The Official Antifreeze / Coolant Thread.

[T3aM 83rD]

I shall have to see about that.

But about coolant, They are all the same shit. I lost count how many times I mixed different brands and never had a problem with them in any honda blocks.

x2, to me anitfreeze is antifreeze

[NAiL05]

Oreilly's special.

[v4lu3s]

I found a copy of the Honda service bulletin about their coolant, their arguments make sense to me and the extra few dollars is worth it since I have my car for the long run:

Genuine Honda Coolant is the Only Way to Go

Increasingly severe operating conditions and the advent of lower maintenance requirements have resulted in significant changes in the variety and the concentration of additives used in engine coolant. Also, the continual improvements in engine and vehicle design have challenged coolant suppliers to design products that perform well in a more demanding environment.

To meet these needs, Honda engineers have developed a superior, high-quality coolant that has several advantages over the competition.

Some antifreeze, although labeled as safe for aluminum parts, may not be compatible with Acura cooling system components. Extensive research and testing by both Honda R&D and CCI, the manufacturer of the Honda coolant, have proven that the abrasive silicates and/or borates found in most domestic coolants can cause these problems:

- - Silicates bond to the surface of the water pump seal and act as an abrasive, causing considerable seal erosion and coolant leakage. In actual tests, the silicated coolant caused early leakage. This leakage increased dramatically until a substantial portion of the coolant had been lost. In contrast, the Honda coolant had almost no leakage through the duration of the test.

Chart here, entitled "Coolant Leakage from Water Pump Seal", showing Leaked Coolant Volume in ml as follows for each test duration in Hours:

24 hrs: Honda Coolant 0, Typical Silicated Coolant 21
48 hrs: Honda Coolant 1, Typical Silicated Coolant 36
72 hrs: Honda Coolant 2, Typical Silicated Coolant 47
96 hrs: Honda Coolant 2, Typical Silicated Coolant 55
120 hrs: Honda Coolant 2.5, Typical Silicated Coolant 56
144 hrs: Honda Coolant 3.5, Typical Silicated Coolant 57
168 hrs: Honda Coolant 4, Typical Silicated Coolant 58.8
192 hrs: Honda Coolant 6, Typical Silicated Coolant 63
200 hrs: Honda Coolant 6, Typical Silicated Coolant 64

- - Silicates tend to gel and settle in the coolest parts of the cooling system, causing radiator plugging and overheating.

- - Borates cause pitting corrosion on the cylinder head.

- - Silicate inhibitors are difficult to stabilize and, therefore, limit coolant shelf life.

Most commercially available coolants were originally designed for cast iron engines. Silicate, an inexpensive additive, was added to coolants to prevent aluminum corrosion, but the long-term durability of the combination was not tested.

In contrast, Honda coolant was designed specifically for aluminum engines. It contains an organic corrosion inhibitor instead of silicate. This superior formula gives these advantages:

- - No silicate abrasion of water pump seals. For example, these graphs show the surface roughness of two aluminum water pump seal rings. Seal A, exposed to silicated coolant, shows considerable damage. Seal B, exposed to Honda coolant, displays only minute wear.

[graphs here, showing roughness across the surface, with A a very wiggly line, and B a very smooth line]

- - No plugging or overheating caused by silicate gelling.

- - Excellent corrosion protection for aluminum components.

- - Long-term corrosion protection for other cooling system materials (steel, cast iron, copper, solder, gaskets, seals, and O-rings).

You can find less expensive coolants on the market, but now you can see why genuine Honda coolant is the only coolant approved for Honda and Acura vehicles (it MUST be used for warranty repairs). Honda's non-silicate formula delivers added protection not offered by 95 percent of other brands. Since our customers expect lower maintenance, you're doing them an injustice if you use any other coolant.

[accordmaniac]

Prestone

[d112crzy]

I buy w/e is cheapest. 50/50 mix.

[Kurobei]

so no one here uses Peak?

Pepboys has a sale for buy one get one free for $11. so $5.50 a gallon UNMIXED

Peak user here. I was running peak pre-mixed formula on my old H22a cb7. Currently i'm running Prestone pre-mixed formula just because it was the only one available on the shelves for the cash I had in pocket when I did a thermostat change and radiator flush.

