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Re: Antifreeze and water wetter

My thanks to Steven O'Sheal, Terry Lee, Ian Dickerson, and 
daniel j. chin, who all responded to my antifreeze and water wetter
questions. Daniel said he recently saw a study that put the PEAK 
anti-freeze that I recently bought at the bottom of the barrel.
At least its not too late for me to take it back.

The consensus seems to be that: (1) pure water has better heat-
transfer characteristics as compared to anti-freeze, (2) water
wetter is good for severe conditions, and not neccesary for ordinary
conditions, (3) there is an optimium range for engine operating 
temperature, and it's not good to run too cool, (4) some people
report good experiences with water wetter (no quantitative data given)
and (5) it probably can't hurt. 

Also, thanks to henri baccouche for posting the "antifreeze FAQ". It 
was particularly interesting to read about the electrochemical inter-
action between iron, phosphates, and aluminum. I was just looking at my 
aluminum head (1978 casting) in the shop today, there is some pretty
significant corrosion in the water channels. The machinist has the 
opinion that the corrosion inhibitors in most antifreeze wear out in
a year, thus the antifreeze should be changed fairly often.

So, how does all this affect the life of a radiator, especially an
aluminum one? I can imagine that corrosion and scale from the head
will clog up the radiator, but is there corrosion of significance
that takes place within the radiator? Maybe aluminum radiators have
plastic tanks so they don't set up that electrolytic response with
iron? Inquiring minds want to know!

Thanks again for the responses,

- --Fred Beck /// '73 tii /// Boston, MA