Is there a reason that distilled water is recommended for the cooling system? Is it just better water, so less of a chance for corrosion?
just FYI

 

hehe, its distilled water because there aren't any minerals in it. Hence, its just pure water.

 

I know it is cleaner water, I wanted to know if it makes any significant difference.

 

Honestly, although there are minerals in the water, it isn't going to collect to much to be worried about it for a long time.

However, when dealing with the cooling system, I would go with distilled water. Honestly for this car, it deserves it. =)

 

It will over time. The minerals in normal water can build up causing obstructions.

And distilled water conducts electricity less than tap.

 

I could be wrong on this.. but is it the boiling point?? I would like to know.. I know pure water is less likely to corrode things.. than mineralized..

 

thanks, I didn't think it made that much of a difference, but I will switch over to distilled next flush.

 

In the long run, and this assumes your cooling system is tight, you'll have very little if any corrosion.

 

Yes, distilled water is the wave of the upcoming nearby future...... I use it all the time on my car.....



-Dan

 

As I stated, this car itself is picky. You should treat it with great great care. =)

 

well kinda off topic but not. I have a gallon jub of distilled water that i keep just in case and i had it in one of the storage bins. IM guessing it was the hot weather but a few days ago i open it up to see about an inch of water in the bin and the jug all deformed :-\. o well it was an easy 2 min clean up so no worries

 

...?

 

distilled water is good choice with typical prestone type coolant with phosphate and high silicate, if you have hard tap water with high mineral content. avoids crusty deposit growth in rad/coolong sys.

with euro coolants like mercedes, vw g11, or zerex g05, they are blended for hard tap water use, so distilled not needed.

using distilled with just ww or a little antifreeze, could result in increased corrosion rates.

 

i just use tap water. i do have a water softner so i know im not getting CRAPPY water in my cooling system but at the same time carrying a jug of water with me everywhere would be a pain. i aleardy have everything else needed just in case...15w50 mobil 1 oil and AAA card
kris

 

distilled water doesn't contain ions (electrically charged particles like OH-, H+, Ca+) ions that have a negative charge are called anions, ion with a positive charge are called cations. ions are looking to combine with other chemicals particals like metal to cause corrosion and can cause build up in your system.

 

But doesn't anti freeze also increase the boiling point of the water?? so shouldn't you add small amount of coolant to increase the BP?? Just want some info.. I have taken chemistry, orgo, physics but its been awhile and remember small amount of stuff but not 100% on it..

I would think boiling of water in the system would be a bad thing..

 

The addition of anti-freeze does slightly raise the boiling point but the real agent of that is the pressurized system. And yes, boiling is very bad.....

BTW, I have always heard to use distilled water in auto cooling systems, this isn't something particular to the FD....

 

Ahh.. Thanks!!

SO, the boiliing point of pure water is 100C??.. and isn't it true under pressure, the boiling temp also increases?? I'm pretty sure that BP temp decreases as vacuum is applied..

If this is true, than I guess the BP temp with Distill water should be above 100C in our cars.. But not sure what BP temp is for the FD..

Recently one of my Fan went out and I hit 113C- 115C at certain point.. I was running 50% coolant and water.. Kind of high.. but now, I'm thinking it might of been better to have high water/coolant ratio..

Also, what exactly happen when boiling occurs?? too much pressure in the system and seals popping??

 

All distilled water is, is just collected steam cooled and returned to liquid form. Just takes any contaminents out. Its available in jugs at any grocery store (so you can fill your steam iron with it, and it won't stain your white shirt w/ minerals from tao water), so why NOT use it?

 

Yep, pure water boils at 100C at 1 atmosphere of pressure. If you decrease the pressure, it lowers the boiling point (this is why water boils at a lower temp at high elevations).

The point of having a pressurized cooling system is to raise the boiling point. Gas doesn't hold much thermal engergy, so boiling is very bad.

 

thanks paw140.. I wasn't 100% sure about the pressure thing..

But I do have question about the thermal energy thing.. i thought it was more to do with sudden pressure increase caused by the boiling that is more damaging than the heat transfer rate?? I'm just throwing that in, because I'm not sure..

 

Yes. That s what the Centigrade scale is based on; the boiling point of water.

Yes.


Yep. You can boil water at room temperature if you place it in an evacuated atmosphere!

It is true that adding antifreeze to water raises the boiling point of the water. However, the purpose of the water is to soak heat from the engine, carry it to the radiator, dissipate the heat and then return to the engine. Even though pure water has a lower boiling point, it exchanges heat more efficiently than water/coolant and so actually lowers engine temps. I run 85% water/15% antifreeze in the summer and in the winter I add enough antifreeze to keep from freezing. You need to keep some antifreeze in the system to help prevent corrosion and lubricate the seals/bearing in the water pump. The less antifreeze in the system the lower engine temps will be. If you're running 50% antifreeze, decreasing this amount will definately help your temps.

 

DamonB,

Thanks for the clear up..

I now run 10-15% coolant and 85-90% purified water (extremely pure H2O).. We have a purification system at work...

 

I actully did this before. i drained the old coolant & water mix out, flushed it with coolant, then refilled with crystal geyser. it's runnin around 109c at 76F outside, u'll need 15-16 bottles of .5 lit spring water to fill up the system.
but half year later i changed back to 35/65 mix

 

Are you saying you filled up with spring water??? If you did, that's retarded. That's worse than tap water, as far as mineral content.