Im going to have to disagree with you on this one. Distilled water has all salts removed from it and has a pH balance that is essentially neutral. Why would the cooling system require lubrication? The only moving part is the pump and its bearing is external of the liquid. In fact if coolant or water were to come in contact with the bearing the pump is considered failed.

Water has a different boiling point than ethylene glycol so it does provide better cooling. The antifreeze providing lubrication is a myth perpetuated by the companies that make it.

 

I went with the coolant but still think that there might be some stuff swimming in there. the fan shroud broke on me. It seemed it was fragil. Thing broke in four. i drove my XJ and will the temerature guage goes into the red if im driving bout 65 then i slow down and it goes back to normal. might the missing fan shroud be the problem?

 

Okay, I'll give you the lubrication part. But distilled water won't allow rust?

 

Nope. The only downside is that it will freeze (obviously). Distilling water breaks it down into its purest form. Twice distilled water is even better and has pH balance about as close to neutral as you can get. H20 itself doesn't cause corrosion. It is the minerals that are in it that eat away at metals. Pure water and steam do not cause corrosion to most metals and alloys except magnesium and aluminum. Most water pumps fins are zinc plated which also help prevent corrosion.

 

I live where it gets real cold in winter.

What about electrolysis though? Over time.

 

If u'll pop the rad cap occasionally and inspect the coolant level AND color of the coolant, all that's really necessary is to drain coolant (remove bottom rad hose from the water pump) at the 1st sign of coolant color changing from green/yellow to orange/brown color. Coolant color/protection doesn't change/degrade overnight, but u must check it occasionally to see if the color is changing.

Distilled water, just like tap water, has zero, zip, nada corrosion protection. 100% of the cooling system corrosion protection is in the coolant/antifreeze and with time, the corrosion protection in the coolant/antifreeze degrades/deteriorates.

Man law......read my sig.

 

If you were to decide to use pure water without any antifreeze and are still concerned about corrosion, you can buy products like Redline's Water Wetter that is an additive to prevent corrosion. As far as costs go, it is cheaper to run pure water than it is to run antifreeze.

 

I hadn't thought about that, but like I said before. A corrosion prohibitor like water wetter will help prevent that. If you live in a area with cold winters then you wouldn't want to run pure water through the winter for obvious reasons.

djb, you are correct that distilled water doesn't prevent corrosion, but it doesn't cause it either.

 

This is just me but if I lived in an area like Florida that never sees freezing temperatures I would never even use antifreeze. Distilled water is much easier to dispose of too, just undo the lower radiator house and let her flow haha.

 

U r gonna have to run some kind of corrosion protection in distilled water.....the system will corrode/rust using straight distilled water.

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...20rust%20metal

 

Found this at Benzworld.org. Guy brings up the point of thermal transfer properties. Definitely would apply to the 4.0's at the temps they normally run at.

"Ford has paid me good money to study the damage people have done to their engines by running pure water in the cooling systems. You're implying that there is something wrong with using antifreeze in your cooling system. Just the opposite is true. Using just water is not good for a number of reasons. Namely, water freezes at 32°F, boils at 212°F, and can corrode the cooling system.

A proper 50-50 mix will freeze at -25°F, boil at a temperature higher than 212 (250°F?), and has corrosion-inhibiting properties. The boiling protection balances out any loss in thermal transfer properties from this mix because there's not a lot of thermal transfer when water starts boiling. In other words, boiling is bad for the cooling system. So why would you consider using just water in your cooling system?

If you're talking coolant for top-off, replenish with a 50-50 mix. Use pure water only in emergencies. And yes, use distilled water whenever possible."

 

Yes, you need the fan shroud.

 

Coolant/antifreeze, in itself, raises the boiling point of water only a few degrees. The rad cap, which raises the cooling system to 15-16 psi, is what raises the boiling point of significantly.

Nothing against using distilled water to mix with coolant/antifreeze BUT, the Prestone jug says nothing about "must use distilled water" nor does it reference to "distilled" water......it simply says use clean, drinkable water.

Again, straight water of whatever kind gives zero, zip, nada corrosion/rust protection........some form of corrosion protection MUST be added to the water.

 

Good point and info. I was just that thinking even with the proper mixture just barely boiling that it would at least have better heat transfer properties than pure water at it's barely boiling point.

 

http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Cor...troduction.htm
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem03923.htm

Here is where I was getting most of my information from. I am not an expert but these guys are. So yes, it would still be ok to run distilled water or de-ionized water with a product like water wetter for corrosions sake. Water has better heat transfer characteristics than ethylene glycol. The pressurized radiator cap on our Jeeps also helps raise the boiling point.