This video really opened my eyes and made a lot of overheating issues I’ve had make sense… your radiator needs attention to perform as intended and almost everyone (me included) neglects them… Check out stapletonautoworks.com for some new merch releases!
I learned about de-ionized water at the first race team I worked for. We just finished up a build and for some reason we were having major electrolysis problems in the cooling system to the point where the coolant system would build so much pressure just sitting over night it would drain half the water out through the overflow. We tried grounding the radiator, waterlines, etc with no luck. So we eventually got in contact with the local university and sent water samples to them to be analyzed. We were recommended to try using de-ionized water, for the reasons stated in the video plus its doesn't conduct electricity...electrolysis issues. Sure enough never had any issue after that and have used it exclusively since. It was a one off freak incident but pretty cool to have been apart of!
I remember in chemistry classes years ago, biting the pH of distilled water to be around 4.5 or something like that..! I know that it’s logarithmic, but I was kind of shocked getting that reading
Great information! Distilled water comes from mixing antifreeze which has anti corrosive properties. You can use deionized water if you want to go through the trouble of getting it. When racing your not allowed to use antifreeze so that’s most likely where it came from. 👍
This was an excellent video concerning cooling systems, and I stood to learn a few things from it myself, even being a retired mechanic with a good 4 decades in the business myself! Amazing how much crap can remain in a cooler even after it's flushed and cleaned. I found this extremely interesting, and was right there to the last second of this video! You both are appreciated way more than you know, keep up the great work and thank you so much!
I had no idea place like this even existed. Washing out our oil coolers and dry sump tanks and lines sometimes gets to be a pain in the ass. I've been using distilled water for 40 years. Learned something new today. Thanks.
Good video, very cool. Think there may be some nuance with distilled water. With the right product it may be the correct choice. You've got products like SynMax Kooler (they've got videos on it on YT) that uses distilled and basically every oem. So perhaps it's more of a just water vs water and what product you are using as to what you want to use.
Worked for a company in the 80's/90's that made aircraft tube couplers, including that clamshell design that was a predecessor to Wiggins. Several guys there would make stuff for their cars. Can't wait to hear more about that engine, good stuff!
Now I absolutely understand why I was told to use deionized water with my coolant in my M series BMW cooling system, I did use deionized water instead of distilled water (thankfully) but never new why it was a thing, now I know thanks to y'all, you're the best and we appreciate you both. Thank you!
This gave me a throwback to people on RMRW who didn't bring extra water and were using river water in their cars when they overheated across the mountains.
PWR (Paul Weel Radiators) is an Australian owned business named in relation to former Australian V8 Supercar driver Paul Weel. His father Kees Weel and family started out in the radiator business in Australia. Evolving into PWR that now has an international presence in the USA
C&R apparently purchased PWR in 2019. Nevertheless, this is no reflection upon the Australian origins of the branding. Just the success of a product once created
Never knew this, back when we raced i would soak our radiator in Dawn and Purple Power every two weeks, probably did more harm than good and yes we ran distilled water!!!!....lol
Yes. Bringing back uncle Rob. Hell yeah. Didn't know so much went into radiator science. If only Chevrolet could figure out how to make the 5.3 run as cool as the 6.0.
Yes … what is the situation with 5.3 L 2020 L- 82 engine seems almost 205+ degrees f I would like to see about 190 f Thermostat ? Florida is hi - temp . Thanks
@@bobwilson758 definitely not as cool. I have a 5.3 in my Tahoe and my wife has the 6.0 in her escalade. Her shit runs about 185. My shit is 205-209. $135,000 in vehicles. Our matching 05's did the same shit
Man, I love this channel. Topics that I don’t think I’ll even be interested in like the boats and of all things, radiators, within 5 minutes I’m hooked. I’ll try any topic you do a video on, even if I’m not interested to begin with because you have not disappointed me yet. Awesome channel and content Mitchell and Logan!!
DISTILLED WATER: not a myth at all. ask any jetta owner with a stopped up heater core- certain coolants react with certain metals and can drop the minerals out of suspension or form other minerals. another field that can attest to this is cnc manufacturing. water and coolant of different types react with the metals being machined and quickly degrade the coolant. no myths here. in racing we generally do not use antifreezes and instead water and some sort of additive.
Here's the deal. When I first saw a couple of your videos' thought to myself "this guy is kind of a dorky geeky Nascar fanboy who is a little starstruck by big names. He is nice enough and his silent wife is cute enough, but I'm really not that interested in just fluffy feel good personality videos about old racers. I could not have been more wrong about you and the focus and the breadth of your channel . Now I have become a geeky dorky fanboy of this channel due to videos like this and the hydroplane museum, and Holman Moody visits and Lake Speed & Son ongoing sagas etc etc etc. The only thing I was right about is that your lovely wife is a little too quiet when visiting race related places, but she is getting better and better at speaking up in videos. In short, thank you for this interesting and informative channel. You do good work and to some degree help to keep racings history alive and racings future understandable and visible to folks
Thank you sir. I can see why you’d get that first impression…that’s how most people are so it’s totally reasonable to think that. We’re a bit different around here 💪🏻
Unless you’re in serious racing or unlimited budget situations distilled water is perfectly good. $1 a gallon vs $17+ is a no brainer. Learned 30+ yrs ago about well water in my new home Fing up my cooling systems in about a year. Truck. Tractor. Etc. Been using distilled water and Zerex G- 05 with great results ever since.
Great video!!! Using helium for leak testing is a great idea. Helium molecules are very small. I used to use a helium leak detector on industrial vacuum furnaces. If you want to find really small leaks, helium is the gas to use. I agree that de-ionized water is also the best to use for cooling. Distilled water will try to balance itself by removing molecules from any surfaces it comes in contact with.
Parts for one of the 'burbans?!?! Now we're talkin'! That was a hell of a lot more than I ever figured I would learn about cleaning a radiator. Also kind of good to confirm my suspicions that sonic cleaners aren't all that. Thanks for the info!
Learn something new every day. I was also taught to "use only distilled water" when mixing with coolant, OR if using water only for short passes in drag racing. I've heard of de-ionized water of course, but never heard anything about using it instead of distilled water in a radiator. THANK YOU!!!
