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Date:         Sat, 1 May 2004 10:56:09 -0500
Reply-To:     Larry Alofs <lalofs@RCN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Larry Alofs <lalofs@RCN.COM>
Subject:      Re: Cooling strategies, color coded, etc.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

walt spak wrote: > > I have put over 60,000 miles (trouble free, by the way) on my Boston Bob > rebuilt 2.1 and 40,000 miles on my 84 Westy with green coolant and have no > leaky head gasket yet. >

Ah, but did you use tap water or distilled water? :-)

Let me add .02 to whatever theories are being developed.

If the main corrosion product at the edge of the heads is aluminum oxide, oxygen is needed for the reaction to happen. Any oxygen initially dissolved in the water used to mix the coolant should be depleted before too long and things should reach a steady state in a closed system. But at a poorly designed seal at the edge of a head, a little seepage of coolant might occur and a little oxygen may diffuse in from outside as the expansion and contraction from thermal cycling moves things around slightly. So now we have aluminum, oxygen, heat, and water along with dissolved minerals which make it more conductive and may even catalyze the reaction.

Of course to keep our corrosion inhibitors fresh we should all change our coolant, and while we're at it: change the brake fluid change the fuel lines change the coolant hoses change the blinker fluid . . .

Larry A.


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