Wally39

The intercooler requires a 80/20 mix of water and antifreeze instead of the normal 50/50 your radiator uses. Should I be concerned with it freezing inside? Maybe I should drain it during the cold Iowa months. I'm not sure what temperatue it's good to.

wakebord99

Depends on the Anti-Freeze. If you read the anti-freeze you put in, it will tell you want % mixure will protect up to whatever tempature. Also keep in mind that some anti-freezes are specificially designed for Aluminum vs Iorn (generally orange is aluminum).

I recommend Prestone Prime if your intercooler is aluminum.

cortc

I am pretty sure you can get away with a 75/25 mix, you can read the manufactures specs and see... Just make sure it is a fresh mix...

MikeVistaBlue06

Don't drain your intercooler, unless you put something back into it! It needs fluid for heat transfer!

You could run 50/50 in the winter and then drain it and go with a 80/20 [water/coolant] mix in the summer. If I recollect, according to the jug, a 30/70 mix gives maximum freeze protection. I think they show a chart on the jug so you can mix different percentages and get certain freeze points.

The 80/20 mix will transfer more heat in the summer than a 50/50 mix, but give it enough goodies from the coolant to prevent corrosion.

More's Law with coolant ain't good. The pure stuff (ethylene glycol) can only transfer about 0.8 BTU/lb. If anyone ever tells you to run the pure stuff--RUN AWAY from them! The pure stuff will cause your ride to overheat, plus it plates stuff on the inside of the radiator that prevents heat transfer--not the ideal scenario for a radiator!!

Water will transfer 1BTU/lb. NASCAR engines run nothing but water with a high pressure cap. Can't do this on our cars because the water in there for a long time would cause corrosion.

Hope this helps.

Mike

cortc

Oh, and by the way they are just wanting you to run the more thermally efficient mix, you can compensate by running some Redline Water-Wetter or Royal Purple Purple-Ice and gain the efficiency back by reducing the surface tension of the water...

So if you want to be really safe run a 60/40 mix and add one of the additives in your mix... In the Spring you can go back to 80/20 and add some more additive for better performance... Anyways in the cold weather your IAT should not be a problem...

MikeVistaBlue06

Here is something that might be helpful to those of us with water cooled intercoolers!

http://www.eetcorp.com/antifreeze/freeze_points.gif

Don't go over 70% ethylene glycol! (see reference to More's Law!)

Mike

wakebord99

I'd be concerned with boiling the water .. 210 degrees isn't that hot in terms of intake charge (atleast from a turbo). Dunno how much 20% coolant would help.