how to..

[ikeyballz]

Ive been running pure water in my LT1 for a while.. i know im supposed to use the coolant because its required by chevy..so i have a few questions
1) why is that coolant necessary?
2) if i run pure water, it cools faster so why is it bad?
3) i actually added a water-tension breaker so it will cool better.. is that okay? or do i really need the coolant..

i dont have a 160stat in it so my car always around about 170-180.. (i have the fans coming on around then..)

what do you guys think?
also, i flushed out the system..and the water was really really clean, no rust or anything.. but..how do i know theres no air bubbles in the system? (i removed the bottom hose to let all the water out from the engine and the radiator.. and i put in water after i reconected the hose, let it warm up so the stat opened up, and then kept filling it up till it was full..

[Mr. Luos]

Water will freeze in the winter.
Not a good thing.

[2.2 Straight six]

the "coolant" is water and antifreeze.

[ikeyballz]

dont LT1's have special 'required' coolant? 'must be something something coolant'

btw, since i live in hawaii i dont have to worry about anything freezing when i had my 88 beater firebird, i ran pure water..and it ran like a champ and never overheated.. i removed the t-stat and ran the fan straight from the ignition so it would click on all the time. =)

[poormillionaire2]

No, there is no special required coolant. Coolant/antifreeze is used to prevent the water from freezing and expanding and prevent rusting.

[silicon212]

This is correct - over time, the corrosion (rust) will run rampant in an engine with no antifreeze. All you need to do is look at the rust-colored water (not to be confused with Dex-Cool) to see that slowly, your engine is becoming one with the water.

[ikeyballz]

my engine spat out clear water at me and im using rust inhibitor/surface tension reducer instead of coolant.. its a small 16oz bottle from royal purple!

[2.2 Straight six]

how much did it spit out?

a little rusty water won't look much different. but a glass full will look bad.

[silicon212]

Rust inhibitor/surface tension reducer does not provide a lubricating effect to the bearings like plain ol' antifreeze does.

[88camaroproject]

i beleive antifreeze has a higher boiling point too. so the water will boil or steam away when the antifreeze wouldnt. correct me if i am wrong

[ikeyballz]

yeah, it will.. but the surface tension thing should bring up the boiling temp..and my car wont hit boiling temp (even at 0 pounds) or it shoudlnt, if its in good tune.. i gotta buy the 160 stat soon, but even with a 180 stat it doesnt ever hit 210.. (boiling temp for water at my elevation is 213?)

[kgoodrich]

DexCool is recommended for engines with aluminum components. Reason being is that it has a special additive for aluminum. Antifreeze does lower the freezing point and raise the boiling point. Also, you do not want to mix the regular antifreeze(Green) with the Dexcool(Redish/Orange) as this will create an acidic type of material that wil over time eat through aluminum. Because of this, many antifreeze manufacturers have changed their antifreeze to be compatible with the dexcool or the regular antifreeze. From my experience you can tell this by the antifreeze being a yellow color. It is typically safe for all antifreeze applications.

[ikeyballz]

there was basically no rust color at all in my coolant

[kgoodrich]

Royal Purple makes some real good stuff. You should be just fine using it. And if you didn't see any signs of rust, you should be in good shape. The only thing is that I don't know how that stuff is supposed to hold up when it comes to a freezing point. That would be my only concern depending where you live.

[ikeyballz]

haha thanks, sounds good.. i live in Hawaii so nothing below 70 here... 70 is considered really cold here..