antifreeze change confusion

[rdodd]

I just changed antifreeze in my 92 and book says coolant capacity for my truck is 17 qts. so i put in 8. 5 qts antifreeze and filled the rest with water which should give me 50/50. After the change i ran the truck and checked with antireeze checker and it floats 1 ball or +20 degrees. All my other vehicles float 5 balls and check -40 degrees with the same checker. Should i just ignor this reading since i put in the proper amount of antifreeze? I also checked it with another checker and got the same results.

 

[dpuckett]

Add this to the belt tensioner thread......

You should ALWAYS premix water and antifreeze, to ensure proper mixing. Or at least alternate antifreeze and water, by the pint or qt. Now, you DID put in distilled water, didnt you? No telling what the heck is coming out of the tap, or worse, the garden hose, though I have used both in dire emergencies.



Now that you know for next time, you have a few choices. A) You can drain about half of it, and alternate about every other qt of water, and antifreeze, or B) since it is summer, just run it, and check it in a month or so, after ample time for the engine to remix it all.



Any other ideas, guys?



Daniel

 

[bgilbert]

Yeah what he said, plan A. With whatever that ratio of antifreeze to water is you might not have the greatest cooling possible.

Instead of draining any, you can try what I have done many times, pump siphon suck well not that, but whatever means you have to remove the coolant that is on the top of the radiator fins and replace with X amount of water or antifreeze needed to lower your freeze point.

I always keep one empty antifreeze jug for when I buy straight antifreeze, cut it in half, dump half into empty jug, fill both up with water, now ya got 50/50. -> DP . . whats wrong with water from the garden hose??

 

[CGauthier]

Originally posted by bgilbert

-> DP . . whats wrong with water from the garden hose??

I'm not smart like you guys but i do know the answer to this question and I'll help out where i can... .



It's all about minerals. You don't want minerals in your cooling system cause they speed up corrosion. I think even salt could be in yer garden hose. There's algae too, and out here we got chlorine in our water; i don't think that would be much good in the rad either.



Carl G

 

[NIsaacs]

rdood,



I am sorry in advance for this stupid question, but did you use the 50/50 pre-mix antifreeze?? If you did, the +20 degrees is about right. The engine will mix it for you just fine. Also, did you check it in the radiator or the fill bottle?? I seem to be just getting in deeper with my questions, I better quit.





"IF IT AIN'T CUMMINS POWERED, IT AIN'T A TRUCK"





"NICK"

 

[rdodd]

I filled it with the concentrate and then poured in distilled water. I checked it in the radiator. It seems to check a little stronger today after running it a while but still not 50/50.