switching to Evans waterless coolant

Post by **j_cd** » 02 May 2010, 16:27

Evans waterless coolant

I had never heard about this stuff until I saw a thread where a member of this forum mentioned using it. Found a guy who sells it in San Dimas. $32/gal. He said that if you have an older copper/brass radiator, use the NPG-R. It's less viscous than the NPG+, so it flows better through the smaller tubes in a copper/brass radiator. He said the NPG+ should be fine in an aluminum radiator, but the guys he knows who run Evans in their Volvos are all using the R. I'll have to ask him if they're driving older Volvos. And I assume my '98 S70 GLT is all aluminum, right?

Evans also has a Prep Fluid ($25/gal). He mentioned that I might want to use that to help get all the water out after I flush it with distilled water. So let's see if I've got this right. I'm gonna drain the engine block and radiator, then put the block plug back in but leave the radiator one off. Fill with distilled water and run the engine until the liquid coming out of the radiator drain is clear. Keep the block filled with distilled water while doing this. Then, since I'll be switching over to waterless coolant, I'll drain the block again and run some Prep Fluid through it before adding the NPG.

peacock · Post by **peacock** » 02 May 2010, 18:17

Can i ask why you would bother with this?
does the car over heat with the coolant that it was designed for? are you planning on driving it pedal to the floor for hours? or towing heavy objects for long periods of time? or adding a huge turbo and other heat generating equipment?

If yes to any of those then go ahead but if No then this seems like a waste really. Take the 60$ this will cost you and get the car detailed. or preform some stage '0' tuning.

Post by **j_cd** » 02 May 2010, 18:54

Well I thought it might help extend the life of the engine if it ran cooler. The recommended Volvo factory coolant costs what, $20/gal? So once the initial flush is done, the 2 gallons of waterless coolant is only $24 more. I mean, I do see your point, but it's not a huge expense for a coolant upgrade. Apparently there are people running it in their Volvos.

BTW, should the coolant in my car be green? I thought the Volvo brand was a brown fluid. The only people who have touched it were a dealer and a Volvo specialist. I would assume that both used the factory fluid, but now I'm not so sure. It's getting close to the Low line, so whether or not I flush it, I still need to buy some fluid to top it off soon at least.

lienmarine · Post by **lienmarine** » 02 May 2010, 22:03

Volvo coolant is a blue-ish color. It costs about $32 for a gallon and then you mix that 50/50 with distilled water so you get two gallons for $32. If your coolant is brown, you may want to get your cooling system checked out. I used the Volvo coolant in my 850 when I changed the water pump and did a coolant flush. In my XC I have Prestone since that's what my local Volvo shop (Volvoworks, now European Autoworks) put in when they did the water pump. Just as good as the Volvo stuff but cheaper according to them. I've put about 20k on it since that and never had a problem.

Post by **j_cd** » 03 May 2010, 00:02

My coolant is green, but I read that the Volvo coolant is brown, that's why I asked. I think I'm gonna try the Evans stuff when I have a few extra bucks. I read somewhere to stay away from DexCool.

Post by **polskamafia mjl** » 03 May 2010, 02:26

I agree with peacock. A stage 0 will extend the life of your engine a lot more than a rip off coolant.

Post by **j_cd** » 03 May 2010, 14:08

After further research on the Bob is the Oil Guy site, I'm just gonna get some Zerex G-05. The Evans coolant is just propylene glycol with additives. It may protect the engine a little better at extreme temperatures because it doesn't boil, but for regular street driving it actually runs hotter than regular coolant.

sixvolvos · Post by **sixvolvos** » 08 May 2010, 14:55

Nothing will make your engine run cooler except a lower temperature thermostat.
And a lower temp thermostat may not make your engine last longer for a lot of reasons.
Forget the snake oil.
Six Volvos

Post by **Brucebo** » 07 Nov 2011, 13:07

Evans will not make your engine run cooler unless there is some defect in your cooling system. The running temperature is controlled by your thermostat and fan control. The advantage of Evans is that it's waterless and hence non-conducting and non-corrosive, and it doesn't boil until 375 F. This latter allows your cooling system to run at low pressure as the vapor pressure at normal running temperature is fairly low. You can run Evans with the lid off of your radiator or coolant reservoir. The lower pressure is good because you're less likely to blow a hose or develope a crack in your plastic radiator tanks. And if you do develope a leak, at the lower pressure is takes longer to bleed out, so you have more time to get to a repair facility. I run it in my Jeep Cherokee and even at 260 F if I crack the lid on my coolant reservoir there's only just a very short "pssst", and NO geyser effect. In theory, Evans would allow you to run your engine at a higher, more efficient temperature, since the running temperature of a typical engine is limited by coolant failure (boiling and high pressure), not engine materials. I'm in the process of swapping out a cracked radiator on my S70, and since I had to drain everything anyway, I'm going to try running NPG+C in it. I'll let y'all know the results.

-Bruce

Post by **Brucebo** » 22 Nov 2011, 16:06

Replaced the coolant with NPG+C a couple of weeks ago on my '99 S70 when I replaced my radiator. So far no problem, and the "at temperature" operating pressure is low. Seems to me the operating temp on the dash temp gauge appears to be half a tickmark lower, but I didn't think to do an "before" measurement to compare with.

-Bruce