Having used DI water for coolant for a few years, the only thing I can really add is to use Water Wetter in addition to it. WW acts like soap and lowers the surface tension of water. Fun stuff.
Been running water and water wetter in my latest car ,since it was such a mild winter and the shop didn't go below 38 in the unheated area. I learned over the winter what I can get away with because the wife's car started having a leaking water pump around Christmas time. Since it only dipped to maybe high 20s at night and usually was close to 40 all day I just kept adding water because I wasn't about to change the pump out. As long as it was driven once a day (and it was) it never got close to freezing up. We did have 2 days where it was single digits so yeah I had to waste some coolant for that ,but other than that I'm still using water in that pos 😂 I hate that car. The new pump is on the shelf and I'll get it done in the next month or so.
Soaps are not detergents. Detergent foam/suds are bad in cooling systems. Water wetter is awesome. I buy premixed antifreeze for the winter, i NEVER use distilled water.
Wow. I was told as a teen to use distilled water in the radiators. Its been over 20 years! Old dogs can learn new tricks. Great content, my man! Learning a lot, truly enjoy the old nascar race shop and cheating stories.
Great coverage on a great company. Btw. Helium is used because it’s the the smallest, inert diatomic molecule. Helium leak detectors are used for detecting leaks in large and small pressure vessels in general industry.
When I was working on natural gas compressor units, when an engine oil cooler would leak into the cooling system the way we would deal with the oil in the cooling system is mix in one to two containers of Cascade dishwashing liquid detergent into the header tank of the cooling system. Run it for 30 min. and then drain the cooling system. It worked very well at removing the residual oil we couldn't get out. It beat the heck out of having to remove all the radiator tank plugs and physically clean out each tube in the radiators/coolers. It turned a multi hour job into a one hour job.
At one point 100% or concentrated antifreeze was cheaper than 50/50, which didn't make any sense. I could buy concentrated, split it in half to make TWO 50/50's, and each one would be less than half the cost of a 50/50 from the store. The stores got smarter and charge a couple bucks more for concentrated. But still, if you take it home and split it to two 50/50's...I don't think they see the logic.
Interesting vid Mitch/Logan 🙂I began thinking a bit about my past life and high vacuum and helium leak detectors. Curious, do they use a He leak detector, or do they use a pressure decay test. While HV is where most of my focus was, as time went on more and more "industrial" applications kept popping up. As an aside (if your not interested STOP reading now, but I had a facility that mfg AC condensors. Before they began using He leak detectors (pressurizing with room air), then submerging in a large tank of water, they had a group of tech's sitting in Lazy Boy chairs, watching the tank for bubbles. Literally that was their job all day long. Using He and a "sniffing He leak detector (~$20k/machine) pressurizing the condensors with He or a concentration of He depending on the leak rate specification, one guy could test all the condensers they used the bubble test for in one day. Anyway, thanks for the vid/info, very interesting application 🙂
What he's saying about deionized water isn't correct. It has the same problem as distilled, and it's actually worse. I worked in a pharmaceutical testing lab and we had problems with using deionized water in the stainless steel water pans in our mammalian cell incubators. Those are kept at a steady 37*C (98.7*F) temp so corrosion will happen fast. The water lacks any ions so as he described it will chew right through even stainless to grab those ions and balance itself chemically again. It would cause little pinholes to form in the pans. We solved this by putting a hunk of pure copper in there which was more reactive for the water to consume. It has the added benefit of being antimicrobial too so it helped us keep the water free of microbial contamination. You used to be able to use pennies but they're not made out copper any more, so don't. I don't know what you'd do to fix this problem in automotive applications that use only water as coolant but adding standard coolant to either DI or distilled water will take care of the problem in street applications.
WOW Very nice hear the engine shop I deal with helped you with an engine for this car. Gives you more time to develop your own Chevy engine combo. This is an awesome learning channel even for us old guys.😁
Distilled water is stripped of all minerals. Water wants it's minerals so distilled water will attack metal to try to pull the minerals back in. Distilled water is many times more corrosive that tap water.
I have heard the opposite I've heard that deionized water is actually worse. The water acts as a catalyst stripping ions from the metals. If this goes on long enough the metals are eventually etched away creating leaks, pressure loss, and serious problems for any chiller.
His comment about the flow being too much on some radiators makes me wonder if that's why a lot of these cheap after market big tube radiators don't cool any better than the stock ones.
Exactly, because you have a big Rad, the flow across it may be too fast to effectively cool down the coolant. There is a flow sweet spot for every different engine/pump/radiator combo where the cooling system is at it's most efficient. It's not a "one size fits all" solution.
No, because it's incorrect. Until you reach supersonic speeds, there's no such thing as too fast through the radiator. It's weird he didn't dispel this myth. Perhaps he's just sick of talking about it and just "uh-huh"'s his was through that one.
@@ummduhgmail Yeah, correct, there's no such thing as too fast for air flow through a radiator, but I was talking about coolant flow. If the coolant is flowing through a cooling system too quickly, it doesn't have enough dwell time withing the cooling structure to efficiently lose enough heat, it also doesn't absorb enough heat when flowing through the engine block. Why do you think thermostatic valves were invented and fitted to automotive cooling systems?
I would be interested in what he has to say about Evans Waterless Coolant (glycol-based fluid that contains no water). I'm sure it is great for corrosion prevention, but so many say it is terrible for heat transfer. Do you have any experience with Evans? That would be a great video subject, and I'm sure Evans would give you an endorsement if you find that it works well. Jay Leno says he uses it in all of his cars.
Very interesting 👍 Between living out away from cities and always having motorcycles with aluminum engines (plus I'm old enough that I've had to add water to many old school batteries), I have always used a 50/50 mixture of distilled water and coolant in engines (oops). Good news is, distilled water is for sure not as bad as well water...
@@Stapleton42 Yup, we have kept and raced some bikes for two decade (which included building and rebuilding the engines multiple times) and I've never seen any ill effects anywhere (nothing bad in radiators, blocks, heads or pumps). The closest I've come to running 100% water was with Water Wetter added...
Distilled water and coolant in FACTORY unmodified (non race spec/ high performance) engines is the OEM recommendation.. This blanket statement that "distilled water is bad", is Bad in itself. Distilled water BY ITSELF, should never be used. Thats why they tell you mix it... You dont put 100% antifreeze in your engine do you? Same scenario... Bad things happen.
