nassas
Part of things
Posts: 214 
|
|
Aug 11, 2020 11:07:32 GMT
|
|
why is the radiator water always brown and murky color? do I need to flush it out?
|
| |
|
|
Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,304
Club RR Member Number: 160
|
|
Aug 11, 2020 12:29:50 GMT
|
why is the radiator water always brown and murky color? do I need to flush it out? Err, yes, it’s brown due to the antifreeze degrading and the internal coolantways in the system corroding. A good chemical flush and refill with the correct antifreeze type will sort it simply enough provided there isn’t too much muck in the system. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2020 19:51:38 GMT
|
|
Iron oxide
|
| |
|
|
nassas
Part of things
Posts: 214
|
|
Aug 13, 2020 10:50:50 GMT
|
|
thanks
|
| |
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,256
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
|
|
|
curse word antifreeze.
Whenever I've used an OE quality antifreeze like:
-Ford's SuperPlus 10 Year
-Glytasyn G48 (this is my go-to coolant on older cars now)
-Glytasyn G30 etc.
-Prestone ; I've not used this but many do and say it is fine.
-Renault Type D ; This is a green coolant, which is actually an OAT. It's always been fine in the Renaults I've done it in, but then it was changed vaguely on time as well.
I've rarely had the coolant go rusty with the above coolants I used or have deposits in them. In the Mondeo, the SuperPlus could almost have been re-used after 150,000 miles of being in the engine.
Red 'OAT' coolants seem to be better, but even they IME can not necessarily have decent additives when going for a budget type
The G48 keeps very well as well. BMW oddly reckon it can last 4 years, over Comma, who give it a 3 year life.
With Unipart Cool Blue or Granville Blue, it's gone rusty within a year, despite flushing out the blocks and changing the radiator. The Two examples I have are:
-MGB : Clean as a whistle for years with red coolant. I put in cheapo blue stuff as I was worried the red OAT coolant would create leaks. The system went rusty within a year.
-Stag : This wasn't too bad when I bought it, so I bought some blue coolant to do an engine flush; it's a Stag after all. I flushed the rad and also flushed out the block, using both drain plugs on the block and even trying rod around the block just in case there was rust in there. The block was surprisingly clean. The coolant went rusty within a year. New Rad and block drain? Still went rusty! On G48, it was fine.
That rust will go into the rad, and only rodding/replacing the rad will truly remove it, so the coolant isn't something I overlook.
|
| |
Last Edit: Aug 16, 2020 9:12:24 GMT by ChasR
|
|
cjj
Part of things
Posts: 275
|
|
Aug 17, 2020 12:39:03 GMT
|
Curious as on topic, but I worked in the industry around HVAC and learnt about the importance of the coolant and the metallurgical/chemical importance, so can be far more anal about cooling systems than 'mechanics' can be (e.g. people who might know how to strip down/rebuild, but have little or no engineering knowledge beyond that). Anyway, I had a 'discussion' with someone at an anonymous point in time who felt that, when rebuilding an engine, it was perfectly fine to top up the coolant and not change it. Furthermore, they mixed colours which meant that (allegedly) any brown colour was simply a mixture of green and red/pink coolant. My personal point of view is that coolant is often cheaper than the majority of the components it serves, so should be flushed and replaced where there is insufficient evidence to show that it is still in 'spec', but always if major components are removed (e.g. head, water pump, entire engine, radiator). What say you, people of RR? (perhaps ChasR in particular) |
| |
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,256
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
Aug 17, 2020 22:39:30 GMT
|
While I work in engineering, that's not quite the area I am based in, so I'm intrigued to hear about more of your experience. Every day is a school day after all  . We generallly build the engines and briefly test them . I'd agreed, however that coolant should be flushed whenever possible . That's not to say I always have on some of my own/ the cars got scrapped anyway! Most however, I tend to, as I always have some coolant spare . I've have deposits form from mixing coolant types (IAT and OAT) however, so maybe that is not so clear cut. |
| |
|
|
. We generallly build the engines and briefly test them