So, I filled my radiator today. 2 gallons of coolant, 2 gallons of water, and then topped off with a 50/50 premixed. O'Reilly store-brand coolant, distilled Olympus brand water. Testing it with one of the "floating ball" style is giving me only one floating ball. Which according to the tester, means the coolant is only freeze protected down to +20 Fahrenheit. Even if the O'Reilly stuff is "inferior", I can't see them being able to get away with selling coolant that is only good down to +20. Every car you put it in would be frozen solid every night 6 months out of the year, around here. Thoughts?
That's a good point, Will. I didn't, the engine is not fully operational yet. I guess it really has no incentive to mix well just sitting there, it needs the water pump to knock some sense into it?
I hope they are. My middle son (21) came here for Christmas break from college and drove back to Maine with a 2001 F350 CC Lariat 4WD 7.3 Powerstroke. (6 speed manual! Well, it's L, 1,2,3,4,OD). Anyway, we bought one of those ball testers to check his anti-freeze, and it read all the way to -35*F...the indicator was all the way up. I hope it's accurate.
There are different testers for Glycol based or ethyleen based (butchered the spelling i'm sure) you might be using the wrong one.. I sell a bunch, and never had a complaint.
Yeah, the verdict is in gentlemen, the tester isn't bad, I am. Tested straight coolant, 5 balls. Straight water, 0 balls. 50/50 out of the jug, 3 balls Spun my water pump a few times and let it sit for about an hour, 2 balls. 2 balls is good to +5, which is colder than it will ever see inside the climate controlled garage. I am sure it will come up to 3 balls, like it is in the jug, after I circulate it. Lonnie, I started this build around July 2010, I think I started a thread to ask questions, but got lazy and stopped updating it. I'm waiting on a gauge sender and some break-in oil from Summit, should be here Thursday. After that it will be time to prime, cross my fingers, and turn the key. ray:
I've also noticed a lot of places are now selling "pre-mixed" gallons of anti-freeze that are already 50% diluted with water. But they are only a dollar or two cheaper than the undiluted ones. Seems like a big rip off to me.
They're certainly a rip for doing a full fill. But for "topping off" I think the convenience factor of not having to measure is worth a little extra money.
Shipping costs are the same for water or coolant. I keep my old jugs and premix my own for later use. :Smarty:
I always buy a brand name (Shell etc) premix because it comes with deionized water. I test my coolant for ph every 2 years and adjust the additive package accordingly. I get 10 years of use before flush & fill. If you have any aluminum in the cooling system it should be tested for ph every year.
On the subject of brand names... The internet seems to think that the O'Reilly store brand of coolant is produced by Prestone, using the previous year's Prestone formula. Looking at the list of ingredients on the bottles, and the syntax they appear in (numbers follow every ingredient that probably mean something to a chemist), makes me think that this is likely true. Food for thought.
