>cooling systems...in a word - DON'T.
>
>Distilled or demineralized water is "ionically unbalanced" - so it goes
>looking for ions to revert to a balanced state. Guess where the missing ions
>come from?...the steel in your engine block, so you may end up with holes in
>the block - I've seen engines using distilled water alone for coolant produce
>rust-colored coolant in a short time. (Any chemical engineers out there can
>verify this...) Mixing it with antifreeze reduces this effect, but the best
>
Hmmmmm... I don't think I buy this. I have a (limited) background in chemistry
(AS and 3&1/2 yrs. as a chem. lab tech.) and I have never heard the term
"ionically imbalanced." In the first place, distilled water is perfectly
"balanced," having exactly one H+ (hydronium) ion for each OH- (hydroxide) ion.
That is why distilled water has a pH of 7.0, being neither acidic nor basic.
Water only promotes rust when it is electrolyic, i.e. it supports the transfer
of electrons from iron to oxygen (or sulfur). To be electolytic water must have
some salt(s) dissolved in it. Granted, distilled water will eventually pick up
some ions through leeching and other processes, but I believe distilled water
will help inhibit rusting in auto cooling systems. If you don't believe this,
put a piece of clean iron (or mild steel) in distilled water and tap water (or
distilled water with table salt added), and see which piece rusts first/most.
regards,
bs
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