Engine Coolant!

[michaelphillips]

There is a difference but it is so slight it shouldn't make a difference for what we want to use it for.

.........but i would not buy de ironised etc i will be just boiling some water and let it go cold......

Then that will surely be no different from what you started with? Distilled water is the cooled steam from boiled water.

you learn something everyday, i just gonna boil up some water to save buying some, got some deionised water but save that for my battery

[Data]

That Granville stuff looks interesting.
One further question though.
Much of the antifreeze is in concentrated form that requires diluting before use. The recommendation seems to be to use distilled water - not surprisingly since you don't want any contaminants or scale in the engine.
However, distilled water is quite hard to get hold of so does anyone know if you can safely use deionised water instead?
Or is it best just to get the ready mixed antifreeze to avoid the problem?

Cookie

As Steve and Michael have mentioned, it's ok. The only real difference between distilled and deionised is in the process used to achieve the pure state with one exception. That is the deionised water may still have some organic life in it. This can be bacteria or any other organism. But that's not a problem as the heat from your engine will kill all organic content, even in the reservoir, even if the coolant chemicals don't kill it off! You won't get any scaling from it. Boiled water can be used but it will still have some chemical elements in it which become more concentrated after boiling, but it will be free of chlorine which can damage seals, and most lime so is better than cold tap water. If you are mixing your own coolant just be careful NOT to exceed the normal 50/50 mix levels for this country. And you should never go over the 60% coolant to 40% water level ever. If you do you may find that in due course, your water pump seals start to leak as will some hoses.

Hope this thread hasn't made any of your completely paranoid about buying engine coolant! It was supposed to just highlight the fact you need to be aware of the need to select the right product for your engines in view of what had happened to my old bike with the new owner. In most cases selecting what you need is an easy job if you go to a motorcycle dealer, but if you go to Halfords or another car shop you may need to take more care and don't just take the word of the shop assistant who may only know about car coolant (which is mostly the same, but not always depending where you go to buy).