I just acquired my 99 Vanden Plas and I want to pamper it and make it last as long as possible. I've already replaced the fuel pump and performed an engine flush using Seafoam, then replaced the oil with mobile 1 synthetic and new WIX oil filter. The air filter has been replaced, again with a WIX air filter. I cleaned the filter box and tubing and cleaned the carb. Luckily I found the MAF disconnected and re-attached it. Engine is running nice and smooth now.

My next task is to replace the water pump with the correct AIRTEX AW4124 pump, replace the thermostat housing with the new aluminum one and new thermostat, then flush out the old antifreeze and replace it with Evans Waterless Antifreeze. Jay Leno swears by the stuff and uses it in all his fancy cars. The stuff is supposed to last forever and because it contains no water, will not pressurize the cooling system and thus never boil over.

Evans is expensive, costing $40 or more per gallon but the stuff lasts forever so the savings come in the longevity of the product.

Has anyone used waterless antifreeze in their cars and are you happy with the results?

 

I haven't, but I had thought about it back when I was in the Air Force, many a year ago. They use an unnamed similar product (as I'm sure all branches do). Where I was stationed in N Dakota and as cold as it gets, I thought of it many times for my 4x4. I never found one on the market back then and the idea just fell by the wayside when I got out.

Don't forget you have to run the Prep fluid first, so there's another $25. I don't know where your finding it for $40, but that's a deal compared to the $46 I'm finding. I'd get it since your replacing all the other essential items already. There are full on kits out there running between $250-500 depending on the amount of fluid. I would also be all over the coolant hose lines, it'd be worth replacing them now and not be concerned about them for the near future. Thing is, there are a number of them on these cars, front and back of the motor. Be sure to read up on the cooling of this product also, if you haven't already....just a suggestion is all....

Oh, as an added measure of assurance, I would do a compression test to make sure the head gasket is solid. I don't know if you have one on your car, but if you have an electric water pump (like a do on my S/C VDP), I would probably suggest upgrading to the Bosch 010 pump for better flow. I read up some on this for this product and constant flow seems essential vs just the mechanical pump.

 

yeah hoses too, I'm replacing them and the serpentine belt and hell, the idler too just for good measure.

I haven't found an electric pump as of yet but have been reading up on the subject. I know there is no pump under the air filter housing and haven't found the one for cabin heating. I'll have to poke around some more.

Thanks

 

The cabin heater water pump is located near, or on, the driver's side false firewall.

The thing with the waterless coolant is, why? Unless you're flushing very often, or buying OEM only coolant from the dealerships, it's not all that expensive. If it were to just happen to contaminate a seal or whatever, or especially a motor or pump, any cost savings are instantly negated. The cars were designed for a certain type of coolant, and it seems that Jags can be finicky about doing unusual things like this. Although to keep in mind, it seems that many of the coolant issues reported on the forums are caused by mixing different, incompatible, types of coolants.

Also most of the searches online for waterless coolant information result in manufacturer websites for said coolant (so advertising), and the few that get into more technical details lean towards heavy machinery, where it seems that the marginal improvements in the cooling system become significant in that kind of equipment. So, all with a grain of salt.

 

Waterless coolants are a serious downgrade and compromise of an engine's cooling system.The claim that it is pressureless and cannot boil over is absolutely false.

The product is a failed attempt to fix something that is not broken. I've explained at length several times the details of this. Do a search using Evans and waterless and my user name.

BTW, ditch the Seafoam also, the '50s were along time ago. No offence.

 

avos uses it as Search shows...

 

True, and his car survives nonetheless

 

For me it was(/is) certainly an upgrade, remember I have old hoses, much more thermal load on the engine and it’s not toxic like the oem ones.

Not quite true, I run the system pressure less (so opened the pressure cap), and of course you have a boiling point, but it’s even in pressure less state so much higher than the stock poisons stuff.


Depends on what you find “broken”, What’s broken in my view is the toxicity of the oem coolants. Next once you go outside the thermal design specs (ie if you tuned your car), its supports the higher thermal loads. Another one is aging rubber hoses, as it runs pressure less you can do so much longer with them without experiencing catastrophic failures (bursts and quick pressure/coolant release). I even had a leak on the nasty octopus one, and it stopped after I went pressure less.

Now I am not advocating this, but for me it certainly was an improvement on the reasons mentioned.

Only drawback is that the main fans (pending on climate you're in) could run more often.

My 2 cents ;-)

 

But that's the key. You were required to modify the coolant system on your car to release the pressure that would normally accumulate from thermal expansion. The advertising put forward by the manufacturer leads one to believe that no pressure would accumulate at all (which defies the laws of physics).