They use Helium not because its the "'purest form of air" or whatever he said, but because He2 is the smallest non explosive (looking at you H2) molecule. so they find smaller holes. De-ionized water ist "electronically charged to strip its properties so that molecules stay together". What the hell does that even mean? De-ionization is, as name suggests, removal of ions. Ions are reactive (cause they either miss or carry extra electrons and they try to achieve neutral charge). Removing them reduces reactivity of the solution (water in this case). Distilled water wet through distillatio process. Much like with alcohol, it is brought to boil temperature (100 C) and the vapour is collected. Thus removing any chemicals in solution (pre-distilled water) with different temperature of boil. Removing almost all impurities, especially minerals and bilogical matter. DISTILLED WATER IS MUCH BETTER THAN TAP WATER! DONT LISTEN TO THIS CRAP! This elite-technician dude is so clueless, its almost scary :D!
Yup, I've compared and used both distilled and tap, the radiators I've used distilled water in are extremely clean non rusty compared to the ones I've used tap water in.
So after all that cleaning, what do they recommend to use when coolant is a no no like drag racing or in my case road course cars? Has to be something that inhibits rust formation and aids in eliminating aluminum erosion, the more particles flowing around at 20-30-40gpm is like sandblasting the inside of the core. Blew my mind when he said how much cup radiators were now, never would have thought anywhere near $8k
This is a question for all. Assuming I don't know the quality of my tap water and I don't own a Deionizing water system, what's the next best water I can buy at the store? Distilled water or reverse osmosis purified drinking water with flavor enhancing minerals, or Safeway (or similar) Drinking Water that says "processed by carbon filtration uv light and ozonation. Is there something else out there other than distilled? Interesting note- Prestone Concentrate instruction say use only distilled water HOWEVER Walmart Super Tech brand says use DEIONIZED water!
Awesome. Very enlightening to see the pool of copper coming out of that radiator! I am really wondering where are the 3D printed heat exchangers? There was a 3D printed oil-fuel heat exchanger for a helicopter and it was revolutionary I keep expecting these optimized radiator things to popup in the enthusiast/race car scene but nope.
Awesome info, and Im only at 14:52 while writing this, so I apologize if it is covered. Why not run an inline filter with a micron rating that is thinner than what would get caught inside the radiator. I realize this could affect flow, but maybe lets apply the theory to say a daily driver. I remember when the Ford 6.4 came out there was this big push to get a coolant filter on it because of some supposed casting issues where sand might exist in the water jacket. I installed one on my truck at that time just for safety sake.
This was a really interesting video. I actually work on heat exchangers for a living myself. I also liked the last Ed Pink video too, sounds like a really fun guy to go hang out with.
I'm confused about the deionized water comment, I manufacture a deionized water system and we only use SS or specific plastic on all our plumbing, because the water is so pure that it eats any other materials used in the plumbing system from the inside out including brass and aluminum 🤔 I totally agree w deionized water if your mixing w antifreeze or another product but not straight.
Greetings from Australia . Great videos about things I thought were going to be "ho hum". Keep it up. I hope you realise that you're batting way above your pay grade.
Thank you sir. I knew this video would not get very many views BUT that is not why we do what we do. If I ask myself “is this video valuable information to someone” and the answer is yes… it gets posted. Even if I know it won’t be a home run per say
Sure was a lot to learn in this one! Makes sense doing this if you can run more tape and get more downforce. Looks like your rig will be good to go since its been done. Thx!!
The cup cars are not allowed tape anymore they get air from the hood but they have brake duct open I believe but I could def see where this would be a huge advantage cooling wise
OMG, thank you so much for telling us about distilled water and not to use it. Logan, that was a great question. Keep up the great work, may God keep blessing you both...
Distilled water went through distillatio process. Much like with alcohol, it is brought to boil temperature (100 C) and the vapour is collected. Thus removing any chemicals in solution (pre-distilled water) with different temperature of boil. Removing almost all impurities, especially minerals and bilogical matter. DISTILLED WATER IS MUCH BETTER THAN TAP WATER! DONT LISTEN TO THIS CRAP!
using Distilled water is perfectly fine, and recommended by every OEM. The "Catch 22" here is when talking racing you aren't using Antifreeze, that is adding other components to that distilled water. Also, not every distilled water is identical... So many nuances not mentioned here.
This is cool stuff I never knew. The common weekend warrior doesn't have 400 every month for this technology. In 2009 I pit crewed for a large of local racers who all used wetter water. Bought at local auto parts store.
Distilled water is meant to be used in conjunction with a concentrated liquid coolant, usually in a 50/50 ratio. This is specified so that only the components within the coolant concentrate are present and they are not diluted/reacted with by the added components of city/well water. In racing applications where you are often required to only run water or choose to run straight water, it is never recommended to use distilled water. Really, most any water will do with a bottle of water wetter.
Saltwater aquarium stores generally sell DI or deionized water for $1 or $2 a gallon. Many saltwater hobbyists have RO/DI filters at home, so ask around.
Not a comment on this video, thought you might like to watch, “NASCAR 100 Bathurst 1998” [FULL RACE] NASCAR didn’t survive in Australia, it lasted for about 10 years or so. It struggled to compete against the Australian “V8 Supercars” there is plenty on that subject to, the new gen NASCAR’s look almost exactly like the new gen V8 Supercars running Mustangs and Comaro’s. Im not very tech savvy being an older dude. Cheers
@@Stapleton42 cheers I never raced but a driver call George Elliot who raced NASCAR in Australia back then gave me the opportunity to try out driving one of his old Pontiac race cars, I was keen to get into that form of racing but financial situations that come with a new young family got the better of me. the car originally came from the states. Do you have a public email i will send you the photo of the car. Im guessing you could identify it. Cheers
The "Specific Gravity" of an object is the density of that object divided by the density of water. The density of water is 1,000 kilograms per meter cubed. For instance, the density of gold is 19,300 kilograms per meter cubed. So the specific gravity of gold is 19.3. Helium: 0.166 kg/m3 Oxygen: 1.33 kg/m3 Nitrogen: 1.16 kg/m3 Natural gas: 0.667 kg/m3 Hydrogen: 0.0838 kg/m3.
you should have asked if intercoolers have debris when new are import cores worse? by what margin? etc i say intercooler as it’s blowing into the motor
Yes, intercoolers are highly contaminated as well from the manufacturing process. We haven't studied a pattern on the origin of the cores vs their contamination yet but it's something we will certainly monitor. We haven't seen any one brand of cooler that is low contamination from new. Everything we have seen has significant debris and contamination straight out of the box.
