Rust in coolant, what does it mean?

[Earendil]

I set out last night to do my timing belt and water pump. I pulled the plug on the block and watched as brown water dumped into my clear container. I start pulling the hoses and find that every one of them has a light brown film on them. The radiator might have been the worst offender; it took me 10 minutes to flush that sucker out.

So, what in the system would rust, and what might help prevent that? I tend to run only distilled water as I live in Seattle, the car is garaged, and it's a track rat.

The metal coolant pipe that is strapped to the front of the engine right in front of the fan was extremely corroded, and I've since washed that out, sanded it down, and it's undergoing some anti rust treatment - but only on the outside. Could the inside be the entire cause? Or something else?

[jlevie]

What will rust? The block, the cross over pipe on a late cooling system, and the water pump impeller come readily to mind. The cause is that distilled water does not contain the corrosion protection package that coolant does. Adding a generous amount (2-3 bottles) of Water Wetter or the Amsoil will help, but not totally prevent rusting.

[Earendil]

What will rust? The block, the cross over pipe on a late cooling system, and the water pump impeller come readily to mind. The cause is that distilled water does not contain the corrosion protection package that coolant does. Adding a generous amount (2-3 bottles) of Water Wetter or the Amsoil will help, but not totally prevent rusting.

Okay, so normal, replaceable parts can rust and it's not abnormal?

I forgot to mention that the water pump impeller had a ton of gunk/rust on it. Hard to tell whether it was the impeller its self, or if it was just collecting what was in the system. I believe it was a metal impeller though, so this seems likely.

Water Wetter ordered, radiator flushed, new water pump installed. Unless this is a sign of something catastrophic on the horizon, I guess I'll run it as such and flush it again after the first track day and see how it looks.

Thanks for the input!

[dnguyen1963]

Why are you not used proper coolant? You are asking for trouble if you use only water even with wetter added. Yes, I know water has better heat transfer, but 50:50 antifreeze works just as well. You can even go 70:30 in Seatle and still get the benefit of anti-corrosion.

[Earendil]

Why are you not used proper coolant? You are asking for trouble if you use only water even with wetter added. Yes, I know water has better heat transfer, but 50:50 antifreeze works just as well. You can even go 70:30 in Seatle and still get the benefit of anti-corrosion.

I don't use it because traditional coolant is very slick stuff, and if spilled on a race track would cause immediate problems for the car behind me, and would cause less immediate problems as everyone is pulled off the track while it's cleaned up. I don't want to be that guy.

Since my car is not daily driven, and only sees occasional weekend fun drives and HPDE days, the likelihood of having a coolant system failure while on the track is higher for me than some. It's also an old car, and if I had a tiny water leak I wouldn't be prevented from participating, but if I'm slowly leaking coolant I'd end up track side doing coolant system surgery in hopes of not losing money spent.

[jlevie]

Track cars should never have anti-freeze in the cooling system, partly for the safety of other drivers and partly for the car itself. If coolant sprays onto a wheel at speed you may have a close encounter of the unpleasant kind with a wall.

If the car is only infrequently taken to the track, say with more than a month in between events, consider draining the water/wetter after each event and refilling with 50:50 antifreeze mix while the car is parked. Over the course of one track season you can reuse the the coolants.

[!kid]

I recommend flushing out your cooling system as best as you can. Use distilled water plus water wetter or another cooling additive safe for track use. check out some motorcycle stores near you or go online to a few motorcycle parts websites. most of them should sell a track safe coolant.

I use sportbiketrackgear.com


Motul,red-line,engine-ice are some brands that sell a track safe coolant.

[dnguyen1963]

You might want to consider this little device...

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/uv550500.html