WATER VS. ANTIFREEZE
 

I am running a 468ci engine in a street car. I used to work on a stock car for many years, we ran water instead of coolant. I was wondering if i should run water instead of coolant in the radiator. Also does anybody run any additives in their cars?

Thanks.

street car=antifreeze.......race car=water.....

Johnny

x2 know people that have run aditives and were happy havent myself

Straight water will allow your engine to run cooler but affords no corrosion protection, I suggest a real weak mixture of water & coolant for summertime, then prior to winter time and the first freeze, stiffen up the mixture to a min of 50/50 of water/antifreeze.

Water wetters and those types of additives work okay, I used them with some success....

[quote="cepx111"]Straight water will allow your engine to run cooler but affords no corrosion protection, quote]
x2

Consider these possibilities- your water passage may have cast iron (block), aluminum (heads/AN fittings/radiator), bronze (waterpump bearing), stainless steel (intake bolts that go thru), pot metal (water neck). Do you know the galvanic action that occurs with heat and cooling plus the negative (ground) current?
Run something.....

water runs cooler then antifreeze and i always ran water with the additive called water wetter(autozone sells it) .... its good stuff and when your in and out of the motor alot...... its easier to deal with then antifreeze....and EPA safe :wink:

im no expert but ive been taught that coolant/antifreeze runs cooler than water.. anti freeze does have a higher boiling point than water.that i do know cause i ruined one of my wife cooking pots to test that .and pure antifreeze will freeze cause i put a gallon in my freezer and out came 1 gallon of frozen anti freeze.now that was COOL

Here is the breakdown on Ethylene glycol antifreeze at sealevel.
Boiling Point B.P.
Freezing Point F.P.

Pure Water B.P. 100°C / 212°F F.P. 0°C / 32°F
Antifreeze/Water 50/50 mix B.P. 106°C / 223°F F.P. -37°C / -35° F
Antifreeze/Water 70/30 mix B.P. 113°C / 235°F F.P. -55°C / -67° F

Increasing altitude decreases the boiling point of water.

What no one has mentioned here is that it's illegal to run antifreese at a NHRA or IHRA track at any event, in fact if you are caught you can be disqualified. This is due to the problem cleaning up the track from antifreeze, it twice as hard to fix the track with an antifreese spill.

JMO

Zip.

Antifreeze does not cool better than straight water. It's added to a cooling system to raise the boiling point of the system beyond what it would be with just water alone, and lower the freezing point for cold weather operation, especially when pressurized. Yes, boiling point of any fluid decreases with altitude, but inside a pressurized cooling system this point is moot. The system will see the same boiling or freezing temps as long as the pressure it's under isn't changed. A car will overheat at the same coolant temp at 15 psi system pressure and 10,000 ft. as it will at 15 psi system pressure and sea level.. It also has lubricants and anti-corrosion inhibitors in it to allow a long service life in cooling systems. Straight antifreeze by itself doesn't remove heat well and will cause a system to overheat if not mixed with water. It's a HUGE no-no in racing because of the lubricants that's in it. They are designed to NOT WASH AWAY, and that's why they are so hard to remove when they get on the ground or the track surface. I personally believe anybody that intentionally runs antifreeze in a track only car should be banned, as one mishap is all it takes to cause serious problems. Even overflow can be an issue. What's funny is even oil is easier to clean up than antifreeze.