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Russell,
There are two products that I know of that provide 1) pump & seal
lubrication/protection and 2) corrosion protection:
"Water Wetter" - Motor cycle shops have it - expensive.
"John Deere Coolant Conditioner" - cheaper and does same thing - lubs &
protects. I talked to the Deere engineer for 30' on the phone and he says
it should work fine.
Either of the above will give the same protection as antifreeze but with the
superior heat carrying capacity of pure water. I'm planning on running this
stuff (water with conditioner) during times when freezing level is up above
10 or 12 thousand feet (it's 15K here in Texas in summer), then swap out to
50/50 when cooler OAT and therefore don't need "optimum" cooling.
David
----- Original Message ----- From: "Russell Duffy" <13brv3@bellsouth.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2004 2:19 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] coolant/water percentage?
Greetings,
Since I seem to have plenty of cooling capacity, I'm thinking that it may
be
time to add some coolant to my distilled water. Since I live in Florida,
I
don't need all that much freeze protection, so I'm doing it mostly for the
corrosion protection, and pump lubrication. My goal would be to use as
little coolant as possible, to get freeze protection down to maybe 20
degrees. Less coolant also means better heat transfer, which is another
reason to use as little as possible.
I could swear that I've seen a chart that tells the percentage of coolant
vs
freeze level, but now I can't find such a chart. On the manufacturers
pages, they seem to want you to stay between 50 and 70 percent coolant. I
never saw them recommend less than 50%, and one page even said that you
needed at least 50% for corrosion protection.
I could certainly run distilled water, and water wetter in the summer, and
50/50 mix in the winter, but I'd like to find one mixture that would work
year round, just in case I ever manage to go more than a month or so
without
having to drain the water for some reason. Hey, it could happen :-)
Anyway, the real question is- what is the minimum percentage of coolant
that
will protect down to 20 degrees, and will this provide all the corrosion
protection, and lubrication that the engine needs?
Thanks,
Rusty (Southbound in 5 days)
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