Coolant, tap water, de-ionized water or distilled water?

[dieseluser07]

Ressurecting this thread as i topped my coolant up with 300ml coolant and 300ml tap water recently, i live in a 'moderatly soft' water area, is it worth flushing my coolant to remove limescale or will there not be any buildup?

Do the car manufacturers actually use deiodinised water anyway as the bottle i bought just had a picture of a tap on it and said 50/50, i.e. mix half and half.

[PositronicRay]

Think about how your kettle furs up, how many ltrs do you have to boil before it becomes noticeable?

Manufactures guidelines to be followed, most allow it. 300ml is very, very little.

[dieseluser07]

PositronicRay said:

Think about how your kettle furs up, how many ltrs do you have to boil before it becomes noticeable?

Manufactures guidelines to be followed, most allow it. 300ml is very, very little.

But if you kept boiling it over years??

[PositronicRay]

dieseluser07 said:

PositronicRay said:

Think about how your kettle furs up, how many ltrs do you have to boil before it becomes noticeable?

Manufactures guidelines to be followed, most allow it. 300ml is very, very little.

But if you kept boiling it over years??

What quantity of mineral deposits are held in suspension per 300 ml of tap water? Boiling doesn't cause furring.

[pcn1]

I run a Grand Cherokee with the MB 2.7 CRD engine. The factory are very specific you have to use a special (I forget the exact specification, but it was expensive !) type of anti-freeze and it has to be mixed with DI water to protect the engine.

For peace of mind thats what I did.

I'd say follow the manufacturers guidance for your car, DI water isnt expensive if required.

[Sylvaforever]

Why not use premixed? Comma for example.

[StescoG66]

I was always under the impression that water boiled in the kettle then allowed to cool was as good as any?

[Mignon]

The amount of calcium bicarbonate per litre of tap water is generally pretty low, a fraction of a gram. Your local water board will have data online. Kettles and immersion tanks scale up because they have thousands of litres of water passing through them, not just a single fill up every few years. However rainwater has no calcium in it at all because it's been evaporated and not yet passed through any calcium bearing rock. Collecting that and then filtering it through a fine cloth to remove any particulate debris will provide ideal coolant water. No matter how you collect rain water it's going to get bugs and dust in it but filtering it through a scrunched up cotton cloth or coffee filter will take those out. Other good sources of evaporated water are from dehumidifiers and ice from freezers.

A good filter can be made from a 2 litre PET bottle. Cut the base off, scrunch a cotton handerchief or some tea towel into the neck end and pour your rain water through it. Anything that remains is going to do your engine no harm at all.

A little knowledge of basic chemistry is also helpful. When rain falls it picks up carbon dioxide from the air which produces a very dilute carbonic acid. When that passes through limestone rock it dissolves out calcium bicarbonate which remains soluble in cold water. However when that water is heated the bicarbonate precipitates out as calcium carbonate and that's what furrs up pipes and kettles, or indeed engines. So if you boil your tap water in the kettle then most of the bicarbonate should precipitate out into the kettle anyway. In other words if you use tap water for your engine coolant then get the water from the hot tap not the cold one.

So plenty of ways to skin this particular cat without having to buy distilled or demonised water. [yes I prefer demonised now to de-ionised having seen it above ]