Evans waterless coolant

[genpk]

I posted some time ago re me using Evans waterless coolant on a Kv6 and stated I would report back .
Now I’ve had it in one of my kv6 Rovers for about 4 years ( maybe longer as the previous owner had it in it)
I can report that the car has run perfectly in both cold and very hot weather over here.
s stated, only slight difference I found was that the dan kicked in slightly earlier
in very hot weather( 36c plus)
The cooling system has not suffered any of the small leaks on the radiator, water pump, thermostat or pipes that all my Oats coolant cars have and it has never needed any sort of top up in all those years.
As the system never really builds up any pressure seems all the parts seem to last longer.
I took one of the radiator hoses off to have a look at the inside and it looked like brand new inside.
So , in conclusion, I would have to say , yes it costs a bit more initially BUT I think the savings in radiator, pumps etc is well worth it

[rustymotor]

Hi, is this a two stage process like, a flush then the water less fluid? Think i saw this on Wheeler Dealers where Ed China did a Triumph Stag.

[genpk]

I didn’t do the initial install but I believe you drain the system , flush it with a special prep fluid so there is very little water left and then fill it up with waterless coolant .

[T-Cut]

I think a lot more owners would adopt waterless coolant (propylene glycol) if the retail price was more competitive with standard (ethylene glycol) based coolants. It's quite remarkable that Evans have got this market to themselves when the opportunities for companies like Holts, etc. to enter it must be quite attractive. The market prices for propylene and ethylene glycols in bulk are pretty similar. And with glycerine output (from biodiesel production) becoming a global embarrassment, Evans continue to sell their waterless at ultra-premium prices.

You can buy 5 litres of either for around £4.50 per litre on eBay, yet Evans have it stitched up. So, with a 5 litre bottle costing over £50 and used neat, it's effectively six times the cost of your five yearly refill of OAT or whatever you use. The theory that PG coolant never needs replacing obviously mitigates this difference (though I doubt that's true). I wonder how much cost conscious commercial users (the North American trucking industry for example) pay for theirs?

PG plus a pinch of BHT should work. Maybe I'll have a go.

TC

[SCP440]

There was a Jensen owner who had it fitted at a total cost in materials of over £350 (23ltr cooling system), it performed well until a stone went through the radiator. He winced at the refill cost as well as a new radiator ( £500 ) so he went back to conventional coolant.

As a buy the way do you find your heater works the same? I had heard some say they find the heater not as hot.

[kelvo]

Originally Posted by T-Cut

I think a lot more owners would adopt waterless coolant (propylene glycol) if the retail price was more competitive with standard (ethylene glycol) based coolants. It's quite remarkable that Evans have got this market to themselves when the opportunities for companies like Holts, etc. to enter it must be quite attractive. The market prices for propylene and ethylene glycols in bulk are pretty similar. And with glycerine output (from biodiesel production) becoming a global embarrassment, Evans continue to sell their waterless at ultra-premium prices.

You can buy 5 litres of either for around £4.50 per litre on eBay, yet Evans have it stitched up. So, with a 5 litre bottle costing over £50 and used neat, it's effectively six times the cost of your five yearly refill of OAT or whatever you use. The theory that PG coolant never needs replacing obviously mitigates this difference (though I doubt that's true). I wonder how much cost conscious commercial users (the North American trucking industry for example) pay for theirs?

PG plus a pinch of BHT should work. Maybe I'll have a go.

TC

I think there were a couple of questions asked in a recent Practical Classics about using this, some one asking about they had overheating problems so would this help? I think the answer was to address the root cause of the overheating first, perhaps people have the misconception of using this to prevent overheating. If everything is in good order then I would not expect a car to overheat normally, unless it's something like a Triumph Stag which have notoriously poor cooling systems.

If anything using waterless coolant, which has a much higher boiling port imports more risk if the engine does overheat as you may get tell tale signs if something does go wrong. That would be my thoughts anyway.

[T-Cut]

The warmer running question is easily addressed by the fact that propylene glycol (PG) has a much lower specific heat (SH) than water. Water has the highest SH of almost all substances, so it requires a lot more heat energy to raise its temperature on a like for like basis. It's why we use it as a coolant. The less water in the coolant mix, the less is the cooling capacity. So, for any particular fuel burn rate, waterless will cause the engine to run warmer than when using an aqueous mix. I haven't found Evan's spec for their coolant, but I'd be surprised if there isn't some water in there. All the industrial PG coolants (eg Dowcal 200 http://www.kolektoriai.lt/upload/DOW..._Datasheet.pdf) are aqueous mixtures, 8% in this case.

TC

[genpk]

I remember reading somthing about the system requiring it to have no more than 3 percent water left in the system for it work properly.
It is more expensive ,yes but if it extends the life of the radiator, waer pumps , thermostats etc my guess it would be at least cost neutral over 5-7 years.

[mystabe]

I tried this a race car I used to look after, it was ok and kept grid engine temperatures down a little bit but the opinion I came away with was that although it might be slightly more effective it wasn't more effective enough to justify the cost of using it.

If money was no object then I would have used it all the time but I could always think of much better things to spend the extra money on. I wouldn't even think of using it in a road car I owned (especially in Britain), if the cooling system is broken/is poorly designed fix it or make it better.

[T-Cut]

Originally Posted by genpk

I remember reading something about the system requiring it to have no more than 3 percent water left in the system for it work properly.

It's what they mean by 'work properly' that I'm intrigued about. The absence of any significant vapour pressure is about all it's got going for it from my perspective. That would begin to rise as the water content increases. Maybe that's their basic selling point.

TC