Coolant Renewal Quick Question

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Guru Meditation
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Coolant Renewal Quick Question

Post by Guru Meditation »

Quick question, maybe a touch obvious.... When you do a coolant change do you refil with ordinary tap water (plus some antigel/antifreeze of course!) or do you use purified water? Does it matter to you how hard the water in your area is? I am changing coolant tomorrow. Can't flush unfortunately as I have no hose pipe access (kind of reassuring then that when I looked in the filler cap when I inspected before I bought it that it looked very very green so must have antifreeze of some kind in there). I have 3l of Citroen Antigel and of course need either tap water or purified water, what do ya reckon?
Also filling up strategies-5l of water then 3l of antigel then 1l of water till system is air free? If you see what I mean, you don't wanna lose any of your antigel from the bleed screws while waiting for all air to be expelled.
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Guru Meditation
alan s
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Post by alan s »

Not even optional; HAS to be demineralised or purified water.
Stuff from the tap for starters normally has an acid ph which if any salts are present (as the normally are) when mixed with the variety of metals present in a modern engine is the perfect formula for electrolysis. Electrolysis usually = holes due to corrosion.
Added to this you can have clorine, alum, fluoride, lime, manganese and a myriad of other beasties best kept out of a cooling system. I know a guy who owns an oil blending company & they have a reverse osmosis plant to treat all water they use in coolant/inhibitors. It cost tens of thousands of $$$s to buy and according to him is essential even for the "budget pre-mix coolants" that he sells through auto outlets.
Alan S
shaunthesheep
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Post by shaunthesheep »

i always use deironised water, its better for the engine & its not got an acid ph.
you can get the antigel from andyspares, as i foung out after getting mine from main dealer.
did mine put in about 2l of antigel will propvide a 30% mix, which will protect down to -15.
2.5 of antigel will provide a 50% mix, which will prtecct down to about -30.
dom
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