Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 998 / 996 / 916 / 748 > Engine Coolant

[Whele]

I have been told (during pre race checks)that I should be running with plain old water as my engine coolant.

Has anybody else tried this?

Does it affect the running temperature of the bike since it has a different heat capacity?

Plain water dries better on the track; the antifreeze coolant stuff leaves a slippery glycol mess on the tarmac - allegedly

[DJ Tera]

Water is a better coolant, the glycol is just there to stop the freezing

[istanbulian]

been looking at this myself because of my hot running problem. Extract below is from Redline's site (http://www.redlineoil.com/redlineoil/wwti.html) and is directly on-point........

"Water has amazingly superior heat transfer properties compared to virtually any other liquid cooling medium - far superior to glycol-based coolants. As shown in Table 1, water has almost 2.5 times greater thermal conductivity compared to glycol coolants. Mixtures of glycol and water have nearly proportional improvement due to the addition of water. Most heat is transferred in a cooling system by convection from hot metal to a cooler liquid as in the engine block or from a hot liquid to cooler metal surfaces, as in the radiator. The convection coefficient of liquids in a tube is a complicated relationship between the thermal conductivity, viscosity of the liquid, and the tube diameter which determines the amount of turbulent flow. Since 50/50 glycol solution has about 4 times the viscosity and only 70% of the thermal conductivity of water, the thermal convection coefficient for a 50/50 glycol solution is approximately 50% of the coefficient for water. Water in the cooling system is capable of transferring twice as much heat out of the same system as compared to a 50/50 glycol coolant and water solution. In order for a 50/50 glycol mixture to reject as much heat as water (amount of heat rejected is independent of the coolant), the temperature differentials at the heat transfer surface must be twice as great, which means higher cylinder head temperatures. "

[DJ Tera]

Thankyou, thankyou very musssh

[Ray]

Whele,

I have heard this before. Some/all race regs stipulate plain water only for the reasons you mention.

In completely unscientific tests I tend to agree with the 'em.

Ray

[skidlids]

Anti freeze additives are banned from use in race bikes and if spotted in a bike at scruiteneering the bike will fail and not be allowed out on the track. If a bike does sneak by and then has a problem out on the track with its coolant being dumped either from a blow up or a crash then the rider will be fined and excluded from the rest of the meeting. About 3 years ago there was a major hold up at a New Era meeting at Castle Combe after coolant was dumped at the 1st right hander after the start/ finish.
The advantages of a anti freeze substance in your water are not only the frost protection but it also lubricates the water pump and also often raises the coolants boiling point to a fair bit over 100 deg. C

[Sticky]

it also reduces corrosion so don't use just water unless you have to, ie racing.

[Monty]

But it is SO much cheaper-Monty with his jewish hat on.............
To reduce the corrosion problem caused by running plain water use de-ionised or distilled water. It's the dissolved salts in tap water that cause the problem not the water itself. The manual for my TZ recommends de-ionised water, and that little thing is VERY fussy what you put in it!!

John

[BOLT]

Bike engines are designed to use antifreeze/water mixture as the coolant - simple as that. If you use straight water then you run the risk of corroding components in the coolant system, or even worse, cracking the block or radiator in winter - expensive !

The only reason you should use just water is for the reason already mentioned - scrutineering will not allow anything else. Antifreeze, or ethylene-glycol is a parafin based , oily compound which will cause grip problems if dumped on a race track.

[swiss 998s]

Is "water wetter" ie liquid soap allowed on track? as this can reuce the corrosion problems of water alone