Distilled it is. Just got some alhambra brand for $1/gal at grocery store.

Heres the plan - instead of chucking the RO water, I'm going to run it for a week with some prestone super radiator cleaner, then drain and fill w/distilled + antifreeze.

Question now becomes which antifreeze? Is the ordinary prestone ok? I know dexcool is a no no - I thought I read on here Zerex is good for the aluminum blocks, so I'm assuming it would be good for the iron ones as well?

Can't find zerex in the auto parts stores here, just lots of generic ones, prestone, and dexcool varieties. Maybe head down to walmart type places.

Try


Sodium bisulphate. Pour 12 ounces in radiator and run car for two hours. Drain and flush well.
( http://www.infobrary.com/homefamily/rem ... 00061.html )


16. Radiator Cleaner - Tri-sodium phosphate (buy at paint store).

( http://www.thefrugalshopper.com/tips/cleaning.html )


Might be the same stuff and probably cheaper..........

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Being Canadian means using anti-freeze. I use it all year round(and so does everyone else round here). Radiators last as long as motors.



I always use a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water. You get the best cooling/antifreezing results this way (good to -40)

I even use A/F in our mudbogger that only sees summer action to prevent corrosion.

Prestone is fine. Any A/F that is propylene glycol will be fine.

Nobody here uses Dexcool or the like.....just glycol

Antifreeze is really poison to animals,,,,but it apparently tastes good to them,,,,so be careful with it,,,not a nice way to deal with cats.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Hey Folks-

Now that antifreeze comes pre-mixed as a 50/50 solution, wouldn't the best kind of water be the kind that the manufacturer mixes with their antifreeze solution, and we should just buy it that way?

-Mac

I don't get the 50/50 mixes...........

After you flush your system, you've got left over water in there (tap, distilled, RO, whatever.........). Now you put the 50/50 mix in.............

You'll never get to a 50/50 mix using 50/50 mix...............


After flushing, I always look up the systems capacity, put the appropriate amount of anti freeze in, then top with water. That way you get the mix you want.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Pierre, if you already have RO water bought, then go ahead and use it. It's not worth enough to throw $$ away, IMHO.

In NC, I usually run about 30% glycol AF (Prestone/Zerex). They tell us you can't have ANY AF in road racecars since it's slippery on the track, but they don't really check. In that case, use a corrosion inhibitor and "water wetter" for best cooling.

Water has better thermal transfer properties than glycol, so your car will run a little hotter with more AF in the mix.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I already had the empty gallons, so they filled them for $0.35/gal for the RO water - no big deal

I wanted to go all out because I didn't want to take any further chance messing up the radiator any more then it may be. Hopefully the flush in it now will clean it up good otherwise it may have to go to a shop to get dipped...

I have some prestone universal compatible with all types antifreeze 5 year 150,000 mile formula stuffs - but this seems to be dex-cool in a universal formula. I'm going to try to find some zerex g-05, or regular run of the mill propylene glycol stuff.