Today F1 and aerospace use radiators from Mezzo Technology. They have micro tube passages and are far more efficient than conventional radiators. Of course with the tiny passages comes constant cleaning as shown in your video.
It’s fascinating! Originally this wasn’t supposed to be a standalone video but a part of the next stock car build video. It was fascinating enough to stand alone!
@@Stapleton42 Yeah, I'm to the point where I won't ship ANYTHING of value lately, as more than half the time My parts get ruined. Hence why I said what I said.. Wish they had more than one location.😭
You can measure purity via resistivity. Softened water has calcium replaced by sodium so is soft but not demineralised. Distilled water isnt as pure as reverse osmosis (RO). I used to do lab work, we used water with 13 mega ohms per cm. That sustem was fed with RO water and had Activated Charcoal and uv treatmrnt as well. Measured pH of water varies and solutions would vary before pH adjustment, but pH meters can't measure pH of pure water very well, as pH meters determine pH indirectly, and needs something in solution to work well.
I've built membrane filtration units that pass compressed air through filters and capture the nitrogen, then release the o2, Ar and He. to the atmosphere. Now days, I work on semi's and when it comes to radiators on over the road trucks, when they leak, they go in the bin. That's the end of it's life. A radiator is way cheaper than a tow bill. A basic in frame rebuild of an x15 Cummins starts at $10k and can easily escalate to $20k-$30k. I honestly don't care what the radiator costs. It's a wear component and will be replaced at some point. What will really get your goat, is when you loose an engine due to someone using the wrong hose clamp. It doesn't happen all at once on the big engines. You loose a hose, get it fixed, then watch the oil samples. The trick s to break out the checkbook while the crank is still good. If you loose the crankshaft, you might as well get a new truck.
I've never put much thought into the cooling system on vehicles. I know I should, but I've never in my life done a coolant flush, so seeing stuff like this just reaffirms how much of a slacker I am with vehicle maintenance. lol. I regularly do all the other fluids (not always on time with transfer cases though) but always engine oil.
Been running deionized water + hyper-cool in my PC’s water cooling loop and ~3y on it still looks brand new, previously used distilled + water wetter and it would get gunked up in a matter of months.
400 bucks to clean a radiator? Its back to automatic dishwashing detergent and a garden hose for me. Been doing it that way for 40+ years now. Sadly, i'm not kidding!
Deionized pre-mixed coolant is the only thing you're supposed to put in GM's electric vehicles. Otherwise you can short out the electrical system. The coolant provides isolation between the high voltage system and the rest of the vehicle. The A/C oil is similar, POE oil only. PAG oil can also short out the electrical system on a GM electric vehicles.
This video really opened my eyes and made a lot of overheating issues I’ve had make sense… your radiator needs attention to perform as intended and almost everyone (me included) neglects them…
Check out stapletonautoworks.com for some new merch releases!
Does that mean we get to call it the Magnum monty
Nerding out about cooling systems and radiators is something im all about.
You will love this video. So much to learn
I learned about de-ionized water at the first race team I worked for. We just finished up a build and for some reason we were having major electrolysis problems in the cooling system to the point where the coolant system would build so much pressure just sitting over night it would drain half the water out through the overflow. We tried grounding the radiator, waterlines, etc with no luck. So we eventually got in contact with the local university and sent water samples to them to be analyzed. We were recommended to try using de-ionized water, for the reasons stated in the video plus its doesn't conduct electricity...electrolysis issues. Sure enough never had any issue after that and have used it exclusively since. It was a one off freak incident but pretty cool to have been apart of!
That’s awesome!
You can buy di water for dollar fifty a gallon at a lot of places
I remember in chemistry classes years ago, biting the pH of distilled water to be around 4.5 or something like that..! I know that it’s logarithmic, but I was kind of shocked getting that reading
Great information! Distilled water comes from mixing antifreeze which has anti corrosive properties. You can use deionized water if you want to go through the trouble of getting it. When racing your not allowed to use antifreeze so that’s most likely where it came from. 👍
This was an excellent video concerning cooling systems, and I stood to learn a few things from it myself, even being a retired mechanic with a good 4 decades in the business myself! Amazing how much crap can remain in a cooler even after it's flushed and cleaned. I found this extremely interesting, and was right there to the last second of this video!
You both are appreciated way more than you know, keep up the great work and thank you so much!
thanks man!!
We would have gotten here sooner but we are in overtime! Got hit with 40 new HEMI’s to build! Great video man
I had no idea place like this even existed. Washing out our oil coolers and dry sump tanks and lines sometimes gets to be a pain in the ass. I've been using distilled water for 40 years. Learned something new today. Thanks.
thank you sir!!
Good video, very cool. Think there may be some nuance with distilled water. With the right product it may be the correct choice. You've got products like SynMax Kooler (they've got videos on it on YT) that uses distilled and basically every oem. So perhaps it's more of a just water vs water and what product you are using as to what you want to use.
Worked for a company in the 80's/90's that made aircraft tube couplers, including that clamshell design that was a predecessor to Wiggins. Several guys there would make stuff for their cars. Can't wait to hear more about that engine, good stuff!
Thanks man that’s neat!
Now I absolutely understand why I was told to use deionized water with my coolant in my M series BMW cooling system, I did use deionized water instead of distilled water (thankfully) but never new why it was a thing, now I know thanks to y'all, you're the best and we appreciate you both.
Thank you!
Thanks man!!
All the drag and drive guys need to watch this video. Keep up the good work.
I agree! Thanks man
Absolutely! So many of these guys with overheating issues, I’m sure this would solve a lot of problems
This gave me a throwback to people on RMRW who didn't bring extra water and were using river water in their cars when they overheated across the mountains.
Props to Logan for interviewing and asking questions
Thank you!! I need to speak up more
@@loganerwin42I’ve said that before Logan. We want to see more of you.
