Quote:
Originally Posted by red-beard
Dishwashing detergent attacks aluminum. I'd be careful.
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This is one concern of mine. I love Simple Green for general cleaning but I've heard, (or read here), that it is not kind to aluminum. I'm leaning towards liquid Tide and water.
Why does it need to be clean? For one thing, it's a bloody mess. I'm pretty fastidious about clean coolant in engines/cooling systems. When I was into Powerstroke diesels, lots of guys on the PSD boards ran bypass filters on their cooling systems to remove contaminants, like big rigs have. It has an extra importance on diesels but I'm OCD about coolant on anything.
The other 2 reasons are because the entire system on this engine is suspect in terms of water jackets having crap in them and the fact that any oily residue negatively affects cooling efficiency. This is why the optimum mixture in most systems is less than 50% coolant/H2o. Water transfers heat better than oily coolant, though coolant is necessary for its other benefits. (Higher boiling point/lower freezing point). If I'm in a cold place in the winter, I run 50/50 mixtures. In hot climates, more like 35/65%, coolant/distilled water.
