[Healeys] Coolant

[Bob Spidell]

OK, the List has been pretty quiet lately--the ongoing mail server problems notwithstanding--so I'm going to resurrect 
an old controversy: what kind of water to mix with antifreeze (i.e. some form or glycol or alcohol).

I've had online, er, 'discussions' with people who maintain, adamantly, that distilled water is 'ion hungry' and will in 
no time reduce an iron engine block to a mound of iron oxide, aka 'rust' (according to Wikipedia, there are at least 16 
different chemical forms of iron oxide).  I've only got a couple years of college chemistry, but I remember that 
distilled water is chemically inert--with a perfect balance of H+ and OH- ions and pH of slightly less than 7.0  due to 
its tendency to dissolve atmospheric CO2 and form mild carbonic acid--but would, however, dissolve more mineral salts 
due to it not having any minerals already dissolved (if you accidentally dumped a pound or two of Morton's finest in 
your block distilled water would dissolve more of it than tap water).

Anyway, I had to drain the coolant in my BJ8 in order to change the water pump (thanks Michael!), and the mixture--which 
I estimate at 40/60 antifreeze/distilled H2O--was absolutely clear with no sediment, and I could not see or detect any 
sediment in the block. The visible portions of the block and cylinders developed a thin film of rust due to exposure to 
air after they dried.   This coolant has been in the engine for at least 3 years/15K miles, and possibly 4 or 5 years (I 
really should track this stuff).  Maybe the distilled H2O is slowly dissolving my engine, but it's doing so with no 
visible evidence.

In my mind, this settles the argument but, as usual, YMMV (also, all the 'pros' I've heard lately have recommended 
distilled H2O).  Also, I've heard some negative things about Water Wetter but I've been adding it to the coolant for 
quite a while with no apparent adverse effects.

Bob

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Bob Spidell           San Jose, CA            bspidell at comcast.net

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