Thanks for your input on the waterless antifreeze issue I asked about a couple of weeks ago. I looked into it further. Such a product does exist. It is produced by Evans Cooling. If you have a chance check out their web site at WWW.Evanscooling.Com. When you reach the site click on "Vintage" it tells all about the product and its benefit. I would really like to know what you think.
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Wateless antifreeze - red flag
I took a look at the sight, Ed. The minute I saw "propylene glycol", the red flag went up. GM issued a technical bulletin (#436201 February 1994) specifically recommending AGAINST the use of propylene glycol based antifreeze, which was published in The Corvette Restorer shortly after it was released. GM designs its cooling systems for a 50/50 mixture of ethylene glycol and water, and the designs take into account coolant properties such as heat capacity,,thermal conductivity, and viscosity. Apparently Evans is advocating the use of straight propylene glycol, and their own technical data tables show straight propylene glycol as having only 80 percent the heat capacity of 50/50 ethylene glycol and water mix and less than half the thermal conductivity.
From the standpoint of cooling system design, our Corvettes can be considered "modern" except for perhaps the very earliest models. A 50/50 mixture of ethylene glycol and water provides a freezing point of -34 degrees F, and a boiling point of 265 degrees F with a 15 psi cap. You can try this stuff, but your involving your car in a science experiment. It probably won't turn out well and you may even cause some damage in the process. Personally I wouldn't risk it, and I continue to advocate the use of GM Dexcool, an ethylene glycol based product with an improved corrosion inhibitor package, which should add life to our cooling systems components, especially our pricy aluminum radiators.
If you are experiencing overheating or other cooling system problems, I would look at the radiator, fan, shroud and seals, etc. There have been a number of threads on this issue, so the archive should have a lot of good advice on trouble shooting.
Duke
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