Oh btw, since we are on the topic of coolants, anyone ever use the coolant additives like Water wetter or Royal Purple Purple Ice?



Purple Ice® is a high performance, synthetic, radiator coolant additive for engines. It is formulated to reduce the surface tension of the coolant, which improves heat transfer through the cooling system while providing additional protection against rust, corrosion and erosion.

Purple Ice® prevents the formation of scale deposits in the radiator for optimum coolant flow and lubricates the seals of the water pump. It is ideal for use in straight water racing applications or in antifreeze / water mixtures.


Royal Purple's Performance Advantages:

* Reduces Coolant Tension
* Reduces Coolant Temperatures
* Protects Aluminum Cooling Systems
* Lubricates Water Pump Seals
* Provides Corrosion Resistance — Passes ASTM Corrosion Tests
* Works in both Gasoline and Diesel Engines





Similar cheaper brand that does the same thing:



Redline Water Wetter

Red Line manufactures a unique wetting agent for cooling systems called WaterWetter which is capable of reducing the coolant temperature of a high-performance vehicle by 15-30°F and can provide even greater reduction in cylinder head temperature which means greater volumetric efficiency and allows more spark advance. WaterWetter also provides rust and corrosion protection in plain water for racing engines, which can provide additional cooling efficiency & provides much better heat transfer properties than glycol-based antifreeze. It can be added to new or used antifreeze to improve the heat transfer of ethylene and propylene glycol systems. Designed for modern aluminum, cast iron, copper, brass, and bronze systems.

I'm tempted to buy the Royal Purple bottle at my local store for about 12bucks and try it out once I swap to a aftermarket Koyo aluminum race radiator in the future.

[JohnD1079]

I have heard of a couple of guys running on just distilled water and water wetter. They said it ran fine and good.

Most of them that i heard say that were from CA n TX so .

But what i said disqualifies me, becasue thats something i "heard" and not have had direct experience with it.

[MadSpleen85]

I buy w/e is cheapest. 50/50 mix.

x2 and ZERO problems since I have owned it, the past 5 years. Later

[Legacy Accord]

I use a mixture of Purple Ice and demineralized water (for the summer) in both my regular evryday and race car

[Losiracer2]

just buy the green prestone 50/50 premixed stuff. works perfectly fine in AZ during the summer.

[Otto]

My prelude had no issue with the regular green 50/50. Well over five years and 80k on the same coolant. Only repair was the bypass hose, other than that never touched it and no problems.

As for the CB, I've switched to the Honda type II because there's very significant scale build up on the radiator with only a few years and less than 30k on it. I'm too lazy to try anything else right now :P

[oranger]

Honda coolant is designed for Honda blocks. After market coolants are designed to go into everything, a one size fits all approach. If I still had access to the Honda database of TSB's I would post the article stating the chemical makeup differences. Basically your green and orange coolants have more stuff like phosphates and silicates, which are not, according to Honda, the best for their blocks.

Not really true dude. Yes they are designed for Honda's, but it has nothing to do with the block. The block is just some aluminum with holes in it for the coolant, nothing special. The real special stuff is the seals. All coolant needs to have lubricants to protect the cooling system seals. Water pump seal, all the rubber and glue seals, etc. Not all coolant is created equal.

I work at a shop and we use exclusively Zerex GL5, it exceeds most manufactuer specifications and is really impressive stuff.

[Ralphie]

I use Honda OEM and it has never done me wrong.

I agree, it really is just Antifreeze but im sure Honda recommends it for a reason.

[mozzandherb]

Next summer I have to change my coolant because my motor was overheating on really hot days in traffic mostly, but I think I might go with something like Water Wetter, and there is another coolant out (forget what its called) that really reduces temperature...I have to do something though

[Ralphie]

Next summer I have to change my coolant because my motor was overheating on really hot days in traffic mostly, but I think I might go with something like Water Wetter, and there is another coolant out (forget what its called) that really reduces temperature...I have to do something though

If it was overheating stopped in traffic but was fine while moving its your temp sensor....not the coolant.....i had that problem....