Neil,
Water adhering to metal is called "wetting". The opposite is what happens
when you wax a surface and water beads up. Good wetting improves heat
transfer. I am not sure if anti-freeze improves wetting or not. Wetting
action may vary with the different types of anti-freeze on today's market.
There are some aftermarket chemicals that claim to improve wetting action
and thus improve cooling efficiency. Pure water is a more efficient heat
transfer medium than anti-freeze or an anti-freeze/water mix. There are
several reasons to use anti-freeze:
1. It prevents freezing (and cracking the engine block).
2. It prevents corrosion.
3. It helps lubricate the water pump.
4. It raises the boiling point to prevent system boil-over. This is more
important than the slight loss of heat transfer efficiency.
5. By raising the boiling point, it prevents localized internal hot spot
boiling in areas around the hottest areas of the engine. This boiling can
result in erosion and metal removal, especially in aluminum engines.
6. It gives the water a pretty color.
Dave Homstad
56 Dodge D500
-----Original Message-----
From: Forward Look Mopar Discussion List
[mailto:L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of eastern sierra Adj Services
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 2:10 AM
To: L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [FWDLK] WATER , you talkin about?
One point Dave's article overlooked mentioning is that a function of
"Anti-freeze" solution is to allow water/coolant to adhere to hot
internal surfaces, so that a transfer of heat, from the engine, to the
coolant mixture may be realized.
Water, by itself, can boil-off of the hot surfaces, like the article
mentioned, so that it becomes difficult to tranfer heat "off" of the
engine surfaces.
That said, I quoted directly from the 1957 Dodge Bible (service manual)
, a few months ago, that ONLY pure/clean water was needed inside the
Dodge engine, UNLESS A/C was
installed, so that the "anti-freeze" solution could prevent FREEZING
of the coolant,
because :" ...the air conditioner evaporator
lies in close proximity to the heater core, which might cause coolant in
heater core to freeze
(!!!!) if system is not protected." Antifreeze is recommended for use in
the cooling system when the temperature is likely to be beow 32 degrees
F. ...".
Neil Vedder
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