Topic: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

we drained the coolant added water plus a chemical flush - ran the car - drained it again - added new water.

My question is....…. The water in the catch tank still looks a little chemically - during tech will they see that and make us flush it again?  ---

another way to frame this question--->  Are the lemon tech czars expecting the quality of the water in the coolant system to be potable?

sorry i am inundating this forum today! butttt our first race is Houston in 2 weeks - so,  like a good little noob that i am, i'm in freak out mode smile

Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

The goal isn't to get clean drinking water.... It's to remove coolant so that when you inevitably spring a leak, you don't grease down the track.

If your catch can is full of coolant, remove it and flush it manually.

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Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

we drained it and filled it up with water ---- but we didnt flush it --- so there is probably like.... 1% coolant still in the system (just a wild ass guess). basically is a "flush" required or should a "drain" and fill suffice?

Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

Use your best judgement. I'm sure many cars on track are not 100% perfect.

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Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

If you can clearly see chemicals or coolant from a distance do it again.

I tend to just take off the hose coming from the engine and keep running the engine and filling the radiator until that comes out clear.  Way easier than fill run to mix it, than empty radiator, then repeat.  You probably have 1/2 the coolant system in the engine, if you still have the heater core run that while flushing to make sure that is cycling the water fully too.  You aren't going to ever get it clean enough to drink but if you fill half a cup from it and it looks clear your good.

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Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

From Pagel on the unofficial Lemons Facebook page with regard to freezing water between race days.
Not that I know of.  There's always a 1%ish glycol in an average Lemons cooling system, and that will easily let you survive into the mid 20s temp wise.
So they seem to have an understanding that you cannot get it 100% clean.

Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

I tend to just take off the hose coming from the engine and keep running the engine and filling the radiator until that comes out clear.  Way easier than fill run to mix it, than empty radiator, then repeat.

nice great input! i am going to do this. 

So they seem to have an understanding that you cannot get it 100% clean.

-great point

Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

I drain it and fill it with water, but I don't flush it or anything. There is probably a small amount of coolant in there, but it's not much.

Everybody grab your brooms, it's shenanigans!

Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

rmcdaniels wrote:

I drain it and fill it with water, but I don't flush it or anything. There is probably a small amount of coolant in there, but it's not much.

Are you using distilled water?

The drain and fill is what we did. So we will probably be just fine to pass tech as is.

10

Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

rmcdaniels wrote:

I drain it and fill it with water, but I don't flush it or anything. There is probably a small amount of coolant in there, but it's not much.

By drain and fill you mean out of the engine and radiator.  I find a lot of people drain the radiator and not the rest of the system so it still is half full when they fill the radiator up so they go from like 50% antifreeze to 25% and it still looks very green.

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Re: noob question: water quality in coolant system question

rmcdaniels wrote:

I drain it and fill it with water, but I don't flush it or anything. There is probably a small amount of coolant in there, but it's not much.

This is what we do each year (drain the radiator AND the engine).  We use water from my garden hose that's fed by a dug well.  I would say that we have exploded yet, but be have twice however I'm pretty sure that my hose water didn't contribute to catastrophic bottom engine failure.   This is one of those things I wouldn't over think.

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