I recently saw an add for a radiator cap that is supposed to help keep aluminum radiators from corroding. It had a small device which is suspended into the coolant. Now, I cannot find one anyplace. Could someone let me know where I can find one of these. Thank You!!!
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Re: Fancy Radiator Cap
Unless one could find legitimate engineering/scientific test results for a device like this, I would file it under the "snake oil" category. Anti-freeze is blended with corrosion inhibitor additives that protect the cooling system. Supplemental additives are not necessary and may even be harmful it they are incompatible with the corrosion inhibitor package. I would recommend that you stick with ethylene glycol anti-freeze and change it according to the time/mileage recommendation in your owner's manual, whichever comes first.
I have recently switched all my cars to GM Dexcool, which is available at auto parts stores under the Havoline Extended Life brand with the GM logo and the word Dexcool on the label. Dexcool provides superior corrosion protection for aluminum, but the system must be thoroughly flushed multiple times to ensure all the "green stuff" is purged. Also, because the green stuff plates out inorganic salts in the cooling system which slowly dissolve back into solution, the long life benefits of Dexcool are compromised, and it should be changed according to the manufacturer's original recommendation. Switching to Dexcool will provide better aluminum protection, and increase the water pump seal life because it had no silicates which are abrasive. -
Re: Fancy Radiator Cap
Unless it works like a pill that gradually feeds supplemental inhibitors into the system, I would pass on buying the fancy cap. I think I have seen the caps you are talking about and they are supposed to be an anode similar to a water heater anode. It will not protect much of the radiator because in order for cathodic protection to protect the metal, the anode needs a clear path or needs to "see" the metal it is protecting. The anode in the radiator cap may protect the tank and filler neck but little else.Comment
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Re: Fancy Radiator Cap
Karl,
There was a discussion about this on the CRPL just recently. As Duke said this one got rated as snake oil. It was good for a laugh at least.
Mike
Quebec NCRS ChapterComment
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Snake oil
This stuff has been with us since cars were invented and probably always will be. I remember a heavily advertised product from the sixties called "fire injectors." It turns out they were just surface gap spark plugs. This type of plug is very cold and they are typically used in applications that see high continuous load such as aircraft engines, but I think surface gap plugs are used in some Mazda rotaries.
In the late sixties there was a device that you inserted between the distributor center terminal and coil wire which was supposed to "ionize" the fuel or some such nonsense, and I don't remember what it was called. We actually tested this on a six-cylinder Falcon engine mounted on a dynamometer in the ME lab at the University of Washington as a class project. It made absolutely no difference in engine performance. All we could determine was that it added a little resistance to the circuit.
I think we can file this radiator cap with Split-Fire plugs and Slick-50, but like Mike said, they're good for a laugh. Now that all modern cars are fuel injected I haven't heard of anyone coming up with a "100 mile per gallon carburetor" lately.
DukeComment
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