Engine coolant

[RVW]

What are you guys using for coolant in your race engines? Just straight tap water? Distilled water? or a mixture of some kind of water wetter and water. My engine is a iron block, aluminum heads and electric water pump.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Distilled with coolant, but I don't have a race engine.

 

[Shorthorse]

Distilled/no sodium and wetter water.

 

[66Satellite47]

This past summer I used Purple Ice & tap water. They don't recommend distilled. I chose this stuff because they said was "race track approved" whatever that really means. It worked great. Iron block, aluminum heads, aluminum radiator, crank driven aluminum water pump & housing.

 

[Mike Gaines]

Straight water, no thermostat, Iron Block, aluminum heads, aluminym water pump housing, aluminum radiator.

 

[65 3 times]

Purple Ice & Tap water. Iron block , Aluminum heads , Aluminum Radiator , Summit Electric water pump , Guts drilled out of thermostat.

 

[Canyon707]

distilled water and wetter water

 

[Tex013]

Water Wetter and tap water plus i use a non glycol inhibitor as well
Daily driver/bracket racer .

Tex

 

[dvw]

Tap water and generic Autozone water pump lube. 3 years just pulled the motor to freshen. Coolant passages aren't rusty. Aluminum radiator looks like new.
Doug

 

[Roughbird72]

Distilled water with a small amount of coolant.

 

[ronw]

What about Evans?

 

[Brewzer67]

What about Evans?

I have been using the Evans stuff for about 6 years and had good luck with it. I used to work as a diesel mechanic years ago and a lot of the big rig guys ran it because it didn't have the issues that Ethylene Glycol had if it did wind up too cold. Since it doesn't freeze and expand (but instead turns to a slurry and contracts) when it gets too cold it was never a worry about cracking a block in the event of an issue. Since I live in WI and used to store my car in an unheated barn over winter this was a pretty big concern for me. Now that I have built a house to my specifications and Brewzer lives in a heated garage in the winter, I will probably go back to Water Wetter and tap water. From a cooling perspective that was better than the Evans at cooling things in the heat of summer and that is a way bigger concern.

So summary of my experience...

In order of cooling effectiveness worst to best is:
#3 Ethylene Glycol/water
#2 Evans waterless NPG (or NPG+, both behaved the same and were a little better than regular antifreeze with better boil-over protection)
#1 Water and Water Wetter (haven't tried the Royal Purple stuff yet but probably will as I have had awesome results with the rest of their stuff)

In order of winter protection effectiveness:
#3 Water and Water Wetter (use in really cold climates only if you are a gambler)
#2 Ethylene Glycol/water
#1 Evans waterless NPG (or NPG+, both behaved the same)