Technical radiator antifreeze

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Technical radiator antifreeze

girldoblovan

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hello all
bit of a girly question, but i've got a doblo van, which hasn't got a handbook, after a leaky rad, i've now got to replace the antifreeze, but i've got no idea how much to put it! ca anyone out there help?
many thanks
x
 
If you are going to mix it yourself & live in a hard water area, buy a bottle of cheap water (tesco value, lidl, aldi etc) and use this to dilute the antifreeze otherwise when it heats up the limescale will try to form in the system.
Directions on the antifreeze will tell you the ratio to dilute but judging by how cold it has been recently, a half & half mix might not be a bad idea.
If you buy a huge bottle of water & tip half out (into a spare container?), you can then top up with antifreeze to give the correct dilution.
 
NEVER use tap or drinking water to dilute the anti-freeze.
Use ONLY distilled water to dilute it.
Less anti-freeze will give better cooling, the 50-50% is absolutely not necessary in our warming climate.
About 20%-25% anti-freeze will do, protection to about -20*C is just fine, and there's enough anti-corrosion habits with this mixture ( most Italian cars come from the factory with these figures anyway).
If you want to do it completely right, ad about 1/2 bottle of Red Line Water Wetter in your cooling system.
www.redlineoil.com
But this all is just for freaks like me, I suggest to use premix coolant, see my above post.
 
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VERY important:
Watch the color of the existing coolant.
If it's green or blue.it's the old fashioned coolant.
If it's red/orange, it's the new long life fluid.
It's no problem, according to FIAT, to use the red long life coolant in systems that used the green/blue fluid, but NEVER fill in green/blue coolant in a system designed for red, long life coolant.
 
NEVER use tap or drinking water to dilute the anti-freeze.
Use ONLY distilled water to dilute it.
Less anti-freeze will give better cooling, the 50-50% is absolutely not necessary in our warming climate.
About 20%-25% anti-freeze will do, protection to about -20*C is just fine, and there's enough anti-corrosion habits with this mixture ( most Italian cars come from the factory with these figures anyway).
If you want to do it completely right, ad about 1/2 bottle of Red Line Water Wetter in your cooling system.

But this all is just for freaks like me, I suggest to use premix coolant, see my above post.

Redline stuff is an alternative to the traditional glycol based antifreeze. The claims about reducing temp by 30degF are really hype - pure water boils at 100 degC at STP, increase the pressure or add impurities & the water will boil at a different temperature - adding salt increases the boiling point and reduces the freezing point so adding antifreeze also increases the point at which the coolant boils & reduces the point at which it freezes. The point redline makes in the video showing vapour bubbles appearing would only happen if the coolant wasn't being pumped aropund (like you see in kettles & pans) in engines it is moving too fast for this to happen. As for 20% - 25% mix, antifreeze manufacturers and motoring organisations still recommend a 50% mix for winter motoring.
 
Red Line Water Wetter is by no way an alternative for anti freeze,it's something to add to the cooling system, no matter what's in, pure water, antifreeze, traditional or long life coolant....!!
And I don't care what motoring organizations are advising, the 20-25% comes from own experiences.
Next to my Fiat's and Alfa V-6, I drive an American car with a tuned 5,7L (350Cuin) V-8, cooling is very important with such a big engine, in the drag world, pure distiled water with Water Wetter is the way to go for maximum cooling....I use some antifreeze, just for anti-corrosion habbits...! (currently, it's protected at -15*C..!)
There is a lot of misunderstanding about coolant, I even know people who use 100% Paraflu anti-Freeze in their FIAT's....

And how come nearly EVERY Italian car comes with an -20*C antifreeze dilution...??:p
(Alfa used to have window stickers, showing: -20*C....).
 
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And I don't care what motoring organizations are advising, the 20-25% comes from own experiences..

So what do motoring organisations know about engines?
What do Antifreeze manufacturers know about their product?
For winter motoring they recommend a 50% mix.
Air temp mioght not get much below -5 in the UK but when you are driving along at 30+ mph, the temp wil be far lower.
Also, from the video. . .
A small block Chevvy with a 160°F thermostat running at 7200RPM for 3 hours!
icon_eek.gif
(don't see the relevance in the 'stat information as it should be wide open) show reduction from 228 to 220°F with 50/50 antifreeze and 220 to 208°F with pure water. Seems to me that the antifreeze has already raised the boiling point so you don't get vapour bubbles and the only significant benefit is if you're running pure water (when racing for better heat transfer). Maybe this stuff is needed in extremely hot climates or if you constantly drive at 130MPH but I'm not convinced for UK conditions.
I doubt you'll find many cars being driven at 7200rpm
 
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