PWR (Paul Weel Radiators) is an Australian owned business named in relation to former Australian V8 Supercar driver Paul Weel. His father Kees Weel and family started out in the radiator business in Australia. Evolving into PWR that now has an international presence in the USA
I didn’t know that!
@@Stapleton42 huge amount of F1 cars have PWR radiators, they do lots of wind tunnel testing of them too.
Yep I'm lucky enough to have pwr world headquarters 20mi down to road..
lake elsinore
C&R apparently purchased PWR in 2019. Nevertheless, this is no reflection upon the Australian origins of the branding. Just the success of a product once created
Never knew this, back when we raced i would soak our radiator in Dawn and Purple Power every two weeks, probably did more harm than good and yes we ran distilled water!!!!....lol
Yes. Bringing back uncle Rob. Hell yeah. Didn't know so much went into radiator science. If only Chevrolet could figure out how to make the 5.3 run as cool as the 6.0.
Yes … what is the situation with 5.3 L 2020 L- 82 engine seems almost 205+ degrees f
I would like to see about 190 f Thermostat ? Florida is hi - temp . Thanks
@@bobwilson758 definitely not as cool. I have a 5.3 in my Tahoe and my wife has the 6.0 in her escalade. Her shit runs about 185. My shit is 205-209. $135,000 in vehicles. Our matching 05's did the same shit
WOW, the technology on display in this video is amazing. Thanks for sharing! Tim in northern TN
Thanks man!
Man, I love this channel. Topics that I don’t think I’ll even be interested in like the boats and of all things, radiators, within 5 minutes I’m hooked. I’ll try any topic you do a video on, even if I’m not interested to begin with because you have not disappointed me yet. Awesome channel and content Mitchell and Logan!!
That is our goal! We won’t post something that won’t provide value!
DISTILLED WATER: not a myth at all. ask any jetta owner with a stopped up heater core- certain coolants react with certain metals and can drop the minerals out of suspension or form other minerals. another field that can attest to this is cnc manufacturing. water and coolant of different types react with the metals being machined and quickly degrade the coolant. no myths here. in racing we generally do not use antifreezes and instead water and some sort of additive.
Here's the deal. When I first saw a couple of your videos' thought to myself "this guy is kind of a dorky geeky Nascar fanboy who is a little starstruck by big names. He is nice enough and his silent wife is cute enough, but I'm really not that interested in just fluffy feel good personality videos about old racers.
I could not have been more wrong about you and the focus and the breadth of your channel . Now I have become a geeky dorky fanboy of this channel due to videos like this and the hydroplane museum, and Holman Moody visits and Lake Speed & Son ongoing sagas etc etc etc. The only thing I was right about is that your lovely wife is a little too quiet when visiting race related places, but she is getting better and better at speaking up in videos.
In short, thank you for this interesting and informative channel. You do good work and to some degree help to keep racings history alive and racings future understandable and visible to folks
Thank you sir. I can see why you’d get that first impression…that’s how most people are so it’s totally reasonable to think that. We’re a bit different around here 💪🏻
Unless you’re in serious racing or unlimited budget situations distilled water is perfectly good. $1 a gallon vs $17+ is a no brainer. Learned 30+ yrs ago about well water in my new home Fing up my cooling systems in about a year. Truck. Tractor. Etc. Been using distilled water and Zerex G- 05 with great results ever since.
Deionized water is same price as distilled
If anything, deionized water should be cheaper since you don't need to boil it to produce it.
Great video!!! Using helium for leak testing is a great idea. Helium molecules are very small. I used to use a helium leak detector on industrial vacuum furnaces. If you want to find really small leaks, helium is the gas to use. I agree that de-ionized water is also the best to use for cooling. Distilled water will try to balance itself by removing molecules from any surfaces it comes in contact with.
Parts for one of the 'burbans?!?! Now we're talkin'!
That was a hell of a lot more than I ever figured I would learn about cleaning a radiator. Also kind of good to confirm my suspicions that sonic cleaners aren't all that. Thanks for the info!
Thanks man! We love to find experts in any field to hear what they have learned. Data doesn’t lie
Nerdy stuff can save you a lot of headaches with overheating and blown out head gaskets. Good job guys!!
Thanks man!
How to make your car go faster. Never miss Stapleton 42 video no matter what the title is. Congratulations on the new Motor can’t wait to hear it run
That's pretty darn neat. I wonder why he didn't talk about internal oxidation
Learn something new every day. I was also taught to "use only distilled water" when mixing with coolant, OR if using water only for short passes in drag racing. I've heard of de-ionized water of course, but never heard anything about using it instead of distilled water in a radiator. THANK YOU!!!
You’re welcome sir!
Having used DI water for coolant for a few years, the only thing I can really add is to use Water Wetter in addition to it.
WW acts like soap and lowers the surface tension of water. Fun stuff.
Surfactant.
A pinch of powdered laundry detergent with do the same thing. And it smells nice when you pop a freeze plug in a clapped out sh!t box.
Been running water and water wetter in my latest car ,since it was such a mild winter and the shop didn't go below 38 in the unheated area.
I learned over the winter what I can get away with because the wife's car started having a leaking water pump around Christmas time.
Since it only dipped to maybe high 20s at night and usually was close to 40 all day I just kept adding water because I wasn't about to change the pump out.
As long as it was driven once a day (and it was) it never got close to freezing up.
We did have 2 days where it was single digits so yeah I had to waste some coolant for that ,but other than that I'm still using water in that pos 😂
I hate that car.
The new pump is on the shelf and I'll get it done in the next month or so.
Soaps are not detergents. Detergent foam/suds are bad in cooling systems. Water wetter is awesome. I buy premixed antifreeze for the winter, i NEVER use distilled water.
great video like always! and getting to lern something new to start the day
let's go! you 2 rock!
Thanks man!
Wow. I was told as a teen to use distilled water in the radiators. Its been over 20 years! Old dogs can learn new tricks. Great content, my man! Learning a lot, truly enjoy the old nascar race shop and cheating stories.
Thanks Matt!!
Great coverage on a great company. Btw. Helium is used because it’s the the smallest, inert diatomic molecule. Helium leak detectors are used for detecting leaks in large and small pressure vessels in general industry.
