Best coolant/anti-freeze?

[LumpyVR4]

Need to chuck some antifreeze into the car. I've come up with conflicting advice on various dsm forums. I know to use Redline water wetter, but the best type of coolant/anit-freeze is still a bit confused. Green, Red, OAT, HOAT !?!

Suggestions?

While I'm here advice on using a flush or not before hand, and which one would be helpful too.

 

[evo-gsr]

I use Green...either Tectalloy or Nulon.

 

[evo-gsr]

No need for water wetter unless your cooling system has issues.

 

[GeoKez]

And water wetter is good, but I have noticed a really big jump in corrosion. Would recommend always running a good coolant with water wetter if you use it. Halves the benefit of water wetter but will make the inside of your engine happier. Personal favourite is the red Toyota stuff.

 

[DOUGMO]

I run water wetter only with no corrosion issue.

do you go anywhere that you car may freeze? the "coolant" actually makes the cooling system less efficient

 

[LumpyVR4]

I'm off the the snow this week and don't really want a cracked block in the morning. I ended up using Nulon blue. It's advertised as being good for Nihon no cars and has a matching Mitsubishi part number.

I used Nulon flush first. The top of the radiator looked cleaner for it. Ran the hose through the engine for ages before refilling with coolant and deminerised water, but it only took 5.5 litres not 7. I'm hoping I got all of the cleaning stuff out. I think I did. I just tend to obses/panic about that sort of stuff. The car has a 2 row aluminium radiator in it, so maybe that is a little smaller than the stock one in volume.

 

[croket]

I use about 7 with my alli rad , maybe you have an airlock somewhere

 

[LumpyVR4]

That's what I'm assuming. I'm just going to check the level over the next several days. Running temp is about 1 needle width lower than before I started so I guess the clean out did its thing. Gauge has always read pretty much dead center.

 

[evo-gsr]

Does your car have the 12mm bolt in the top of the outlet on the side of the head?
I undo that while engine is running to bleed any air from the system when I change coolant.

 

[DOUGMO]

did you have the heater on when you flushed it out and refilled?

 

[micky_vr4]

Has anyone tried this stuff?

I've heard about it but not from anyone with firsthand experience...

http://www.evanscoolants.com.au/products.html

 

[LumpyVR4]

Heater was on. Took a half litre yesterday, but none today. Couldn't see a bolt on the thermostat housing. Maybe the heater matrix never emptied when I dumped the water after flushing the cleaner out.

 

[Ross Cox]

G'day.
I run a 4g63T in a VR4 rally car. No water cooling in the turbo. I have an aftermarket aluminium radiator, with a 90 degree thermostat. I run demineralised water, the small tin of Castrol corrosion inhibitor, and the lumpy stuff from a bottle of Bars Leaks. The temp cycled between 85-95 degrees Celcius even in competition. The car has been outside in -2 Celcius and no problem with the water freezing. The radiator has been in the car or the first VR4 I had since 2007 without a problem It has been cleaned and flushed three times since 2007 and no traces of corrosion.
Cheers
Ross

 

[bazeng]

Water wetter here also. Both AMG and VR4 have no cooling issues whatsoever.

 

[milkandoj]

Correct me if im wrong but you can run redline water wetter with just distilled water, as it says it has its own corrosion inhibitors. Also says it works more efficiently to transfer heat the less or no glycol present.

Anyone noticed corrosion problems doing this?

Also im pretty sure my vr4 had a stock 192*F thermostat as it would levle out at 89-90*C on the move.
(But regularly hit 100-102*C at the lights after driving hard)

You can get 180*F and 170*f replacements. So it levels out a bit lower, unless you live somewhere freezing it will help give a larger buffer zone for the temp to rise after wrapping it.

With a lot of the brands like Tridon for eg; if you cross reference the first part of the part number the second number is just the *F number. So you can see what other temps are avaliable