Evans Waterless coolant

[BILT4ME]

I still use distilled water in my vehicles.

However, I do have a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system in my house.

 

[Bambusiero]

As long as you use some kind of purified water mixed with your coolant, it won't matter exactly what kind.
Keeping in mind that you are "polluting" it with 50% or so coolant with additives, so it is no longer aggressively pure water anyway.
The water's "need" to dissolve has been satisfied.

It would be a bad mistake to run a super clean system with super pure water, and no additives.
I've seen an Ion Implant machine (a silicon fab tool) get eaten out from the insides by it's coolant loop, because the maintenance guys made the mistake of filling it up with 100% house DI water (de-ionized). They kind of got in trouble for that one. That stuff is so pure that it's a really good insulator. Doesn't conduct electricity worth a darn. It was considered very dangerous to drink, as it would leach minerals from your body.

 

[Brandon98]

Tangent: DI water has a pH of 5.6. That'll mess up most metals most riki tik AND your teeth. Pretty much a weak vinegar.
Demystify the Difference Between Distilled and Deionized Water

 

[Brandon98]

For all this thought of Wonder Coolants (that don't seem to pass thermodynamic muster), consider the following as axiomatic assumptions:
-Unless replaced, the NEWEST cooling system component on these trucks is 21 years old. That's a lifetime plus in terms of aluminum, plastic, and rubber components.
-Most fan clutches in these trucks are probably worn out or leaked dry at this point
-Most radiators are probably full of sludge and the joints are tired
-VERY FEW of these trucks received proper PM under previous owners
-ALL of these trucks would benefit from an auxiliary pusher fan (either JDM or LCP sourced) at low speeds to move air through the radiator, especially with the AC on.

So, if you go with a new KOYO radiator, new TOYOTA sourced hoses and plastic components (heater control valve especially), a new fan clutch (pick your skittle color flavor), and any skittle flavor of OAT coolant mixed 50/50 with DISTILLED water, you're going to be far, far ahead of anybody with some overpriced pure glycol and a tired, waiting-to-fail cooling system.

People get emotional about wonder fluids (anyone remember Slick 50?) and are generally disappointed when science collides with marketing hype.

 

[Obioban]

I don't think there's any doubt the Evan's coolant cools worse than stock. To me, there's two things that are tempting about it:
1) much lower pressure in the cooling system should mean everything plastic/rubber lasts longer, as well as the rad itself.
2) does not need to be replaced, so less effort down the road.

The worse cooling performance only matters if it matters. As in, unless your use case is hard enough that you overheat with the Evans (and wouldn't with stock 50:50), I don't see any way it actually matters. I ran it in my old suburban for a decade, including towing 7000 lb trailer regularly, and never had any overheating issues.

This fall I'm going to preventatively replace the radiator/thermostat/pipes/etc. Very heavily considering converting to Evans at that time. Certainly only had a positive experience with it on the suburban...

 

[SmokingRocks]

The engineers who developed your engine (any engine really) specifically designed them to run at an 'optimum temp range' that is percisely the range which your 50/50 coolant operates in. Ask any 80 series guy who knows the engine code of the motor under thier hood about how important it is for them to have a cooling system that is operating at peak efficiency, and they will regail you with all of the failures due to overheating that are common. This isn't unique to the 80 series engines; overheating any engine is often all it takes to 'light the fuse of a future mechanical failure'.

So, back to the basics that I extensively detailed from my perspective as an engineer, where I laid out the chemistry and physics regarding this snake oil earlier in this thread :

Evans waterless coolant is a complete scam and here's why;

1. You are getting ripped off if you buy Evans Waterless Coolant because it's more or less chemically identical to the standard autoparts store coolant concentrate, but you are paying 2.5x more per gallon because they duped you with the wiz bang marketing.
   • Simply referencing the Safety Data Sheet for Evants High Performance Waterless Engine Coolant, one can see that it is simply made up of 95% Ethylene/diethylene Glycol with a couple (<10% by volume) corrosion inhibitor additives.
   • Prestone Concentrated Coolant's SDS is essentially the same thing, albeit without the Diethylene glycol (which I'll explain later is a good thing). Additionally, the prestone has its own proprietary anti-corrosion additive package, which essentially does the exact same job as the package in Evans Waterless Coolant.
     • If you wanted to just run straight glycol, then using the prestone concentrate would actually be 1) safer for the environment AND 2) have a higher heat transfer coefficient because it DOESN'T include the much more highly toxic Diethylene Glycol portion that Evans uses.
2. You are changing the parameters in which your engine is operating in; this impacts the efficiency and reliability primarily because of the simple scientific fact that 100% glycol's thermal capacity (ability to shed heat) is far inferior to a simple 50/50 water-glycol mix.

A) Can you use it in vehicles?

• Sure, the same way you could use Gatorade as a coolant if you wanted to.

B) If you run Evans or just straight concentrated glycol, does that mean you are GUARANTEED to have issues later on?

• No, it all depends on how you use your vehicle. But if you are loading your rig down to drive over the mountains for a week-long adventure, I sure as hell wouldn't want to run a fluid that puts more stress on the cooling system and engine.

C) Is Evans Waterless Coolant (or just straight prestone concentrate) WORSE at transferring heat from your engine to the air passing over the radiator than a standard 50/50 mix?

• Per the physical properties of the chemicals at play, the answer is an undisputed YES, straight glycol is roughly 40% WORSE at transferring heat than a 50/50 mix, thats a significant margin. Having rebuilt countless engines for clients, I would never consider running 100% glycol coolant in any of them for the simple reason that I don't want that to be the reason for a failure. Less heat transfer capacity, lower efficiency of the cooling system, along with higher internal system temps and pressures, are things that I do not consider to be reliable attributes when setting up a bulletproof automotive cooling system.

If you are dead set on running a 100% glycol mixture because it makes sense to you, then do it; it's a free world. Just save yourself from getting scammed, skip spending $150 on three $50 gallon jugs of "Evans" crap when you can achieve the same thing for $57.75 by simply purchasing three $19.25 per gallon jugs of pretone concentrated from Uncle Jeff Bezos.

From my post on page 2: