Manky Monkey Motors

with all this cold weather were getting. made me think about what anti freeze i can use in my trike.
looked in the work shop manual and is says 50/50 of distilled water and ethylene glycol anti freeze.
well as all the safety hazards. what can i use on an engine thats 30 years old

i would have thought that normal , off the shelf stuff should do the trick, mixed as per instructions of course!

Maybe ye olde AA can assist

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/general-advice/antifreeze-coolant.html


An alternative to distilled water (and cheaper) is to knock off the excess ice from your freezer, and use the melt water.

Its just that tap water can have 'extras', and these can be detrimental with respect to corrosion. (drink, of course!!, but put it on your motor's coolant system!!!  ;D)

back in the day i was always advised to use water from a water butt....i.e rain water!!!

cant use the ice from the fridge/freezer its one of them frost free Eco things  ;D ;D
some one said use the water from the tumble dryer.empty the water that collects in the water drawer into a container

Hmmm...been thinking about this too..Im sure that when I had aly blocked vehicles years ago,there was some special antifreeze for them.

As far as I'm aware, antifreezes used to be methanol based in the days when most car engines didn't have ally heads (ie cast iron was the norm).
Back then, if you had an ally head, then you needed a 'special' antifreeze as methanol wasn't too clever with ally..

Nowadays with most engines being ally, the antifreeze is designed to be compatable and is ethylene glycol based.

may be thats why they say 50/50 mix. 30 years ago not many ally engines or heads about  ???

...mmmm... maybe that's up for debate.....

The freezer ice is made by freezing the moisture in the air, so has 'no additives'.

Where does the water come from that is found in the tumble drier drawer?
If its from the moisture from the clothes that re being dried, we're talking clothes that have grubby, gone through tap water, detergent and maybe fabric conditioner, which have then been heated, with the residue then being condensed. (trying to get my head around it)  :-\


Distilled water comes from boiling the tap water (with all is extra bits) so steam is evolved (pure water in gas state),which is then condensed, giving pure water (liquid state) and leaving all the 'impurities' in the boiling pot.
Remember when used to do this at school we always discarded the first amount to ensure good quality for the rest.

The dilution factor is proportional to the level of temperature protection you require (the more antifreeze, the lower the freezing point because you're diluting the water), however, there is a small price to pay, in that the stronger the solution in your engine, the slightly less efficient the solution is at transferring heat.
No need to panic, chances are none of us would ever notice it though.

Another thing to bear in mind about 'antifreeze' is its also got a higher boiling point than water (due to the ethylene glycol), as well as inhibitors,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze

 ??? ??? so when i boil the kettle to make a drink. if i then pour whats left in the kettle into a container that's then is distilled water.yes

No  :)

oh  ;D
i will have to make my own antifreeze and distilled water hic  ;)  ::)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COPPER-WHISKEY-STILL-MOONSHINE-STILL-DISTILLERY-MADE-ALPHAMOONSHINER-/290666425160?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43ad11ab48

bought 20 litre,s of ante freeze on friday £30 delivered

T'other way round - If you condense the steam from the kettle, that the distilled water. All the kak remains in the kettle.
Kinda make ya want to rinse out the kettle every now and then tho...........  ;)

Just found a new container of a/freeze in the garage. Bought it when I had my vw. The label says its formulated for aly engines,and the mix is 25% for temp down to minus 8 . One thing that hasnt been mentioned about a/freeze,is that it will find the leaks,(poss no more than water does),but it shows more,leaving a deposit when it dries.

a few moons ago we tried out some new fangled system at work to flush out the cooling systems on the buses, got all the chemicals,the wiz-bang washing machine-like contraption to do all the neccessery cleansing , connected up ran the system through its paces......voila, spanking clean coolant system......................................but.................it leaked like a leeky thing wiv holes in!

problem is when its cleaned, all the lime scale & corrosion in the system thats blocking up all the hoses, ports etc. is also what stops an old system from leaking!!!!!!!

brilliant!!!!!!! :-\ :D :D ;)

 ::)  been there  many years ago   :o  on buses tooo :D

not all antifreeze is concentrated  you can buy ready to use so no need to boil a kettle or chip the ice from the freezer, it does mean you cant run a stronger mix if you live in the Scottish highlands