I searched and didnt like what came up. Lol. Anyway, for my coolant mix, which water type do I use? I know the FAQ says deionized water but I wanted to know if it was ok to run distilled or drinking water. Thanks.
Distilled, Drinking, or Deionized?
- Thread starter 3Stang
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i use whatever the hell come out of my hose.....
Distilled is best. If you can't find any or DI water is that much cheaper, it will work. I wouldn't use drinking or tap water due to the possible mineral content which reeks havoc on aluminum and other metals.
Do you have softened water? Just remember how hard Florida water is.
Which FAQ are you looking at? De-ionized is one of the most corrosive forms of pure water there is, followed closely by distilled water.
However in a 50/50 water antifreeze mix water choice is practically a non issue.
In straight water systems or a high water percentage system, water choice is a HUGE issue!
In that sticky there are also links to some great write ups, one of them is avoiding corrosion of aluminum components in our cooling systems.
This thread is loaded with valid scientific data and methods of corrosion protection that are PROVEN TO WORK. New corrosion protection option for Fluidyne, other aluminum radiators:
http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...option-fluidyne-other-aluminum-radiators.html
I recommend bottled filtered drinking water since it is a more pacified form of water and therefore less corrosive. It contains a small amount of minerals which tends to calm down the otherwise "hungry nature" of a water form that has zero minerals(de-ionized and distilled).
At the same time it has way less minerals than typical well water and municipality water and as such is not a significant contributor to mineral scaling.
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Good to know jimmy,I pretty sure he talking about the ford manual said de-ionized 50/50.I put in 60/40 Poland springs distilled/ford anti-freeze.
The one with the burb/fill procedure.
Link? I just updated my FAQs with Jimmy's comments, but it never mentioned using de-ionized water. So which link?
Here is my worthles 2 pennies on the subject. I put DI water in my intercooler tank, but it 60/40-50/50 with coolant. It's no longer DI at that point.
One of our, lab where I work, tests involves using DI water at an elevated temperature to test blister resistance at the surface of our composites. This is obviously not the same scenario exactly, but keep reading. The DI water is used due to it being "the harshest possible conditions". This is due to the lack of ions in the water and once it penetrates the surface of the outer layer it builds osmotic pressure. Basically trying to equalize the concentration gradient. When this builds high enough the material shows what looks like a blister on your skin. So, long story short, the DI water will be an issue with the coatings/metals in your cooling system. DO NOT use straight DI water. Sorry for the bs, but figured that I would reinforce the already known.
Thank you David! (I fixed the bs for you above.
)Excellent scientific explanation of the hungry nature of pure water that is also stripped of ions. Distilled is also hungry but to a slightly lesser degree since it has only minerals stripped. Both can initiate corrosion and eventually galvanic corrosion fairly rapidly in the absence of antifreeze or other substance to suppress corrosion.
I think you have the backwards. My understanding is that distilled water is more pure than de-ionizedwater. De-ionized is stripped of non-water ions via chemical methods, but not everything is removed. Distilled water is more pure, and is basically nothing but H20.
Also, I noticed the thread linked that softened water was better and there was no salt in it. This is not true, as softening of a water leaves it with more salt (NaCl) in it than it contained when it came in. Yes, there is an ion exchange going on to soften it, but it isn't perfect and some of the NaCl still gets transferred into the water, so you end up with a slight (or really strong) saline solution - especially if the softener is not working optimally (like my MILs where you can actually TASTE the sale in the water). I wouldn't run (salt) softened water in my cars for that reason, especially in an iron block.
Still trying to wrap my head around distilled water/deionized water being more corrosive than 'standard' tap water, which has all sorts of stuff in it typically making it somewhat acidic.
Shadow Grey, how does normal tap water behave in these scenarios?
Also, I noticed the thread linked that softened water was better and there was no salt in it. This is not true, as softening of a water leaves it with more salt (NaCl) in it than it contained when it came in. Yes, there is an ion exchange going on to soften it, but it isn't perfect and some of the NaCl still gets transferred into the water, so you end up with a slight (or really strong) saline solution - especially if the softener is not working optimally (like my MILs where you can actually TASTE the sale in the water). I wouldn't run (salt) softened water in my cars for that reason, especially in an iron block.
Still trying to wrap my head around distilled water/deionized water being more corrosive than 'standard' tap water, which has all sorts of stuff in it typically making it somewhat acidic.
Shadow Grey, how does normal tap water behave in these scenarios?
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The normal tap water by itself will still corrode the internals, whether it's copper or something else. It's just that per unit volume of water, the DI and distilled water will need more ions from the material it's in contact with to get to an equilibrium. That is why they are considered more corrosive than the tap water. This also depends on what is in your tap water. The minerals that could possibly be present in the tap water could however lead to a more corrosive nature when in the presence of the various metals in the radiator. Let's muddy it up even more
The salt in the water from a softener will give you some rust in the water from the iron block as well. I personally wouldn't run straight water in anything for those reasons. Obviously it will take time for these things to happen since it's not highly corrosive liquids that we are dealing with.
I have never done a real world comparison of the different waters in this type of case, so I can't site anything other than the theoretical knowledge that I have.
One more thought. Have you seen an older vehicle with "muddy" looking coolant? That's just the corrosion from various sources, i.e. the block, heads, radiator, whatever. It just takes awhile for it to get that bad.
Here is a decent read, I know it's Wikipedia but it get's the point across,
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze]Antifreeze - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame].
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Did you mean to link something else? That chart is for seawater.
NASA has a corrosion of various metals in deionized water here: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19690015779_1969015779.pdf
NASA has a corrosion of various metals in deionized water here: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19690015779_1969015779.pdf
Bottled drinking water !
The normal tap water by itself will still corrode the internals, whether it's copper or something else. It's just that per unit volume of water, the DI and distilled water will need more ions from the material it's in contact with to get to an equilibrium. That is why they are considered more corrosive than the tap water. This also depends on what is in your tap water. The minerals that could possibly be present in the tap water could however lead to a more corrosive nature when in the presence of the various metals in the radiator. Let's muddy it up even more
The salt in the water from a softener will give you some rust in the water from the iron block as well. I personally wouldn't run straight water in anything for those reasons. Obviously it will take time for these things to happen since it's not highly corrosive liquids that we are dealing with.
I have never done a real world comparison of the different waters in this type of case, so I can't site anything other than the theoretical knowledge that I have.
One more thought. Have you seen an older vehicle with "muddy" looking coolant? That's just the corrosion from various sources, i.e. the block, heads, radiator, whatever. It just takes awhile for it to get that bad.
Here is a decent read, I know it's Wikipedia but it get's the point across,
Antifreeze - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Thanks Grey 03
Tt seems then that it is impossible to make the case that one 'form' of water is more (or less) corrosive than another - tap, filtered drinking, deionized, and distilled - without analyzing the tap/filtered water.
Because of other various chemicals that might be in it, it may be worse.
Perhaps why distilled/deionized water have been recommended all of these years - they are of a known purity vs. other water 'types'?
Thanks Shadow Gray for your excellent background info. Jimmy, too. Interesting knowledge gleaned from this thread.
If you keep reading they pretty much cover all the common water types, scroll past that chart and there are some very short write ups below.
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