Should I change the coolant of my 90's shitbox...

Should I change the coolant of my 90's shitbox? I bought it more than 3 years ago and I only place water on the radiator.

I live in a warm climate if that matters.

couldn't hurt, and it's nice to replace it every few years

wtf is wrong with you people that only put water in your radiator?

antifreeze is NOT just for cold climates. it is an anti corrosive agent that prolongs the life of your cooling system. It also increases the boiling point of the coolant so you wont overheat as bad

I'd say yea, every couple years a full refresh is never a bad idea. Also, if you live somewhere it doesn't freeze, you dont have to do the whole 50/50 antifreeze/water thing, 20/80 or something around there will be fine, and actualy better at heat displacement

Have you looked at your coolant recently? I bet you a million dollars it's brown and dirty. Do you know why it's brown? Because it's from the rust that accumulates from only putting water into your cooling system.

You should really flush your system and only put 50/50 coolant from now on. You'll thank yourself when your radiator doesn't mess up.

Yes it is brown and dirty. Can I easily change it? Do I need to hire a mechanic?

Should I do 50/50 or 20/80? With that should I empty the whole coolant into the radiator?

>why fwd is shit.jpeg

I actually didn't know this

Antifreeze actually has a worse heat transfer rate vs water, hence why many track cars and race cars just run distilled water, sometimes with a "water wetter" compound that can increase the heat transfer rate even farther.
You should use proper coolant but running just distilled water when you know the temperature isn't going to be anywhere near freezing is fine.

Is this for real? I thought coolant also raises coolant boiling point.

>comparing race cars that are maintained after every race with a neglected shitbox beater

The real reason race cars use pure water is because anti-freeze is banned. They don't want that shit dripping or spilling onto the track.

Empty it and replace it with 30% coolant and 70% water it will keep components like the water pump and radiator working for quite a while longer

It does raise the boiling point but water has a greater heat capacity, meaning it sucks away more heat.
Let's compare wood and steel. When you touch a steel street lamp, it feels cold to the touch. But when you touch a wooden telephone pole, it doesn't feel cold at all. That is because steel has a much higher heat transfer rate meaning it pulls heat from your body much better than wood can.
Same thing with water and antifreeze. Water is able to pull heat from your engine and disperse it through the radiator much better than antifreeze can.
I've never seen a car (with no air bubbles in the cooling system) boil it's coolant, so I'm not really all that concerned about the boiling point. Having a pressurized cooling system, aka putting that coolant or water under pressure helps to raise the boiling point as well.

I personally run a 75/25 coolant to water ratio in my MR2 as I live in Alabama. When I lived in Pennsylvania however I ran a 50/50 mix because of the colder temperatures.

I'm not just talking about F1 and Nascar; when I say racecar I also mean the guys that have dedicated $3000 track Miatas. They frequently run things like water wetter, distilled water, and higher pressure radiator caps to keep their track cars properly cooled.

The pictured article ends with the statement that the best cooling setup would include pure water, an aluminum radiator, and a high pressure radiator cap.

Yeah, it's slippery as fuck, but also it's not as good at pulling heat from an engine block.

I fucked that up, a 75/25 WATER to COOLANT ratio, meaning 75% distilled water and 25% coolant/glycol.

very very few daily drivers need increased heat dissipation. their thermostats aren't even open all the time. even on hottest days in city traffic when when a wide-open thermostat isn't enough, the fan kicks on. your argument is valid for stop/go traffic in extremely hot climates... or race cars.

Apparently it's very valid, because I've run only distilled water during the summer and driven in city stop and go traffic and with data logging I could see my coolant temperature which was exactly where it was supposed to be and the fan kicked on at a normal rate, aka only while stopped at lights for a long period of time.
And it's very valid for racecars where they want the most heat dissipation possible. Adding glycol would actually increase their coolant and engine temperatures which is exactly what they're trying to avoid.

I agree daily drivers don't need that increased heat dissipation though, I'm just explain that you don't NEED antifreeze if the temperature never drops below freezing. I highly suggest everyone puts a 50/50 mix into their cooling system unless they have a track car and need greater heat dissipation or they're fucking broke and in a hot climate.

thats not a fwd car.

water is acceptable to a point, depending on where u live. also prolongs the life of the block

distilled water is a better choice in that case

coolant is superior by all means, in every case

MILK might work too. idk. id like to think it MIGHT but then again milk GETS FOAMY when its hot. id like 2 try it on some pos car, or read up on the net bc surely some idiot has done it before; but i havent take the time 2 do that rly.

or towing

It's not that hard. Go look it up online. Just get some ramps and be sure to fully burp the cooling system of air or it'll overheat and break shit.

If you live in an area that never freezes go with 2 parts distilled water 1 part coolant concentrate.

You should probably do a few flushes with distilled water to rinse out the rust.

All OEM coolants contain anti-corrosion additives in them to prevent rusting the engine from the inside out. These additives change based upon the metals that are touched by the coolant loop. Make sure you use the specified coolant for your car and never mix coolant without a full flush if you are switching coolant types/brands.

I am with this guy. I run a track bike for fun and I use distilled+watter wetter. 90% of guys out there do. And if you don't, and you crash and ruin the track for a day cause your dexcool spilled all over the place, people are gonna be pissed.

Personally, I just buy the premixed coolant since it's easier for me.
As for flushing the system, chrisfix has a good tutorial on YouTube.