Loving this build series!!! Can’t wait for more🏁
thanks man!
Love y’all’s work . Glad to see the channel and opportunities for y’all continue to grow.
Appreciate it!!
When I was working on natural gas compressor units, when an engine oil cooler would leak into the cooling system the way we would deal with the oil in the cooling system is mix in one to two containers of Cascade dishwashing liquid detergent into the header tank of the cooling system.
Run it for 30 min. and then drain the cooling system. It worked very well at removing the residual oil we couldn't get out. It beat the heck out of having to remove all the radiator tank plugs and physically clean out each tube in the radiators/coolers.
It turned a multi hour job into a one hour job.
Interesting!
We changed the bad oil cooler too. 😁
At one point 100% or concentrated antifreeze was cheaper than 50/50, which didn't make any sense. I could buy concentrated, split it in half to make TWO 50/50's, and each one would be less than half the cost of a 50/50 from the store. The stores got smarter and charge a couple bucks more for concentrated. But still, if you take it home and split it to two 50/50's...I don't think they see the logic.
They charge for the convenience. All it is.
Love the hi-tech stuff. It’s compounding these small gains that makes race cars reliable.
OG from UK (pre-Uncle Rob!).
Absolutely! Thanks man
Interesting vid Mitch/Logan 🙂I began thinking a bit about my past life and high vacuum and helium leak detectors. Curious, do they use a He leak detector, or do they use a pressure decay test. While HV is where most of my focus was, as time went on more and more "industrial" applications kept popping up.
As an aside (if your not interested STOP reading now, but I had a facility that mfg AC condensors. Before they began using He leak detectors (pressurizing with room air), then submerging in a large tank of water, they had a group of tech's sitting in Lazy Boy chairs, watching the tank for bubbles. Literally that was their job all day long. Using He and a "sniffing He leak detector (~$20k/machine) pressurizing the condensors with He or a concentration of He depending on the leak rate specification, one guy could test all the condensers they used the bubble test for in one day. Anyway, thanks for the vid/info, very interesting application 🙂
That’s very interesting. Maybe these guys should buy some leak detectors 😂
What he's saying about deionized water isn't correct. It has the same problem as distilled, and it's actually worse. I worked in a pharmaceutical testing lab and we had problems with using deionized water in the stainless steel water pans in our mammalian cell incubators. Those are kept at a steady 37*C (98.7*F) temp so corrosion will happen fast. The water lacks any ions so as he described it will chew right through even stainless to grab those ions and balance itself chemically again. It would cause little pinholes to form in the pans. We solved this by putting a hunk of pure copper in there which was more reactive for the water to consume. It has the added benefit of being antimicrobial too so it helped us keep the water free of microbial contamination. You used to be able to use pennies but they're not made out copper any more, so don't. I don't know what you'd do to fix this problem in automotive applications that use only water as coolant but adding standard coolant to either DI or distilled water will take care of the problem in street applications.
WOW Very nice hear the engine shop I deal with helped you with an engine for this car. Gives you more time to develop your own Chevy engine combo. This is an awesome learning channel even for us old guys.😁
Wow!! I definitely didn't know
There's nobody else sharing this into, thank you
Distilled water is stripped of all minerals. Water wants it's minerals so distilled water will attack metal to try to pull the minerals back in. Distilled water is many times more corrosive that tap water.
I have heard the opposite I've heard that deionized water is actually worse. The water acts as a catalyst stripping ions from the metals. If this goes on long enough the metals are eventually etched away creating leaks, pressure loss, and serious problems for any chiller.
Basically what I'm hearing is to just use tap water and run a flush every so often I can clean the stuff from the tap out I can't clean corodded pipes
I call bs. I've used both, my distilled water filled radiator looks brand new. I put it in 6 years ago.
Then why they say to use distill wayer
Water
Electrolysis = not fire protection , Small correction . Cool set up sir ! I like -
His comment about the flow being too much on some radiators makes me wonder if that's why a lot of these cheap after market big tube radiators don't cool any better than the stock ones.
Exactly, because you have a big Rad, the flow across it may be too fast to effectively cool down the coolant. There is a flow sweet spot for every different engine/pump/radiator combo where the cooling system is at it's most efficient. It's not a "one size fits all" solution.
No, because it's incorrect. Until you reach supersonic speeds, there's no such thing as too fast through the radiator. It's weird he didn't dispel this myth. Perhaps he's just sick of talking about it and just "uh-huh"'s his was through that one.
Care to elaborate on this supersonic theory sir?
@@ummduhgmail Yeah, correct, there's no such thing as too fast for air flow through a radiator, but I was talking about coolant flow. If the coolant is flowing through a cooling system too quickly, it doesn't have enough dwell time withing the cooling structure to efficiently lose enough heat, it also doesn't absorb enough heat when flowing through the engine block. Why do you think thermostatic valves were invented and fitted to automotive cooling systems?
I was told years ago that ford flat heads with 2 water pumps would fow too much water
O believe me I didn't miss it .. that's music to somes ears 👂
Uncle rob content? Lets go! Also, i am a mopar guy, so im happy to see you have some goodies now! Good information on this video. 👍🏼
Very interesting.
Would be cool to have a Q&A with Evan at Serck Motorsport
What a great episode, I’ve learned a lot watching your videos. Keep up the great work, I’ve seen this video to all my friends.
Awesome, thank you!
I would be interested in what he has to say about Evans Waterless Coolant (glycol-based fluid that contains no water). I'm sure it is great for corrosion prevention, but so many say it is terrible for heat transfer. Do you have any experience with Evans?
That would be a great video subject, and I'm sure Evans would give you an endorsement if you find that it works well. Jay Leno says he uses it in all of his cars.
Interesting I haven’t heard of that before!
Very interesting 👍
Between living out away from cities and always having motorcycles with aluminum engines (plus I'm old enough that I've had to add water to many old school batteries), I have always used a 50/50 mixture of distilled water and coolant in engines (oops). Good news is, distilled water is for sure not as bad as well water...
Once you add the coolant its additives negate the badness of raw distilled. Water
@@Stapleton42 Yup, we have kept and raced some bikes for two decade (which included building and rebuilding the engines multiple times) and I've never seen any ill effects anywhere (nothing bad in radiators, blocks, heads or pumps). The closest I've come to running 100% water was with Water Wetter added...
