Changing coolant yearly or lack thereof.

[4570Man]

Ok, I tested it just now after topping it off yesterday, got 3 balls floating. Just for fun, I also tested the coolant in my Toyota Sienna (peach stuff...dex-cool?) for comparison, it also has 3 balls floating. So dunno, maybe it is the little bulb tester too? There is something wrong with the bulb on it, don't know if that has any bearing on things, I guess I'll just get a new one.

But guys, refractometer, does it really have to be that accurate? I don't care about precision to the nth degree, I just wanna make sure my radiator don't freeze in the normal winter temps we get around here.

You could just drain some coolant into a bottle and put it in the deep freezer and see what happens.

 

[4570Man]

Rather hoping you wrote that incorrectly, it would be somewhere north of 80/20 which would be a cooling inhibitor. It sure wouldn't freeze below -50 though!

Straight antifreeze actually will freeze. 50/50 is the desired mix.

 

[CausticUrbanCoast]

Straight antifreeze actually will freeze. 50/50 is the desired mix.

Yup, internet says pure ethylene glycol freezes at 10.4F
And pure Polypropylene glycol freezes at -74.2F

 

[GeneV]

Guys, I went out and got me a new tester. Came home, tried both.

The old one:





The new one:

 

[4570Man]

Guys, I went out and got me a new tester. Came home, tried both.

The old one:

View attachment 719918



The new one:

View attachment 719919

Is it the correct tester for the antifreeze type?

 

[GeneV]

There are many types of coolant on the market today and they are not all compatible with each other.
I use a combination of full strength and I make up my own pre-mixed with a 60/40 ratio. The 60/40 ratio may be a
bit of over kill but it makes me much more comfortable regardless of the ambient temperatures.
My filling method after several flushes with well water is the last two flushes are with distilled water and using an
air hose to blow the water out of the block.
Then I fill it to a bit over half capacity with full strength then finish off with my 60/40 mix.

As I mentioned in my first line these new coolants are not compatible with each other or the old green stuff.
An example of what can happen with one of the new "long" life coolants and the old green stuff.
View attachment 719913

View attachment 719914

The first picture is after I couldn't figure out my over heating problem, after flushing and refilling a system.
It had run for several days and then overheated one night while it was idling and providing lighting for late work.
That was the internal of the water pump, the second picture is the impeller from the water pump the new one compared
to the old that chewed itself up trying to pump a waxy hard setting material. It toke considerable cleaning and several
chemicals to get the engine cleaned out.

Yikes! Yeh, I heard these nightmares before! I did flush it real well when I did the coolant change last year.

 

[GeneV]

Is it the correct tester for the antifreeze type?

Well, this new one I just got seems to be.

 

[LouNY]

Straight antifreeze actually will freeze. 50/50 is the desired mix.

nope

 

[CausticUrbanCoast]

Okay now things make a bit more sense, the PEAK "Full Strength" is actual a 5% water mixed ethylene glycol.

Its freezing point would be about -15F

 

[redneck1952]

So, found something interesting today. I changed coolant last year on my GC1710, used this stuff:

View attachment 719821

I had no intention of changing coolant this year, not as though the tractor is a daily driver or anything. Anyways, today I stumbled on my el cheapo coolant tester, so since it's in my hand, why not. Tested the coolant and found this:

View attachment 719822

I thought maybe there's a problem with the tester, so tested some of this same coolant leftover in the container, and got 3 balls floating from that (safe to -10 deg). So yeh, this is surprising, and looks like I'm changing coolant this year after all.

I quit using antifreeze cooling in my John Deere 2240 years ago, I had an old timer (about 40 years ago), told me that the first thing he did when he got a tractor or vehicle (if it didn't have warranty) was to drain the radiator and fill it back up with automatic transmission fluid, he stated since he started doing that he has never had a water pump failure (due to the lubricating qualities of the transmission fluid) on tractor or vehicle. I started doing that and noticed that the engine temperature whether I had coolant or transmission fluid in it stayed the same (I'm in Texas where we can have have temps in the summer of 115 Degrees and low teens in the winter}. Also I never had water pump problems after that. Since then every tractor I have had since then I put transmission fluid in the radiator.