Di Water And Corrosion

[tmckeen]

I'm curious what you guys use for coolant in the School Bikes, I'd assume since they live on nothing but race tracks it isn't anything glycol based.

 

I've been doing some reading about various coolants and I understand that water stores more heat than pure antifreeze, or even 50/50, and therefore will make a bike run cooler, it does however have a lower boiling point which if reached results in cavitation and significant loss of cooling.

 

I understand using DI water over tap water will eliminate scaling and buildup in your cooling system from minerals and hard water etc. but from what I've read it doesn't eliminate corrosion on aluminum unless you add a corrosion inhibitor to it, and from what I can tell products like "Water Wetter" are merely "Surficants" which reduce the surface tension of the water in your system aiding in heat transfer, but do nothing to prevent corrosion to the inside of you radiator.

 

 

Should I be using a corrosion inhibitor in addition to water wetter ? Is it better to drain the water for extended storage or leave it in ? Some of what I've read mentioned that in a closed system once all the free oxygen in the water was eliminated no more corrosion would result until more free oxygen was introduced.

 

Any insight from the Chief would be greatly appreciated

 

Tyler

 

 

 

[Balistic]

Unlike race bikes ours have to travel at times when it is below freezing so we do use coolant and not water. While water is good at heat transfer it will boil at a lower point than coolant. You do have to remember that a good cap will hold 15 PSI and that water at that pressure will boil at 240 I think. The corrosion in the cooling system is electrolicys and the only real way to defeat it is to put a zink anode in the cooling system. Hard to find outside of a marine store and then hard to mount in the cooling system. I only use di water in cooling and battery systems for all the reasons you stated. A good alternative to normal cooland is Evans waterless coolant, you would have to check with your sanctioning body but it way beyond what water wetter does.

[johnnyrod]

As Ballistic says, the corrosion isn't quite liek that with steel where you need oxygen and water - just the water will do it, although the system isn't truly sealed. Tap water with the salts etc. in it will accelerate corrosion compared to DI water. In terms of boiling, one advantage of using pure water is that any hot spots in the engine are quickly dealt with by localised boiling - this takes out a lot of heat by making just a little steam.