m610

Recently I've run into two people recently who are running, or considering running, straight water as a coolant. One also uses Redline water wetter, and the other was considering switching to distilled watter.

Doesn't this set you up for all sorts of corrosion problems? One of the main reasons for using anti-freeze is for the corrosion inhibitors. I know that industrial cooling systems undergo a passization process using specific chemicals that builds up a thin layer of corrosion resistant material, and then they monitor the pH of the water. If they just put it into service without taking these steps, teh whole thing would rot away. Even in small-scale chillers, the kind you might have in teh room next to a piece of equipment, running DI water will lead to a lot of corrosion problems. Tap water, even the hard water in the Sacramento valley, is better than DI water.

Using straight water in an aluminum-block engine sounds like a bad idea to me. Am I wrong? Does straight water really do a better job cooling the engine?

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