Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:01:31 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: replacements for phosphate-free coolant
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8"; reply-type=original
My VW dealer here in Oregon sells coolant now for VW's that is compatible
with any coolant..
I'm sure it's excellent stuff.
If you feel you need to spend twice what normal a-frz costs ..
sure ..go for it.
ok..maybe some people live where the water is awful and really hard and full
of bad chemicals..
and if using tap water they DO need phosphate a-frz...
but in the rest of the normal world ..
waterboxers can do JUST FINE on conventional green a-frz ..
or Sierra non-ethylene glycol or whatever it is ( the less poisonous kind )
..
and people who are nervous about their tap water can buy distilled..and I'll
tell you this..
I do water-cooled vanagons of all types full time exclusively ..
I only do vanagons ...
the coolant mixture I use is ..
50/50 with conventioinal green ..
I add a small cup or so of 'machinist's cutting oil'...a water soluble oil
you buy at a FLAPS that makes an excellent water pump lube and rust
inhibutor ..
and often a some Water Wetter..
I have been doing this to vanagons well over 20 years..
and have used this coolant mixture in ....really ...
perhaps 1,000 cars over two and a half decades..
believe me ..
corrosion of aluminum engine parts will not occur with this mixture.
it's not that it's 'phosphate free' that is the big deal..
it's how long it's left in there.
And you never get all of it out when you change it..
you should/could welcome any opportunity to get some old out and some new
in.
sometimes I may use Dexcool orange type coolant ..
on my better 'keeper' vehicles I use that sometimes.
and Water Wetter..
excellent product..........really helps in heat transfer from metal engine
parts to the coolant .
interestingly .....in summer, when running pretty hot can be a concern..
Water Wetter ( there are other brands too ) tells you right ont the bottle
that less than 50/50 mixture ( less a-frz relative to the water amount )
cools better than a 50-50 mixture does. So there are reasons to not even
have a 'whole' solid 50-50 mixture.
I usually just do 'around 50-50 since 50-50 is good for 32 below zero F ..
which is huge freezing protection ..more than needed for most vanagon
owners.
but really ..
DOING A GOOD JOB ON THE COOLANT CHANGE-OUT .....is far more important that
if it's phosphate free or not.
MAKING SURE IT RUNS FULLY UP TO TEMP - is far more important that if it's
phosphate free or not.
CHANGING IT ONCE A YEAR OR EVERY TWO MAX -is far more important that if
it's phosphate free or not.
that's something from 25 years ago ..
when they had harsher water in Europe..
or anti-freezes were not as highly developed as they are now.
( or they knew the waterboxer 'head gasket' arrangement was a pure joke..
and needed 'all the help they can get'
and it is ..it's totally a converted air-cooled engine 'lash-up' ...
not a clean sheet of paper ..more of an Emergency Move .. ...'how can we get
a watercooled oppossed Four gas enging quickly .." Ja..........convert zee
air-cooled engine we already have. "
VW is the only manfufacturer in the history of automobiles to do that that I
have ever heard of ..
and I have worked on everything there is from a Citroen-Maserati to Mercedes
to NSU to Datsun to Fiat and everything else just about .
It's
akin to when GM rushed to come out with diesels by converting their gas
V-8's.......and that was a disaster pretty much. )
Just use a quality product in the mixture I suggest above and you'll be
fine.
The Workmanshp of the work ........and using quality products .......and now
it's driven and operated are by far the most significant factors in how they
last.
heck..
don't even get me started ..but the way the heads sit on the
barrels....determines how much that outer water gasket is compressed. It's
easy to have it too compressed ( pinches the outer water gasket and it fails
in a couple of years ) .........or not squeaze it enough ..or even for the
head to sit tilted on the barrels so the outer rubber gasket is both too
squeazed and and not squeazed enough )
anyway ..do good careful work with good products and use my suggestions and
method if you want..
and you'll be just fine. It sure works for me.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Mcneely" <mcneely4@COX.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: replacements for phosphate-free coolant
> Joy, this is reported to be available in Canada, and it is phosphate free.
> Whether it is equivalent to VW blue antifreeze, I could not say, but I do
> know that some vanagon owners use it. If the only criterion is phosphate
> free, this should make the grade:
>
> http://www.valvoline.com/products/brands/zerex/
>
> mcneely
>
> ---- Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU> wrote:
>> It appears that it's no longer possible to buy phosphate-free coolant, at
>> least in Canada. VW no longer carries it. They say that their "aluminum
>> core compatible" coolant is a suitable replacement. My mechanic said
>> something similar.
>>
>> What do folks here think?
>>
>>
>>
>> Joy
>
> --
> David McNeely
