Waterless coolant anybody?

[DavidMRea]

Hello
Does anyone have any experience of using waterless coolant. Apparently it doesn't vaporise and it's environmentally cleaner.
Popular with older engines

Will it harm a marine diesel?

Thanks

[skipperpete]

Some Deutz 2013 engines are liquid cooled....... they use oil.

[Sailmonkey]

From my quick read. It seems it’s the favored coolant for older non-pressurized cooling systems.

IMHO, it’s not worth the trouble in a marine engine with a heat exchanger (modern pressurized cooling system). As an example, I’ve got tradition long life coolant in the engine, good for several years, but normal routine maintenance will have me pulling the tube bundle before the coolant needs to be changed. This negates the benefit of the waterless coolant.

[BillKny]

Water is pretty close to the ideal heat transfer fluid.

• Low viscosity, so it is easy to pump.
• High thermal conductivity so heat moves easily through the boundry layer.
• High heat capacity so it can carry a lot of heat with small changes in temperature.

Industrially, water based heat transfer fluids are used pretty much everywhere that the temperature range allows. All of these basic physical properties change (mostly for the worse) with anything else. This reduces the cooling capacity of the system.

Why would you want to do that? Because it doesn't "vaporize"???? Do you really have problems with water "vaporizng" out of your engine's cooling circuit?

[jack4566]

Its not going to hurt, but its also not going to help. Your coolant should never be boiling over/ vaporizing in a good system. plus the thermal abilities are worse than regular water/coolant.

[garyfdl]

Had never heard of waterless coolant, so I looked it up. Apparently the only supplier/mfr is a company called Evans. After reading their sales literature... why bother?

If you are losing coolant, you have a leak. Some loss is 'normal' but if you are regularly/frequently having to top off, it would seem to me there is a problem that needs fixed. Going to $50/gal coolant to mitigate a vapor leak is the wrong approach IMO. Anti-freeze is 1/10th the price.

Just fix the leak.

[tkeithlu]

BillKny is absolutely right. Now, why would someone be attracted to non-water coolant, with its inferior heat transfer, given that the business is heat transfer? Maybe that person has a pressurized coolant system that isn't pressurized, so the coolant is boiling and sprayig all over the engine compartment. Maybe the person really needs a new spring-loaded coolant cap rather than a non-water coolant, but doesn't realize it.

Coolant additives, basically ethylene glycol, can raise the boiling temperature, lower the freezing temperature, and inhibit rust. That's good. But, you only use them in up to 50% solutions with water, so that you don't overly compromise the heat transfer of your coolant in the process.

[DavidMRea]

Thanks everyone. I'd just never heard of such a thing. The brand I was looking at wasn't Evans, but Azure Marine coolant. They claims it prolongs engine life...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coolant-Wat...9539877&sr=8-6

Cheers
David

[PirateGuy]

Originally Posted by DavidMRea

Hello
Does anyone have any experience of using waterless coolant. Apparently it doesn't vaporise and it's environmentally cleaner.
Popular with older engines

Will it harm a marine diesel?

Thanks

Not sure what compound could be environmentally cleaner than fresh water.
The ethylene glycol additive is poisonous to mammals, but absent a coolant leak, it should not be going overboard.
My diesel is original to my boat and is over 40 years old and it has never once asked me to give it a more popular coolant, so I am not confident of your claim of changed tastes in more mature diesels.

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by DavidMRea

I was looking at wasn't Evans, but Azure Marine coolant. They claims it prolongs engine life...

Yeah.... No 'shots' at you but, that's a pretty ambiguous and I'd also say dubious claim (IMO).

The engineer in me always makes me curious as to how they make such a determination. Did they actually take a bunch of identical engines, from various manufacturers, run them under identical conditions until failure, disassemble and 'autopsy' them for failure cause? Mmmm, probably not.

[C420sailor]

Agree with the above. It’s propylene glycol with some additives. Specific heat sucks.

If your system is pressurized, run ethylene glycol. You actually don’t gain a whole lot of boil protection from the AF itself, it’s mostly from the pressure. Most of your freeze protection comes from the ethylene glycol solute. As such, I run no more than 50/50 as my boat doesn’t live in very cold temps.