Radiator water, normal tap water or distilled water to fill?

W

wikk3d88

Guest
Antifreeze/coolant. Get the premix and save yourself the hassle if mixing.
 
S

SP33DYV

Guest
I use 50% BMW coolant and 50% distilled water.


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StK

New member
Distiller water is better to use. It has less impurities and a higher boiling point. 50/50 mix with BMW coolant will do the job :thumbs: Be sure to follow the correct bleed procedure too
 

kabal

Active member
StK said:
Distiller water is better to use. It has less impurities and a higher boiling point. 50/50 mix with BMW coolant will do the job :thumbs: Be sure to follow the correct bleed procedure too

I use 50/50 BMW coolant/distilled water

distilled water, of equal weight, would technically take less energy to boil, than tap water. The affect the glycol has on the boiling point makes the difference irrelivent.

distilled water may seem to have a higher boiling point, as there are less impurites for gas bubbles to form around.
 
D

Dippies

Guest
Do not use normal tap water :thumbdo:

Use the mix :thumbs: BMW coolant/distilled water


There are two main reasons why a automotive cooling circuit should never be filled with tap water: scaling and corrosion.

Scaling is a fairly obvious thing: water has dissolved minerals that become solid as the water evaporates. Eventually the whole circuit get coated with scaling that both slows heat transfer and blocks the thin tubes in the radiator.

The most prevalent form of corrosion is called galvanic corrosion. Basically, the whole circuit usually has different metals (imagine an engine with an iron block, and a aluminium head or radiator). When these metals are in electrical contact with each others, there is a electrochemical reaction that speeds up the corrosion of one metal and slows the corrosion on the other. While a part may not fail due to corrosion in a near term, the corrosion process releases rust or aluminium oxide into the coolant, once again blocking passages.


The main thing antifreeze does is to stop corrosion. It also won't scale the circuit because it doesn't have dissolved minerals. Because the corrosion inhibitors in the antifreeze are depleted as they're used to stop corrosion, it doesn't hurt filling the whole circuit with antifreeze. Change it once it looks rusty or has little metal particles in it.


Source

http://www.instructables.com/answers/should-I-add-normal-water-to-my-cars-radiator/
 

moranor@axis

///Member
Official Advertiser
bmw coolant with distilled water because tap water will eventually cause a lime scale type buildup in the water system...
 

Mamba

Member
Thank you for the answers, the reason why I asked is when I bought the BMW antifreeze the parts guy told me to use normal tap water but when I had the water pump removed I saw some signs of scale build up... :(

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