Techtip24

SAVVA Technical Tips No 24

Water additives

I have received three replies in response to my request for assistance on water additives to use,
here is the first one:

Johan Wagner from the EPVCC kindly sent my request for assistance on water additives to his
good friend Stew Robinson who is an ex aircraft technician and nowadays is in their laboratory
testing fuels and lubricants. Stew is an authority on such matters and has offered the following advice:

Hi Eric, my suggestion is as follows: -

How much do you value your old car?

“Obviously a hell of a lot to have put in all the man hours to restore it to as close to
pristine condition as you can.”
If you were told you should use “X” pistons to do the engine up and these pistons are guaranteed
to do 500 000 miles and you could buy “Y” pistons for half the price with no guarantee of how long
they will last, I bet you would buy the “X” pistons.

A good Antifreeze is an anti freeze, a coolant, a corrosion inhibiter, a boiling point reducer and a
rubber conditioner all rolled into one.
You said you have read the labels on the different Anti Freeze bottles and seen a huge difference in
the prices. Now go back and look again. Look at the percentage of Glycol and note the price relationship.

Look for the label with about 80 % glycol and note it has different dilution rates for the climate of
your area (Temperature Average) Do the cheaper products allow dilution? “No” or at least “I hope not”.

Buy the product with 80 % + - Glycol and dilute it to the required amount for the prevalent temperatures
of your area and use it in your cooling system. (I personally only dilute 50 - 50 in my car as the engine
is more robust, in my motorcycle I use it 100 % neat as it has more exotic metals and is more prone to
corrosion and because one has a tendency to ride the engine harder it may overheat more frequently.)

Sometimes we hear the expression of being penny wise and pound foolish.
Your car is, I guess hard to find some parts for. Look after it with good quality products and in the
long run they will pay dividends to you. However you won’t know it has, as you will never know when the
corrosion would have failed the component with out it.

Enjoy your car and treat it to the love inside you lavishly give on the outside.

Stew Robinson