Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

A fellow club member who is very knowledgeable (and I regard highly) ran across this link:

https://rislone.com/blog/cooling/why...ooling-system/

This is the first time I’ve ever seen this line of thinking about distilled water. I’ve been using distilled water to dilute pure antifreeze in our Model A for years.

What are your thoughts?


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Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

I've used distilled water for years in my A's with napa 1300 rust inhibitor . never a problem!! And will continue to use. Trying to sell their products. Just like oil!!

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

X2. Same here. Used distilled water for years. Never had a problem. In my book, better than using tap water or creek water of unknown chemistry.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

The use of distilled water back in the early days of automotive history came about because drivers were filling / replenishing the coolant water in their cars with water from streams and lakes. The mineral content of these waters clogged radiator tubes, so mineral free distilled water was specified by the car producers.
Now we know that the process of making distilled water makes the water chemically unstable, so the water parasitically robs ions from metals in the engine's cooling system.
The same phenomena had to be true of using distilled water in batteries before they became maintenance free.
The Model A'ers who are vulnerable to the evils of using 1930's coolants and lubricants are those who are sticklers for authenticity.
Do you know that pre-WW2 greases were made from animal fats, and after a time the fats became rancid and corrosive. People handling gasoline with tetraethyl lead died of lead poising and cancer.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

l have been using distilled for a very long time its away to help fight rust.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

In my opinion distilled water is a waste of money. It will pick up the metal ions in the cooling system very quickly and become mineralized water. I would not use hard water that has dissolved calcium or other dissolved minerals that could clog the radiator. If you have to use acid in you toilet to get rid of the scale, then do not use the tap water in your radiator but buy purified water at the store. Or run your tap water through a softener.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

What the article describes is true for "de-ionized" water. When I worked in semiconductor manufacturing they used de-ionized water for rinsing the semiconductors after acid etching. Some technicians used it for coolant in heat exchangers because it was plentiful and we found it would eat the copper coils after some time. Being de-ionized, it is looking for ions to latch onto. I would think distilled water would be pure H20 derived from collecting steam and it would be neutral, but I'm no chemist. I also have used distilled water for many years and never noticed any issues.

Edit: I would like to add that after discovering the de-ionized water was eating the copper coils, we switched to bottled distilled water in the heat exchangers with no adverse effects.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

I use captured, filtered rain water for radiators and batteries.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

Most premixed coolant you buy is 50/50 antifreeze/distilled water.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

Rain water in Ohio is probably pretty clean and pure. But not in big cities. It will pick up the pollutants in the air. If you decide to use rain water, discard the first rain that falls and then catch rain after that.

When we were cruising our sail boat in the tropics, we would catch rain water to fill the water tanks. We would not catch the first rain that washed the deck but then build a little dam to divert the rain into the tanks. The squalls would rain down a lot of water. The rain would supplement the water we made from sea water with the reverse osmosis system, that tasted very good.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

Deionized water is not the same as distilled water.
https://www.uswatersystems.com/deion...istilled-water

Before you decide if distilled water or deionized water is the best choice, you need to understand the differences between the two. Deionized (DI) water is water that has been treated to remove all ions – typically, that means all of the dissolved mineral salts. Distilled water has been boiled so that it evaporates and then re-condensed, leaving most impurities behind.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

I run straight tap water 50/50 with Prestone antifreeze, but I also flush the cooling system every two years. I have had NO problems.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

Water water - deionized, distilled, tap, rain water. The chemical and electrolytic properties and activity of various types of water are complex. As we know the rate of reaction increases exponetially with increasing change in temperature. Metallic ions withn our engines will naturally release into the cooling sytem over time. My theory in regard to keeping our cooling systems working properly is simple - thoroughly flush the system annually and install a 50:50 mixture of antifreeze and water.
Driving your "A" as much as possible is a good thing. Enjoy.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

The fact of the matter is that water that is drinkable is generally OK for limited use as part of a coolant mix. 50/50 is generally fine unless temps go below 0 degrees F for extended lengths of time. 70/30 is as strong a mix as is still usable. Purchase 50/50 if you want cleaner water. Water is hard on any ferrous metal so a water soluable oil needs to be used to reduce corrosion if no ethylene glycol is used.

Calcium and sodium based greases have been around nearly as long as the steam engine, or longer, and they were used a lot in the model T & A eras. They are still available even now but not as common as they used to be. Lead based grease is only available from one source now but it wasn't used in any automotive applications that I know of. Animal tallow was an additive but mineral oils were also used. Stearic acid can also come from some plants.

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

Whatever intern wrote that article for Rislone confused distilled water for deionized water. You want to run distilled water in a radiator, not deionized water

Re: Using Distilled Water in a Radiator
 

This answer gets an A- , after a hurricane the rain water tastes salty. Bob’s answer gets a B +, river water and lake water is rain water. Rain water, distilled water, de-ionized water are all soft water. I wouldn’t drink or use contaminated rain water, wouldn’t drink or use distilled water because it will turn acidic when open to air and it’s hungry for your metals in the cooling system. De-ionized water has harmful ions removed and replaced with better ions, softened water.

Yep some anti-freeze companies add distilled water, hopefully they add chemicals to adjust for the hungry acidic distilled water, maybe this causes anti-freeze to turn acidic.

If your using water only plus additives please follow the additive company instructions ! Why do we think we are smarter the companies in business?

An old saying “ you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” maybe horses are smarter than humans when it comes to water, if it’s bad water they won’t drink it if it’s to acidic or alkaline

Pure water that you may have in your home, do you have a dehumidifier? catch the water! do you have an air conditioner? catch the water. If the air you breathe in your home isn’t contaminated using these waters are as pure as can be!