Distilled water and coolant in FACTORY unmodified (non race spec/ high performance) engines is the OEM recommendation.. This blanket statement that "distilled water is bad", is Bad in itself. Distilled water BY ITSELF, should never be used. Thats why they tell you mix it... You dont put 100% antifreeze in your engine do you? Same scenario... Bad things happen.
They use Helium not because its the "'purest form of air" or whatever he said, but because He2 is the smallest non explosive (looking at you H2) molecule. so they find smaller holes.
De-ionized water ist "electronically charged to strip its properties so that molecules stay together". What the hell does that even mean? De-ionization is, as name suggests, removal of ions. Ions are reactive (cause they either miss or carry extra electrons and they try to achieve neutral charge). Removing them reduces reactivity of the solution (water in this case).
Distilled water wet through distillatio process. Much like with alcohol, it is brought to boil temperature (100 C) and the vapour is collected. Thus removing any chemicals in solution (pre-distilled water) with different temperature of boil. Removing almost all impurities, especially minerals and bilogical matter.
DISTILLED WATER IS MUCH BETTER THAN TAP WATER! DONT LISTEN TO THIS CRAP!
This elite-technician dude is so clueless, its almost scary :D!
Yup, I've compared and used both distilled and tap, the radiators I've used distilled water in are extremely clean non rusty compared to the ones I've used tap water in.
So after all that cleaning, what do they recommend to use when coolant is a no no like drag racing or in my case road course cars? Has to be something that inhibits rust formation and aids in eliminating aluminum erosion, the more particles flowing around at 20-30-40gpm is like sandblasting the inside of the core. Blew my mind when he said how much cup radiators were now, never would have thought anywhere near $8k
Coolant additives like maxima cool aide
Interesting fact! Those PWR Formula1 radiators he is carrying are proudly Australian made. PWR supplies a majority of the Formula1 field.
I now know that I have abused my radiators for years .. and have committed to correct my behaviour ! Thanks
Glad you could learn!
This is a question for all. Assuming I don't know the quality of my tap water and I don't own a Deionizing water system, what's the next best water I can buy at the store? Distilled water or reverse osmosis purified drinking water with flavor enhancing minerals, or Safeway (or similar) Drinking Water that says "processed by carbon filtration uv light and ozonation. Is there something else out there other than distilled?
Interesting note- Prestone Concentrate instruction say use only distilled water HOWEVER Walmart Super Tech brand says use DEIONIZED water!
They told us about this additive from maxima that can be used with distilled (I think) that pretty much solves its mineral cling issue
What thats sick. Wicked pull on the engine buddy.
Thanks man!!
Awesome. Very enlightening to see the pool of copper coming out of that radiator! I am really wondering where are the 3D printed heat exchangers? There was a 3D printed oil-fuel heat exchanger for a helicopter and it was revolutionary I keep expecting these optimized radiator things to popup in the enthusiast/race car scene but nope.
Awesome info, and Im only at 14:52 while writing this, so I apologize if it is covered. Why not run an inline filter with a micron rating that is thinner than what would get caught inside the radiator. I realize this could affect flow, but maybe lets apply the theory to say a daily driver. I remember when the Ford 6.4 came out there was this big push to get a coolant filter on it because of some supposed casting issues where sand might exist in the water jacket. I installed one on my truck at that time just for safety sake.
This was a really interesting video. I actually work on heat exchangers for a living myself. I also liked the last Ed Pink video too, sounds like a really fun guy to go hang out with.
I'm confused about the deionized water comment, I manufacture a deionized water system and we only use SS or specific plastic on all our plumbing, because the water is so pure that it eats any other materials used in the plumbing system from the inside out including brass and aluminum 🤔
I totally agree w deionized water if your mixing w antifreeze or another product but not straight.
Greetings from Australia . Great videos about things I thought were going to be "ho hum". Keep it up. I hope you realise that you're batting way above your pay grade.
Thank you sir. I knew this video would not get very many views BUT that is not why we do what we do. If I ask myself “is this video valuable information to someone” and the answer is yes… it gets posted. Even if I know it won’t be a home run per say
Sure was a lot to learn in this one! Makes sense doing this if you can run more tape and get more downforce. Looks like your rig will be good to go since its been done. Thx!!
superb! nice to see a UK service in the US
The cup cars are not allowed tape anymore they get air from the hood but they have brake duct open I believe but I could def see where this would be a huge advantage cooling wise
It still applies in xfinity and truck
It’s even a big deal in asphalt late models. Many of them have the grill taped up some for the race because the cooling is so much more efficient.
I have heard lots of good things about AMS but I don't have any personal experience with their work. That engine should be everything that you need.
Thanks man! Great dudes
Thank you Stapleton I have a Harley-Davidson oil cooler I may send them
Awesome!
OMG, thank you so much for telling us about distilled water and not to use it. Logan, that was a great question. Keep up the great work, may God keep blessing you both...
Thanks man!
Distilled water went through distillatio process. Much like with alcohol, it is brought to boil temperature (100 C) and the vapour is collected. Thus removing any chemicals in solution (pre-distilled water) with different temperature of boil. Removing almost all impurities, especially minerals and bilogical matter.
DISTILLED WATER IS MUCH BETTER THAN TAP WATER! DONT LISTEN TO THIS CRAP!
using Distilled water is perfectly fine, and recommended by every OEM. The "Catch 22" here is when talking racing you aren't using Antifreeze, that is adding other components to that distilled water. Also, not every distilled water is identical... So many nuances not mentioned here.
I learned more on this video then I did in auto class
We love to hear it!
Great information, I learned a lot today, thank you 😀🇺🇸
Glad to hear it!
This is cool stuff I never knew. The common weekend warrior doesn't have 400 every month for this technology. In 2009 I pit crewed for a large of local racers who all used wetter water. Bought at local auto parts store.
Distilled water is meant to be used in conjunction with a concentrated liquid coolant, usually in a 50/50 ratio. This is specified so that only the components within the coolant concentrate are present and they are not diluted/reacted with by the added components of city/well water. In racing applications where you are often required to only run water or choose to run straight water, it is never recommended to use distilled water. Really, most any water will do with a bottle of water wetter.
Very informative video. Thanks for the content.
