Jim Lane

I have not had a heater in my truck for about 4 years now, I bought a new core 4 years ago after ordering many cores and rejecting them for sloppy soldering on all of them, the girl at Pep Boys was ordering them 2 at a time, these were as bad as when I bought my evaporator.

The only thing stopping me from replacing it is I will have the discharge my AC to pull the air box.
I have my own recovery unit but I never have the time.

Is the rumor true that we can get replacement blend door seals?

The way I have survived our freezing winter's is I have installed my little 1500-watt electric ceramic heater on the passenger floor, it is powered through my 3000-watt inverter installed in the back.

Within about 2 minuets the cab is toasty warm and if you don't turn it down it will run you out of the cab.

I have looked at the Evans waterless coolant but have not had any serious cooling system problems.

​​​​https://www.evanscoolant.com

I have a coolant filter and have removed a lot of casting sand from the block already.
Jim

maybe368

Ok guys, this is from Evan's waterless coolant site: Most engine coolants/antifreezes are a 50/50 mix of ethylene glycol and water. Waterless coolant is a glycol-based fluid that is ready to use, no water required.

The non-50/50 antifreeze may have a little water in it, but through many years of not adding any water to the non-50/50 antifreeze, I think that the proof is in my pudding and is plenty good enough. I suspect that the Evans stuff is just ethylene glycol without water in it. I also suspect that the 50 bucks for the high performance stuff is more or less just Prestone custom made without the water added and they probably pay a buck or less per gallon, good business, if you can find it. My argument has never been to pay 50 buck a gallon,it is to just not put any water in the concentrated antifreeze. It really does work, rant over, carry on...Mark

mhuppertz

Interesting, what kind of coolant filter are you using?
I waited two years to do mine, was using a little Horrible Freight 12v heater to keep the windshield clear but it wasn't enough to keep me warm at all, When the A/C system discharged I figured it was as good a time as ever to do it.
The worst part is the vacuum grommet that is in the firewall. I broke it, had to switch to the alternative ports, Better just to cut the lines and splice them going back in.
Thanks Jim,
Mark

mhuppertz

I'm going to try the straight up ethylene glycol thing next time I flush and fill. Probably will do the same in my 20KW generator I I was going to run Evans, but it would have cost a fortune. Jay Leno had switched to Evans for all of his classic cars.

mhuppertz

FYI, Evans waterless coolant is mostly Polypropylene Glycol, not Ethylene Glycol.

maybe368

I don't think that it matters, Just don't add water to whatever concentrate that you buy. Their site just says glycol based. Buy enough propylene glycol concentrate, don't add water to it, problem solved. It is an old business tactic IMO, make people believe that the only way to do something,is with their product. There are several members on this sight that do the same as me, some for more that a year or two and I have not heard a single complaint. I don't blame them for not posting about it,, but I can take the heat (no pun intended)...Mark

oliver foster

In a month or two up here I will take all the free heat I can get...Haha

I filled [my '91.0 W-250] Poncho's system up last winter when I pulled the oil cooler from the block and re-did a bunch of stuff.
I added the straight antifreeze with no water added. It ran great all summer for me.

maybe368

Thanks Oliver, you are a respected voice around here and especially since you live in a very cold climate, it helps to dispel the "but what if it freezes argument". I have no authority about that, living in Phoenix and all. What did we hit in our experiment, -25 degrees F., IIRC? That goes a long way in dispelling that argument. I should have beat ole' Evans by taking this to market before them.O'well you snooze you lose...Mark

oliver foster

Thanks Mark.

I want to say I got to test the same pure anti freeze I filled my system with, in a half full jug outside in -20F if not -25F last winter.
Poncho gets to spend most of the winter in the heated shop but I wanted to test out the fluid I used.
In the morning I would go shake the jug and peer inside looking for any signs of freezing or getting slushy, then note the temp. outside at that time.
I also made sure that it had been colder that night then when I tested in that morning.

mhuppertz

My poor old truck is outside all winter (and summer) and we usually have a week in January where it never gets above freezing.
Pure ethylene glycol freezes at about −12 °C (10.4 °F) but, when mixed with water, the mixture freezes at a lower temperature. For example, a mixture of 60% ethylene glycol and 40% water freezes at −45 °C (−49 °F),
so I guess I need to keep using the premix in the winter.

maybe368

What Oliver just said is that he put a gallon of antifreeze on his porch last winter and left it there for several weeks, to near -25 degrees and it did NOT freeze or even gel. It doesn't freeze at those temps. If you start here:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...16652/page365/

and continue through February you will see that Oliver's experiment went through that time and temps hit -25 or so without a hint of even gelling. I don't know of any better test than that...Mark

edwinsmith

Couldn't one just buy propylene glycol instead? I haven't priced it but I'm sure it could be found. Isn't that what's used in newer cars with aluminum blocks?

edwinsmith

Supposedly ethylene glycol will get thick or freeze at low temps but Oliver left a gallon out in the weather and nothing happened. I cleaned my engine/radiator out last year with cleaning chemicals and put in 100% EG and it's running fine. Of course it rarely gets below 40 here.

Edwin

oliver foster

Yeah my jug of Diesel 911 with freeze but the jug of pure antifreeze did not.

maybe368

And even if it had frozen it would not expand and do damage, like water does. FWIW, I googled every element that expands when frozen and they are: Water, bismuth, silicone, germanium, antimony, plutonium, and chemical compounds that form spacious crystal lattices with tetrahedral coordination (whatever that is). So, assuming that it would gel, before it freezes, just a slight temperature rise would quickly thaw it and no damage will have been done...Mark