Now this one's probably obvious but I just read something that surprised me. An article on air cooled vs. liquid cooled allied fighters in WW2 (P47, Hellcat(?) With Pratt and Whitney air cooled vs Spitfire, P51 Merlin engines for example) discussed the trials and headaches associated with using super high tolerance engines, aka Rolls Royce Merlin liquid cooled, on carriers with the salt water environment. They had to rebuild these engines every 240 hours! Besides tolerances, liquid cooled issues were a factor - magnified with each "controlled crash" landing on carriers.

Yes I knew about the superior survivability and ruggedness of air cooled (errant bullets can't cause loss of temperature regulation), but I was surprised they mentioned another critical fact: Glycol is (was?) quite flammable!

Now I've always been ultra careful with coolant regarding the fact its both real tasty and - really f'ing poisonous to dogs and I assume cats, but I've never thought about flammability. Are our coolants still flammable?

Yes I should know this one already, but . . .?
Thanks,
John

 

Never heard of a coolant fire. I'm sure it contains various chemicals that would burn on their own, but proper coolant is at least 50% water. My guess is that it would take a monumental effort to make it burn....

 

It will burn. A mist exposed to high temp will support combustion. MSDS:
Microsoft Word - SDS MAJ-602, 604, 606 - 50-50 Antifreeze - SDS-MAJ-602-604-606-50-50-Antifreeze.pdf

 

Thanks guys!!

 

What a strange thread.

 

And, what a positive comment! You probably don't realize the coolant in your car contains glycol. . . Be safe k.

 

What the hell does it have to do with Jaguar x100 specifically ? Cracra.

 

I know, its complicated k: Don't drink that green stuff that leaks out of your x100's engine or - as I too have just learned - don't let it get near a flame.

Got a dog? Reread OP.

But thanks for asking :-).

John

 

I would imagine aircraft engines used a more concentrated glycol, plus from the perspective of carrier ops, the greater danger is on the hanger deck where they would presumably have the stuff in concentrated for in a restricted environment.

However, +1 on not really Jaguar related? lol.

On a random aside, there's a group in Sweden (I think) building a ford crown vic with a RR meteor in it that theyve added turbos to, and they have it running EFI on a megasquirt ECU which I find mildly amazing.

 

According to the MSDS, which it appears almost no one read, 50/50 is flammable, particularly as a spray from a pinhole leak.

 

Well, presumably your X100 uses engine coolant based on ethylene glycol, so this seems like a subject worth knowing about, and I'm grateful that Johnken brought it up and RJ had the wisdom to find the Material Safety Data Sheet.

If I read the MSDS correctly, 50/50 ethylene glycol/demineralized water is combustible but not flammable. This means the temperature at which it will combust is relatively high. Flammable substances will ignite at relatively low temperatures. Here's a snip from Section 5 - Fire Fighting Measures:



If you then refer to Section 9 - Physical and Chemical Properties, you'll see the Flash Point, which is the temperature at which the substance will combust. If our Jaguar is running with underhood temperatures above 130°C / 266°F, we probably have more to worry about than whether the coolant is going to combust!



Cheers,

Don