I've got some pink RV water line anti freeze. Says not to use in auto radiator / cooling system. Anyone know why this is? I did a web search. One site says it eats aluminum, another says no additives.
Anyone want to share the real reason, and a web site for reference?
Probably does not contain the corrosion inhibitors but should be safe to use if only a little is used.
It's a secret. If you want to know ask Hillary to send you an email with the answer. No, wait, she doesn't send any secret stuff. Never has, never will. By the way, if she didn't send any secret stuff, what the hell did she do those four years?
Different horses for different courses. There is a reason there are multiple products. RV antifreeze is propylene glycol which should NEVER be mixed with ethylene glycol. Yes, there ARE propylene glycol engine goolants - and some of them are "anhydrous" meaning "no water"
Why not mixed? Why anhydrous?
Any proof of what you write?
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Best idea I've heard in a while. Got her email adress? Oh, wait, no one does, it's a secret. Nevermind.
Most automotive antifreezes say not to mix them with non-campatible coolants. There are so many different chemical concoctions used as additive packages, some of them organic acids, some containing silica, etc. Mixing them can have unpredictable results.
Evans coolant is a prime example of "anhydrous" propylene glycol coolant.and has many advantages over water-based coolants. It is specified in our Rotax 912 and 914 aircraft engines and is used in a lot of racing engines and antique car restorations since with no water the corrosion issues are virtually non-existant. The hotter it gets the thinner it gets, so it finds leaks that water based coolants would never find - even with them running at higher system pressures than the evans product. The lower pressure required for Evans to eliminate boiling makes it good for older vehicles, and it's high boiling point makes it good for modified street vehicles.
Plumbing antifreeze is a highly diluted propylene glycol. Without knowing it's concentration, it's heat transfer and boiling protection are un-known.
Peak Sierra antifreeze coolant is a water based propylene glycol engine coolant/antifreeze. Nemco is another one, and Amzoil also markets a water-based PG coolant.
How cold does it get there? RV antifreeze will not give you the same protection you get with ethylene glycol
The simple difference is RV one only concerns freezing Auto. one is both freezing and boiling under pressure. And different chemical dealing with metal, alloys, etc.
Most years, gets down to 0F (think that's -17C). The RV stuff says it goes down to -50.
I've got a leaky radiator, and it would be cheaper to feed it $4 a gal RV stuff, rather than $10 a gal auto stuff.
The RV usage is mostly tubing, and little metal contact. Wonder if that has anything to do with it?
IDK what the actual boiling point difference is, but seems like that could be a valid point, if the RV type has a lower boiling point. Also, as someone else pointed out, auto antifreeze has specific corrosion and lubricating properties that RV probably would not have. I would think the corrosion inhibitors required might be toxic and/or not needed in the RV product. Someone said it would probably be OK if only a little is used. I would disagree with that. Years ago I had a Pontiac that had the extended life, 100K mile antifreeze in it. I took it for service to Jiffy Lube and they topped it off with regular. It wound up fouling, gunky up the cooling system and creating a big mess that the dealer had to fix.
Putting RV type in a car would probably be like using cooking oil for engine oil or at least like putting some straight weight oil without proper detergents, additives, etc in it. If I were in some emergency situation, with no other choice for some odd reason, I'd use it temporarily.
The obvious question is why not fix the radiator? Is it too big a leak to use some form of stop leak?
...because he is a cheap f*ck, much like micky.
At the museum in Flin Flon Manitoba there is an old tractor on display and they used kerosene in the cooling system! Apparently they had no antifreeze at all back then so they used that instead.
In a bind, I'd rather just use water until problem is taken care of.
Before anti-freeze they would normally use alcohol in winter...which would boil away quickly.
Radiators are cheap. I got one for about $50 for my old Honda. Two hoses and a few screws and I was good as new. These days they usually load from the top and you don't have to remove much to get it out. The hardest part was reaching the plug for the fan.
What's wrong with fixing or replacing the radiator??
You could clean up the bad spot and slap a wad of bondo on it to slow it down. I did that on my nephew's car hafter he put the fan through it in a front end colision and he was able to drive it some 50 miles to the repair shop instead of paying for a tow.
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