You’ve purchased that new radiator and it’s now installed, but what should you use when filling it?
Distilled water or water out of the garden hose? Tap water is full of bad things that can bring on corrosion and fill the radiator with gunk and rust which will reduce its effectiveness. It can also reduce the life of the water pump and lead it to an early death.
Antifreeze will keep corrosion low and will keep the engine from freezing up during the winter, but it doesn’t do much to reduce heat! Also, you won’t make friends with your Race Director or the clean- up crew if you dump antifreeze on the track.
So, which do you use? Probably the best thing that you can use to cool the engine is just plain water. Water is effective at pulling most of the heat from the engine and will dump the heat as it passes thru the radiator. While most additives will not help lower the engines temperature, they will help lubricate the water pump and assist in keeping corrosion in the engine and radiator to a minimum.
While it is important to have the engine and cooling system filled to capacity, it’s also very important to have an accurate water temp gauge and a bright light to see when in heavy competition on the track. Most drivers find it almost impossible to read gauges when in heavy race traffic.
The AccuTech™ Sportsman™ Gauge Panel (example # 44412) comes pre-wired with a bright warning light, while our AccuTech™ SMi™ Stepper Motor gauge panels (example # 44512) have a two stage built in warning light system.