]

So.....

Had anyone used the TechAloy 90Plus and 100Plus?

Previously, I have been using the 60Plus when I have my OEM rad, but since upgraded into alloy, thinking want to us the above.

Im using TectAloy 90 Plus, seems fine so far. Dropped a couple notches on the temp dial after a flush and a bottle of TectAloy

 

[Kitty's VR4]

Chris, that TectAloy product isn't a silicate free glycol based coolant which is what is really needed when using in a Aluminium radiator, but is fine for an OEM radiator.

 

[fieldy107]

Yeah thats what I meant, working fine in my OEM radiator. Had no idea what alloy radiators need

 

[AKKO]

not sure about the ratio..

what we usually do is flush the coolant and replace it with fresh clean water (tap or demineralized) then when the radiator is nearly full, we fill the radiator with the coolant (3/4) only then the other 1/4 is on the overfill tank..

Short of filling, emptying and measuring...

What other methods do people use for getting the coolant ratio and levels right... ?

 

[uzz320]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean about short of filling, emptying or measuring (as to modify ratios you have to empty and/or fill, and to know what ratio you will end up with you have to measure) but it just so happens that if you open the tap at the bottom of the radiator and wait until it stops flowing, you will have removed about half of what is in the system. I basically flushed it out with a hose and then filled with demineralised water, then after it got hot once would open the tap and drain about 4l out then add another 4l bottle. I kept doing this until the fluid was clear - I was changing from green to red coolant - then I drained and filled with 50/50 coolant (4l of water came out, leaving 4l in the system somewhere - added about 4l of coolant). I would be aiming for closer to 30/70 than 50/50 if I were to do it again, but it is easy to add 2.5l of coolant and then fill the rest with demineralised water. Hopefully that was helpful, although it is pretty similar to the quote in your post.

I will also add this quote - might be an option for you:

I have decided that when I change my radiator, I will also be changing my coolant to something different. I am currently running Toyota Long Life (Red) in about 50/50 ratio with a 0.9Bar radiator cap. Specific heat is currently about .85 but may be less as I went a bit overboard on the coolant mix when I first got the car. Boiling Point would be roughly 130 degrees C.

I will be using demineralised water with Redline water wetter added. This will give a specific heat of very close to 1, and with a 1.3Bar radiator cap a boiling temp of roughly 127 degrees C. The water wetter is there to provide lubrication to the water pump and for its anti-corrosion properties - it is essentially a coolant additive package without the ethelyne glycol, and with no benefits for boiling or freezing temp. It is also supposed to lower the surface tension of the water, allowing smaller vapour bubbles to form on hotter surfaces within the engine which allows for greater heat transfer than the larger bubbles that would normally form. I don't hugely care whether this part of it works as advertised, I am more after the anti-corrosion and pump lubrication. From what I have seen in the few tests that actually use a useful methodology, it does actually work - lowering head temperatures, but often slightly increasing the coolant temp as there is more energy being transferred. Almost all testing that I have seen of this product has been done by someone that is only just smart enough to produce coherent sentences, and it mostly misses the point.

I don't have any real concerns about the 0 degrees C freezing point as it will never be cold enough for long enough to bring the system down to that temperature.

This should give me a fair boost in cooling on its own, and together with the new radiator should be more than sufficient to solve my issues.

It is from here: http://ozvr4.com/forums/showthread....et-alloy-radiator/page2&highlight=overheating