Radiator/ Coolant discuss!!

OK folks, based on the last thread I went with the all aluminum champion radiator. ...Dilemma… It says use the Etheline glycol green stuff. Not sure.. does this affect the actual engine block or components of our 3.0L VZE second generation vehicles? I am prepared to use the green, pink OR red stuff, just don’t want to destroy the new radiator, ..don’t mind the green stuff, but don’t want to destroy my Toyota engine and components either!!… Need help! Thank you.

 

Your Toyota originally came with the green stuff. The red stuff wasn't introduced until the 3rd Gen came out. Use what you want.

 

With dissimilar metals which are immersed in a fluid that has ions you make a battery and one of those metals will be anodic in the chemistry. Using antifreeze with de-ionized (DI) water you reduce the ions in the fluid in your cooling system. For an iron block and aluminium heads with radiator there is potential for electric current to flow and cause galvanic corrosion to the aluminum parts. When your antifreeze gets old and is in need of replacement there are then more ions available to propagate the corrosion. I use the green universal stuff with DI water mixed in already from O'Reilly's and change it out every other year when the smog check needs to happen. A spot of Redline water wetter can't hurt either and advertises that it helps with the thermal heat transfer from the metal to coolant surface areas inside the cooling system making the cooling system more efficient in getting rid of waste heat. I have mapped coolant temps in real time with Laptop-Dyno software on a netbook PC and this is a real claim and I saw lower peak operating temps of about 10°F.

If you live in CA like me using the tap water is a real num nuts thing to do as it is loaded with all sorts of ions in the hope that the bacteria level is null and void to the extent that it is potable water you can drink. Chlorine is used to do this and having just re-piped my 48 year old house with PEX all I can say is that with chlorine in the water, copper pipes don't last forever in CA.

 

I posted earlier that I use Evans. None of the above issues are present with it since it is truly waterless. Temps will run 10 -15 degrees warmer but since the boil point is so much higher it works beautifully. It is expensive but over a lifetime it becomes cheap.