Thank you for watching!!
super interesting thanks!
Glad you liked it!
💪💪
Saltwater aquarium stores generally sell DI or deionized water for $1 or $2 a gallon. Many saltwater hobbyists have RO/DI filters at home, so ask around.
Not a comment on this video, thought you might like to watch,
“NASCAR 100 Bathurst 1998” [FULL RACE]
NASCAR didn’t survive in Australia, it lasted for about 10 years or so. It struggled to compete against the Australian “V8 Supercars” there is plenty on that subject to, the new gen NASCAR’s look almost exactly like the new gen V8 Supercars running Mustangs and Comaro’s. Im not very tech savvy being an older dude. Cheers
thanks man! I wish they used legit production clone body panels like supercars do now
@@Stapleton42 cheers
I never raced but a driver call George Elliot who raced NASCAR in Australia back then gave me the opportunity to try out driving one of his old Pontiac race cars, I was keen to get into that form of racing but financial situations that come with a new young family got the better of me. the car originally came from the states. Do you have a public email i will send you the photo of the car. Im guessing you could identify it. Cheers
I want to see one of those $7000 radiators. What makes it so valuable? How can somebody get a custom radiator that cools incredibly?
Buy an old nascar radiator!
Look up the manufacturing capabilities of PWR performance and you will find the answer to your question
The "Specific Gravity" of an object is the density of that object divided by the density of water. The density of water is 1,000 kilograms per meter cubed. For instance, the density of gold is 19,300 kilograms per meter cubed. So the specific gravity of gold is 19.3.
Helium: 0.166 kg/m3
Oxygen: 1.33 kg/m3
Nitrogen: 1.16 kg/m3
Natural gas: 0.667 kg/m3
Hydrogen: 0.0838 kg/m3.
you should have asked if intercoolers have debris when new
are import cores worse? by what margin? etc
i say intercooler as it’s blowing into the motor
Yes, intercoolers are highly contaminated as well from the manufacturing process.
We haven't studied a pattern on the origin of the cores vs their contamination yet but it's something we will certainly monitor. We haven't seen any one brand of cooler that is low contamination from new. Everything we have seen has significant debris and contamination straight out of the box.
Today F1 and aerospace use radiators from Mezzo Technology. They have micro tube passages and are far more efficient than conventional radiators. Of course with the tiny passages comes constant cleaning as shown in your video.
Yes I know, soooo this should be a good one!
It’s fascinating! Originally this wasn’t supposed to be a standalone video but a part of the next stock car build video. It was fascinating enough to stand alone!
$400 to clean a $6k radiator that’s cheap to certain people
Steven McC, perhaps You would assess the costs very simply as $400/$6k=1/15=0.066667 => Good to Excellent Value = Worthwhile
Absolutely
Another set of videos to watch “Touring car masters” a selection of Australian and American muscle cars mixing it up
This was interesting. Sadly, there's not one of these places in every major city.
Good thing there’s UPS and boxes lol. Don’t use FedEx they’ll ruin your stuff 😂
@@Stapleton42 Yeah, I'm to the point where I won't ship ANYTHING of value lately, as more than half the time My parts get ruined. Hence why I said what I said.. Wish they had more than one location.😭
Awesome Video you 2.
Uncle Rob is coming back! Woohoo!
You bet!
Great to learn something new. May want to blur the PW on the computer screen around 6:50.
You can measure purity via resistivity. Softened water has calcium replaced by sodium so is soft but not demineralised.
Distilled water isnt as pure as reverse osmosis (RO). I used to do lab work, we used water with 13 mega ohms per cm. That sustem was fed with RO water and had Activated Charcoal and uv treatmrnt as well. Measured pH of water varies and solutions would vary before pH adjustment, but pH meters can't measure pH of pure water very well, as pH meters determine pH indirectly, and needs something in solution to work well.
File under....things I never knew and glad to know now
We are glad to hear it 💪🏻
I've built membrane filtration units that pass compressed air through filters and capture the nitrogen, then release the o2, Ar and He. to the atmosphere. Now days, I work on semi's and when it comes to radiators on over the road trucks, when they leak, they go in the bin. That's the end of it's life. A radiator is way cheaper than a tow bill. A basic in frame rebuild of an x15 Cummins starts at $10k and can easily escalate to $20k-$30k. I honestly don't care what the radiator costs. It's a wear component and will be replaced at some point. What will really get your goat, is when you loose an engine due to someone using the wrong hose clamp. It doesn't happen all at once on the big engines. You loose a hose, get it fixed, then watch the oil samples. The trick s to break out the checkbook while the crank is still good. If you loose the crankshaft, you might as well get a new truck.
Can't wait to see you race again
Me too I miss it
I've never put much thought into the cooling system on vehicles. I know I should, but I've never in my life done a coolant flush, so seeing stuff like this just reaffirms how much of a slacker I am with vehicle maintenance. lol. I regularly do all the other fluids (not always on time with transfer cases though) but always engine oil.
Very interesting and informative Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
Been running deionized water + hyper-cool in my PC’s water cooling loop and ~3y on it still looks brand new, previously used distilled + water wetter and it would get gunked up in a matter of months.
Tribal knowledge to Expert ..excellent dive into a cooling guru 👌👍
400 bucks to clean a radiator? Its back to automatic dishwashing detergent and a garden hose for me. Been doing it that way for 40+ years now. Sadly, i'm not kidding!
Unless you’re doing some form of racing or a space limited turbo street car this level of cleaning is probably not necessary for the average Joe
My phone # is 70 foh....😂😂😂
Dude seems like a really cool cat.
Can't wait to see that thing fire off and make some laps at Caraway and The Rock!
Thanks man 😂
The ground straps on Wiggins is for lightning strike distribution in aircraft.
Interesting!
Light the fuse! Lets goooooooo!
I think that’s gonna be a new tagline around here…
Amazing video I don’t know all of that 👏🏾
Learned something new today 😊
That’s the goal!
Deionized pre-mixed coolant is the only thing you're supposed to put in GM's electric vehicles. Otherwise you can short out the electrical system. The coolant provides isolation between the high voltage system and the rest of the vehicle. The A/C oil is similar, POE oil only. PAG oil can also short out the electrical system on a GM electric vehicles.
Another reason to not buy a GM