Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 21:10:59 -0800
Reply-To: gary hradek <hradek@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: gary hradek <hradek@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: coolant options
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It is likely that the coolant last longer than two
years when you drive less. I think the kind of
coolant will influence cost of repairs if head coolant
leaks are ignored. Phosphate based coolant will
damage the head more quickly than organic based
coolant if the heads are allowed to leak for a
prolonged period of time. The posphate salts become
alkaline and cause corrosion.
This is not true for the organic based coolant. As to
the cause of head leaks I suspect heat and time will
find a passage regardless of the type of coolant.
Translation: Coolant type or age of coolant does not
directly cause head leaks but could indirectly cause a
problem. For example if the water pump leaks (old
coolant) and the engine over heats, this can cause
the heads to begine leaking. I prefer the orange
stuff.
Gary
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 14:46:32 -0800
From: rpc <populuxe59@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: coolant options
Florian;
I concur with Dan.
I have a 1990 2.1 with 177,000 miles with the green
stuff. Just make
sure you change it every 2 years. I have no idea what
the previous
owner did. Westfalia.org used to have a topic on
that: "clearing the muddy
waters" and the author makes a good case for sticking
with what we know
(prestone) works and doing the 2 year maint. There
are too many
unknowns with the new "super coolants" in our older
engines. I would use the
VW blue stuff, but because of various repairs related
to
cooling/heating I could not justify costs. I have
noticed that the regular green
prestone is no longer available so I bought 4
gallons--should be good
untill I need engine replaced.
Chris C 90MV
"Daniel L. Katz" <katzd54@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
florian:
any ethylene glycol based coolant sold at shucks or
walmart is "safe"
for
the wbx. that said, the oem vw blue, as well as
conventional types, may
provide better protection from water pump cavitation
erosion than the
new
extended life coolants. aside from their extended
life, one advantage
of
the extended life types is that they do not coat metal
surfaces,
thereby
facilitating heat transfer.
back in 1998 i took over maintainance on a 1984 1.9 l
with about 150 k
mi;
it had been using conventional coolant for many years.
hearing horror
stories of the then new dexcool gelling in older,
perhaps dirty cooling
systems, and problems with water pump cavitation
erosion in pumps
designed
for conventional coolant, i decided to stay with
conventional coolant,
and
encountered no difficulties, with now about 200 k mi
on the engine. at
the
time i took the system to be chemically passivated for
conventional
coolant chemistry, right down to the tiniest
microscopic level.
to avoid corrosion, the main thing is to keep the ph
above about 8 (ph
is
7 for pure water, 12 for new 100% ethylene glycol).
low ph means an
acidic
solution, which is bad.
today i use a 50/50 mix of conventional, green, napa
brand ethylene
coolant and distilled water for our 1.9 l.
dan
On Mon, 2 Jan 2006 01:20:35 +0000, Florian Speier
wrote:
>hi list,
>
>shopping for adequate wbx coolant starts confusing
me. shops only seem
to
>have the all engines all makes prestone or similar
coolant, and when i
ask
>if that is phosphate free, i get one of two answers:
>answer a) if it does not say it is phosphate free it
contains
phosphate.
>answer b) if it says all engines it is fine for
aluminum engines and
these
>require phosphate free coolant, it follows that the
coolant is
phosphate
>free.
>
>so, which is correct? or, if we dont know the answer,
can someone just
tell
>me a brand that is safe to use and available at
schuck´s, walmart or
the
>like?
>
>thanks a lot
>florian
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