You later state the fans could run more often- an indication that the engine us running hotter than with conventional coolant. The tendency to run hotter is caused by the inferior heat rejection properties of the waterless coolant, hence my calling them a downgrade.

As for toxicity, yes you are correct although it's not recommended to drink it instead of beer or water. There again, these cars carry around 50-80L of very toxic and flammable fuel so I've never thought the coolant by comparison was a big concern.

 

The thermal properties gave me a direction to search out of curiousity and I found this: No-Rosion Products Technical Questions and Answers

Norosion looks to be an additive designed to prevent corrosion. However, there's some good info there on the Evans coolant and technical details. The general conclusion seems to be that it's beneficial mostly in high load situations (heavy machinery, a modded 700hp jag, etc) One important detail, especially in relation to the comment on the fans running more:

 

That's an excellent link with a tremendous amount of valuable, factual information. Thanks. I would suggest that anyone considering conversion to waterless coolants reads it in it's entirety.

 

That link goes with the reason I stated about using the Bosch 010 pump to increase circulation rate.
The one thing I believe that's being overlooked per the Jay Leno reference is, ....he probably doesn't drive any of his vehicles but once a month, ...he has so many. Then again he may not even go that far with them, like maybe a car show or to dinner. Thus the product does an excellent job of not corroding any of the cooling system since its pretty much assured his were a totally dry rebuild and put the Evans product in directly, so no contamination.
For our scenarios, it is pretty much assured there would be some contamination, even with the use of the Prep Fluid. It is used in an attempt to dissipate contamination and according to instructions, "...protects cooling system metals during flush." Take that for what you will. It also says it absorbs water hygroscopically....defined as ( (of a substance) tending to absorb moisture from the air.
...relating to humidity or its measurement.)
I like the idea of the product,... but its the cost vs having to redo it for any reason, that should give you concern.

 

I'm really surprised that more people on here have not converted to waterless coolant, given the huge advantages of eliminating the corrosive effects of water. Before antifreeze was invented, pure water was the only coolant used until antifreeze came to be. And yes, it was a huge step and went on to protect engines where water alone could not. And now the next step in engine cooling, the next big thing is waterless coolant, not that this is anything new as it's been around for 20 years now.

I remember when synthetic motor oil came to market, people didn't trust it, it was costly and people did not see the benefits.

Why wouldn't we want to use and put into our cars the best oils, the best coolants and the best fuels. These cars deserve nothing less than the best.

 

Nobody uses just 'water', they use a coolant mix which provides more than enough anti-corrosion additives. Cooling system issues due to corrosion on properly maintained cars are unheard of.

You're trying to fix a non-existent problem.

 

An excellent product.....we have several classic car collectors here who use it extensively.
Most of the negative comments are from those who have not followed directions and used it properly.
Once in the engine, it will last for years in all types of cooling systems.

 

Yes indeed, it was a 5 second modification I had to make so it was pressureless, but worth it ;-)

If you look at it that way, running a XKR in a very hot climate with stock cooling system is a downgrade in your terms then, understandable in a way. But you don’t take the advanced properties from the waterless coolant into consideration, so than it doesn't add up what you say.
My experience so far from the last 2 years only leaves to me to say it’s an upgrade for me.

It’s the spilling that occurs if you have to work on your car, in the past I always got some on my skin of that toxic stuff, so I really hope that it will not cause me any issues later.

With regards to norosion, they are of course a competitor, so that’s what you need to keep in mind. Next you also need to take into consideration what car model and under what conditions something is used. Most of their comments on their page do not apply to my car, and go against my experiences.

A shame you don’t have actual experience yourself, you would write different about it for sure.

 

People will put orange juice into their cooling systems if they can get it cheap enough and I have looked at cars that had only pure water in them and were all rusted out. We of course are capable of critical thinking and would never just use water in our systems. I know a few friends and some relatives that have used just water in their systems. That's why they made engines with freeze plugs in them.

And I'm not trying to fix a problem, only prevent future problems.

But anyway, thanks for everyone's input. they are all valid and useful.

Great forum too.

 

The plugs you refer to are a necessary part of the engine block casting process, not there for freeze protection. They happen to sometimes be the first component to fail when the coolant is allowed to freeze.

 

I also have limited experience with touching live electrical wires above 240VAC. Similarly I don't need to try waterless coolants to know I want nothing to do with them. As one of the sole users here, you've not really brought much to the table in terms of demonstrable advantages. Since the stock set up works perfectly with minimum attention and cost I fail to the see the attraction of doing things differently.

 

Welllllll the stock one fails and the pressure causes loss of coolant. The valley hose (in the SC cars) is a very expensive/painful repair. With no pressure it probably lasts a heck of a lot longer.