Well, I went back to his web site and asked him to explain. He provided a detailed explanation and I provided an adequate response. Holy cow! What a guy!
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I would like to know more of the science behind your comments about the battery causing the coolant to become more acidic. This just doesn’t make sense to me.
1. The cooling system is sealed except for the overflow. That’s a small amount of exposure to the gasses, which are circulating and being flushed from the engine compartment by turbulence from the fan and incoming air.
2. The same coolant that causes the leak on the drivers side is being circulated on the passenger’s side. Again, the system is sealed so I can’t see the gasses magically bypassing the HG to get in to the case and corrode the HG from the inside out.
# Justin Stobb Says:
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Ok,
I will try my best to explain this to you but there is no guarantee you will get it. Things that can happen to cars are much more technical than just nuts and bolts.
I studied automotive technology for two years full time and have since had 20 years or so of practical experience.
I am also very busy at the shop and just don’t have time for the entire scientific explanation, thats what I went to school for.
I want to start by saying just because you don’t understand something initially doesn’t mean it isn’t true or correct. And most of what I am going state here is partially about what I learned in school and my practical experience in the field and
wont make sense to someone who didn’t study this in school or worked in the field add to that a good technician and not a parts changer or a “mechanic”.
In every field there are experts and there are people who merely fill there position.
The battery vents acid, the acid collects on the battery terminals and the cables and they corrode. Corrosion to battery cables is like hair stuck in plumbing, it restricts current flow by increasing the resistance. Look up ohms law.
Ohm's Law
If we increase the resistance by allowing corrosion to be part of the electrical system the current flow will be limited. Current flows from negative to positive which is just the opposite of how most think it works. Water is a great conductor of electricity and electricity will always choose the shortest path to ground which on a car is the engine that has water flowing through it. Your engine coolant can actually have voltage flowing through it and there is a test that can be done to check for this. Voltage flowing through the engines cooling system will cause electrolysis which will eat away at everything it comes in contact with. A Subaru is an all aluminum engine compounding the problem further. Someone uses a flush machine to flush out the cooling system and fills the cars cooling system with copper ions and the problem intensifies further.
Here is the definition of electrolysis.
A chemical decomposition reaction produced by passing an electric current through a solution containing ions.
The gasket on the left side is always the one to leak coolant period, the battery cable is grounded to the engine block on the left side and the battery is on the left side every second generation head gasket we take out that has failed has been eaten away from the cooling jacket out and we have seen this time and time again. Coolant becomes corrosive, eats the gasket the gasket leaks. Rather than just fix the leak and say oh well, I have tried to come up with practical solutions to the problem.
Summary: The more resistance in the primary electrical system the better the chance of voltage in the cooling system, the better the chance of high levels of electrolysis, the better the odds the coolant is corrosive, the greater the possibility the coolant eats away at the gaskets. The longer the corrosive coolant eats away at the gasket the better chance it has of failing.
We have cars come in with “chia pets of corrosion” on the top of the battery it is quite the site.
Voltage in the coolant is a common issue that again most just don’t understand.
And because most don’t understand it, someone like me has to try to explain it. I have had to suffer through being devalued by people who think they know as much as a professional technician and I do get a bit cranky when I am questioned as if it can’t be possible because you haven’t ever heard of such a thing. I am sorry if I have come across rude, but I have a small business to run and I am always pressed for time and the Website thing takes so much of my family time its hard to justify responding sometimes.
If you don’t understand what I am saying I can try at a later date to explain it more in depth but it may be a bit.
# Matt Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I retyped this 5 times trying to not be a jerk. It didn’t work. I didn’t devalue you, I asked for clarification, and WOW, you just went with it. Thanks for the explanation and breaking it down so an uneducated, inexperienced monkey like me could get it. It’s really great of you.
Good luck with your business. It’s obvious from your posts that your technical expertise is by far your greatest asset, since you won’t get far on personality.
This should be good...
run on sentence too...
or the guy that posted about the better head gasket may be able to get you them?
