Coolant recommendation?

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white_devil

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 21, 2007
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I'm out of the coolant that came with my Mercury 3D case and the reservoir is running low so time to pick something up. Anyone point me in the right direction for some good coolant? How's THIS? Also, is untreated distilled water ok to flush the system with?

Thanks.
 
You linked to a coolant additive, but not a coolant.

Normally I'd use plain distilled water as my coolant. I put a silver "kill-coil" (just a strip of silver) in the reservoir as a biocide/fungicide. You can also add a few drops of an additional biocide to be safe (some people use PT nuke).

Aftermarket coolants can be used, but I generally wouldn't recommend them. They tend to gunk up the fine pin/fin patterns in modern high-performance blocks... either that or they leave a residue somewhere (or everywhere) else.
 
In the long run am I better off going with distilled water and silver over an additive like that?
 
ive been running tfc coolant in my rig for about 18 months and its still running fine
 
I second just using distilled water and fungicide. I use iodine in my system. Loop going strong for over 3 years. Probably flushed loop three times not because it needed it. I was upgrading gpus. No gunk or algae growth.
 
Your system has mixed metals as it has an alum rad. You must use a corrosion additive or pre mixed coolant. Just one of the draw backs in such a system.;)
 
LOWBOY said:
Your system has mixed metals as it has an alum rad. You must use a corrosion additive or pre mixed coolant. Just one of the draw backs in such a system.;)
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I absolutley agree. Unfortunately you have one of the few systems where it is absolutley critical to use coolant with a corrosion inhibitor. Typically these coolants are basically a 10% antifreeze 90% water mix. You could mix your own. Normally I do not recommend high priced or "speciality" coolants for normal all copper systems. But you do not fall into that catagory.

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$20 for 600mL ouch !

I recommend buying the Gigabyte stuff as you know it will keep warranty etc. but if you did want to mess with it yourself , distilled water and blue petrosin would give you the blue tint and the anti-corrosion. Or just hit a local auto parts store and ask/tell them you need some blue anitfreeze, careful, most of it these days is already diluted 50/50 with water. 10% would do for corrosion but you might want a litte more percentage wise to get the color how you like it.

Unless you see crap in your res or in your block there is no need to flush. If you do, distilled water from grocery store at about a buck a gallon is perfect for flushing and for mixing with anitfreeze to make your own.

The antifreeze will also kill anything that tries to swim or grow so no need for the silver in this case.
 
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Right-o. Disregard my earlier advice - I didn't realize the system had mixed metals.

Swiftech Hydrx has a tendency to foam up a bit and stain tubing, and it is not marketed to prevent galvanic corrosion (which is of huge concern when running mixed metals). It probably does prevent it to some degree, but I believe Swiftech would dissuade you from using it for that purpose alone.

Pentosin does not foam, and it is designed specifically to prevent galvanic corrosion. http://www.petrastechshop.com/peg11coadb4o.html

Note: I'm also not even sure if Petra's Tech Shop is still active... I thought they were merging with Sidewinder, but their site is still up. Perhaps you should e-mail them before purchasing.

You can also find a few "nuke" additives for algae/bacteria/fungus prevention sold at Petra's and Sidewinder. One of the old go-to formulas was PT-nuke (copper-sulfate biocide) + Pentosin.

Some people just use Zerex coolant. It's up to you which route you want to pursue.

Toxicity: Even hydrx has some ethylene glycol (low content) - but I wouldn't worry. You're not inhaling your coolant - I hope! The purpose of glycol is boiling point elevation and freezing point reduction. I'm not sure you can fully avoid it, but using the additives as opposed to the pre-mixed coolants would probably reduce the figures.

Glycerine: An interesting note: http://www.dow.com/glycerine/resources/table13.htm - adding 5% glycerin improves the thermal conductivity of water if the coolant is above 30C. I've never done this simply because my water is generally below that temperature.
 
I've used the pentosin G11 that mage linked to for a few years now and it works great for me even though I don't need it for galvanic corrosion protection.

The color does tend to fade after running it for a 6+ months. Not sure why. Least I think it does. But, i've torn down my loop recently cause I changed gpu's out and my MCW60 was still flawless inside, no buildup at all and it had run without any changes for 2 years. I was pretty happy I hadn't lost any cooling performance during that time.

Now I just need cash to get the 5870 under water!
 
Pentosin G11 and G12 is used on all VWs. Its their factory coolant. I use it in all my cars.
 
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You can get it cheaper from most VW/Audi tuning places online. I never pay more than $13 or so per 1.5L bottle.

ECS Tuning, German Auto Parts, etc....

white_devil said:
Thanks for all the help, just ordered some Pentosin G12 from Amazon.
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shawnoen said:
You can get it cheaper from most VW/Audi tuning places online. I never pay more than $13 or so per 1.5L bottle.

ECS Tuning, German Auto Parts, etc....
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Oh well, next time...

vjcsmoke said:
Is standard Pentosin G11 UV reactive? Or is that the result of another additive mixed in with the Pentosin? IE do you need to get the Pentosin that is sold at Petra's shop or will the generic stuff do the same thing?
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Everything I read about it points to Pentosin being naturally UV reactive, though it fades over time.
 
Also no tmentioned is the fact distilled water will cool better than any marketed product
 
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