Non-water based coolant
 

Anybody have experience with this stuff? Much higher boiling point than water/antifreeze. Which by itself means squat because if your engine is overheating, this stuff just doesn't boil, but does nothing to solve the problem. Now i have read that it can have better thermal conductivity than water, which is good. And if you get steam formed in your engine it acts as a thermal barrier between the metal and the coolant.

Wondering if anyone has first hand experience?

thanks

Back in my younger racing days, we used products like that in our toys. it worked fairly decent, but I wouldn't run it in an engine that I depend on to get me to and from work on a daily basis.

Is it corrosive?

Any idea what it's made of? I wonder if it's more or less toxic than glycol. If it was less toxic and better coolant that would make it pretty attractive. Sounds interesting at any rate, I did a search for it and found this:

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/2005-2010-mustang-gt-tech/120649-fyi-alternative-non-water-corrosion-blocking-coolant-without-replacing-oem-radiator.html

Some good info but it's short on experience.

The rap in the link implies it's less corrosive than standard coolant.

But who knows, that gut might have been parroting industry promo.

Its gone way up in price since that article was written, now like 59 bucks

That does make it more than a casual decision all right. At that price, one might be a bit more religious about replacing hoses in a timely manner. If the stuff doesn't degrade or corrode, I imagine you'd catch it pretty carefully when you were doing any work that required drainage or spillage and strain it before re-using it. Hell, I do that now if it's clean, not just the money, it's the hassle of disposing of it.

The stuff is basically propylene glycol. Its non toxic, used as a food additive. Problem with it is that its viscosity is much higher than conventional coolant & so there will be reduced flow especially through small spaces. Its heat transfer properties are not as good as conventional coolant / water blends. You would be a bit foolish to use the stuff undiluted in a cars cooling system that was designed for conventional coolant.

So what applications are this coolant good for. I am thinking big Marine engines?

Propylene glycol has been used for many years in coolant applications. 30 years ago companies like Dow Chemical & Union Carbide actively premoted its use. It used to be used as a direct replacement for ethylene glycol based coolants for normal water blended coolants for auto use. Its higher viscosity killed off this application.
In the food industry its often used (mixed with water) for applications where there is a slight possibility of food contact. The coolant tanks used for freezing ice creams is an example. Applications in solar heat bank systems where there is concern that the thermal fluid could contaminate drinking water is also common. In Beer & wine manufacture it has wide use as a secondary refrigerant.
The ethylene glycol found in most coolants is nasty stuff.
A couple of tea spoons will cause renal failure.
The commercially available ethylene glycol available normally contains a bittering agent to prevent ingestion.
2 tea spoons of the pure stuff without the bittering agent in a cup of coffee would taste like a coffee with 1 sugar, a few hours later you would have oxalic acid crystals forming in your kidneys. If dialysis was not started along with stopping blood to your kidneys you would be very sick. Probably renal bleeding would end you.

I tried it once in my 74 Olds Custom Cruiser One advantage to it is that since it has a higher boiling point than other coolants, you can run it in your car without pressurizing the system. We had a member here some years ago who was a strong advocate of it in older Benz's just because of this. It's particularly helpful at higher altitudes where boiling points are reduced. This was my motive in trying it. However, I ended up selling the car before having a chance to use it in a variety of conditions so I can't comment on its effectiveness. I've heard cats give it strong reviews.

What is the advantage of a non-pressurized cooling system?

A non-pressurized cooling system is not going to suffer from leaks or a sudden radiator or hose failure. I assume what we're discussing here is NPG, or "non-aqueous" propylene glycol. Its higher boiling point will keep an engine from overheating, as once conventional coolant has boiled away, it's not cooling anymore. All water must be removed from the cooling system before use. I'm going to try some on my standby generator to see how it works, and based on that, may graduate to the Mercedes.

I think the reasons why we don't use NPG outweigh the reasons for why we might. Pressurized cooling systems reduce the effects of steam pockets and cavitation and make the cooling system more efficient by raising the boiling point. And systems running without water have less heat transfer from engine to coolant than systems using water and anti-freeze. The effects of increased altitude are negated by the use of a pressurized system. It's not by mistake that both NASCAR and F1 place a limit on the cooling system pressure.