MTFCA Forum

Radiator back in my 23T..I am reading the shop manual, just becasue, and in installation of Radiator, it states to install radiator and fill with clean water. How did that work without freezing? Thanks..Tommy

It didn’t.

Depends on your definition of clean water. My local bar uses clean water, but they usually add something to it. Still clean, so I can drink it.

Antifreeze discussions rival oil discussions. What is meant by clean water is water than does not contain minerals (like hard water). Despite Internet recommendations distilled water isn't good either. The process that makes it causes the water ionically imbalanced. Essentially the distilled water solution is unstable because it is missing an electron. Distilled water will damage the metals in your engine if used repeatedly. The best is soft water. It has the harmful chemicals removed by filtration. This is a good article about what water and antifreeze https://blog.protectmycar.com/can-you-m ... ne-coolant. I like many others have our preference but I'll refrain from mentioning mine.

Kinda depends where you live. If you're a resident of the sunny South, maybe water or something close to it would work. If you live up where I do in the frozen tundra, and your car lives in a cold garage year long, better either completely drain your cooling system or use antifreeze adjusted for the expected low temps. Up here that got down to -37 for a couple of nights this winter.

Traditional ethylene glycol anti-freeze works very well. If you're in doubt about the quality of your local water, buy the pre-mixed name brand anti-freeze. A good anti-freeze product prevents corrosion, prevents boilover, and does a better job of preventing hot spots and steam pockets than plain water does. It will destroy paint if it leaks or seeps from a water pump or head gasket. Cooling system corrosion can occur in cars stored with the coolant drained, especially if mineralized water has ever been used in the system, which it almost certainly has been. Model Ts running plain water as coolant will concentrate any minerals in the water, which will aggravate corrosion issues. I have seen old hopper-cooled engines with 1' or more of mineral deposits in the hopper and water jacket.

TRDxB2 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:32 am

Antifreeze discussions rival oil discussions. What is meant by clean water is water than does not contain minerals (like hard water). Despite Internet recommendations distilled water isn't good either. The process that makes it causes the water ionically imbalanced. Essentially the distilled water solution is unstable because it is missing an electron. Distilled water will damage the metals in your engine if used repeatedly. The best is soft water. It has the harmful chemicals removed by filtration. This is a good article about what water and antifreeze https://blog.protectmycar.com/can-you-m ... ne-coolant. I like many others have our preference but I'll refrain from mentioning mine.

Can you explain how water loses an electron when distilled? Sounds like you are splitting a an atom or making heavy water which the distillation process doesn't do. Sterile water is used in operating rooms and it is basically just distilled water produced under better controlled conditions. If it is unsafe it wouldn't be used. Also distilled water is what should be added to lead acid batteries when the level drops in the cells. By definition distilled water has no mineral content so how can it damage your engine?

Frank...missing IONS...(not electrons)

John, as is seeks to rebalance itself, as Frank said, it is a getter for all sorts of things as it is actually chemically imbalanced in a distilled state. Do a GOOGLE search on distilled water (alone) in cooling systems and it will provide far more information than I am willing to type.

Thanks for the replies..How about rain water from my rain barrel? I always thought that might work well.

In the day and age when the shop manual was written, many people put the car up for the winter and drained. Use antifreeze. There was plenty written back then on types of antifreeze to use or make.

Run 50/50 anti-freeze in your '23 like Mark said and everything will be healthy and happy...

Or, run just water, any water, and eventually end up posting a question like this: https://mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20084

Polished brass is another story, but you don't have an early car, so that discussion is moot.

Antifreeze is anti-corrosion.

The T water jacket is about 1/8” thick on the bottom. If plain water corroded .002” per year, then sometime after 63 years of operation, you might see some rust-thru. Lots of T’s have been in continuous operation for decades. Lots of people also have rusted-thru blocks. I’ve seen and replaced at least a half dozen in the last ten years.

I have been using what is called, "Purified" water which is sold in gallon jugs at any store. I mix half green antifreeze with the purified water and have been using for years. The only time I change it is when I am working on the car and have to remove the hoses. I have been driving my Model T's since 1989 without any problems. I put new radiators on two and the other one has the flat tube radiator which was on it when I bought it. When the coolant gets low, I just add more purified water. Now the mixture you would use will vary with the climate. Here it rarely gets below freezing. If in a colder climate follow the instructions for the amount of mixture to use. The only time I ever use tap water is when I first assemble things to be sure there are no leaks, and then drain and fix with my mix. Another time I used tap water was one time on a tour when I had a leak and and used water from any source I could get it in Nevada desert. In areas such as western Oregon and Washington the water is known as, "soft water". It would likely be OK to use that water directly in the radiator. Here we have "hard water" which comes from a well. All full of minerals. You can tell the difference when you take a shower. With hard water, it easy to wash off the soap, but with soft water, after you rinse, it still feels like you have soap on. I have been told that it just feels that way, but really the soft water dissolves more soap than hard.
Norm

50/50 it is. Thanks