Is there a reason why you should not use just water in your antifreeze? And if that is not wise would a 25/75 mix be okay? The car has a bad headgasket and I am just driving it till it dies, and right now am going through about a gallon of antifreeze every month on average and right now using a 50/50 mix and wondered if it really mattered if I dropped down to straight water or 75% water and 25% antifreeze if it would matter?
Are you SURE it’s a head gasket problem?? The problem with straight water is that it boils at 212 degrees…Anti=freeze raises the boiling point to 245 or so…
Is coolant leaking out of the car onto the ground?
Indy has several posts on this car that just won’t die.
Normally, I would never recommend this, but I don’t think you have much to lose. Try it and see what happens.
Well… It all depends on how cold it gets. It doesn’t really matter if you use 100% water. (Must use tap water only) My understanding is that… water works really well in cooling the engine.
The thing is… I don’t think you have a gasket problem. Instead, you might have a cracked head. See if there’s water dropping or dripping out the muffler. If you do… Oh… it’s gonna hurt.
This is why OPs should stick to their original thread. This has all been debated before about this car.
Why don’t you try Tester’s sodium silicate (or whatever it is) cure for head gaskets for $10-20? Just search for head gasket problems and it should pop up.
I was going to mention that myself.
Yes I have posted a number of things about this car. It is a bad head gasket, but no water coming from tailpipe yet, drops showing up underneath where overfill jug is. To try those temp seal liquids I have to remove hosing and such since I don’t have direct access to radiator. I would only use just water or 25 anti freeze to 75 water during the summer, and go back to my 50/50 mix come winter time. Just trying to find ways to maximize my money while keeping the car running as long as possible.
One problem with using pure water is that any steel or cast iron component is going to rust quickly. Antifreeze contains buffers to hold the PH at a level where corrosion is not too bad. However, it looks like you would not be concerned about future rust problems in the engine, like clogged radiator; plugged water passages; eroded water pump impeller; corroded plumbing fixtures; etc.
Well right now I am going with a 50/50 mix and was just wondering if adding water say every 3rd or 4th time when I need to bring it full in the overflow would cause any major harm. The car is on borrowed time, while it is still running pretty well and not showing any signs outside of loss of antifreeze, I am told at some point the Head gasket issue will begin to show itself more and more. I bought the car in July of last year, my goal was 1 year of ownership, which looks like I will make, so anything after july is gravey from my point of view and worth the $450 I paid for it.
Plain water is not a problem as long as your not getting freezing temperatures and you aren’t planning to do this long term. As long as the system is pressurized the boiling point of the water will be well above engine temperatures. The other comments about rust and corrosion are only a concern if you do this for a long time (years). I assume you do plan to fix or scrap this thing at some point?
Plan on driving it till it dies and then sell for junk, figure if I only say get $100 for it junk then that is not to bad given I only paid $450 for it.