Antifreeze Solution And Its Application Guide

This is the final part of Yuchai YC4108D and YC4108ZD series diesel engine generator operation and maintenance manual. Before we have learned about main installing requirements, engine adjustments, oil pressure adjustment, diesel engine maintenance and normal troubleshooting. Today, we are going to learn the anti-freeze solution and its application guide. 

Currently, water is widely adopted as the cold - medium of the water-cooled engine, including hard water and soft water. River water, well water, spring etc. enrich water with the mineral material as hard water, being subjected to hot empress the mineral quality sink wall to become water dirt in water set with spread the hot machine, dying down diesel engine to spread thermal energy dint, the serious hour will appear an um of set and live cold wreath to chafe, the piston choked to death. But the water tank knot dirt hereafter will cause the water temperature go up and open a pot.

Therefore must use the soft water as the anti - freeze. The in common solution of transferring the hard water into soft water is to boil hard water to removes sediments. The more exhaustive method is to add to soften in the hard water, such as adding 0.5 baking sodas of ~  lg( pure alkali) or the 0. 5-0. 8 g hydrogen to oxidize NA ( caustic soda).

There is much weakness using the water as the anti - freeze.

1) it is easy to,become water dirt.

2) 2) the freezing point of water is an 0 ℃, it is easy to freeze a jelly crack an air cylinder body and spread a hot machine easily in winter.

3) 3)The boiling point of water is 100 ℃, because the machine widespread adopt technique of turbo - charger, the normal water temperature is 105 ℃s for  95℃s, will usually appear to open a pot in summer.

4) 4) The cooling system is sewn a medium soldering by six kinds of metals iron castings, aluminium, steels, red coppers, brasses and the water tank to constitute, water, imply water of miscellaneous quality especially, as to its have a corrosion function, appear rusty with cave eclipse phenomenon.

As having been overcome many disadvantages of the water - coolant, the anti - freeze solution becomes the ideal coolant which can be used in each season of the year.

1. What is anti -freeze solution?

Anti - freeze solution is a coolant used in winter to prevent frostbite. It has a long history. At the first time, people added the inorganic salts into the water to lower the freezing point or raise the boiling point; then the organic alcohols (such as ethanol, methanol, etc) were added further. And in the recent years, the anti - freeze solution has developed to become the glycol and glycerol based anti - freeze solutions. But for the price reason, the application of the new developed solutions was restricted. Nowadays, it is the glycol based anti - freeze solutions that have been accepted widely.

Anti - freeze solution is made up of raw alcohol, water and additives. The alcohol is glycol and the water is distilled water. The additives include antitrust agents, anti - toxicity agents, PH regulating agents ( buffering agents) , and other agents, and other performing enhancing chemicals.

Table 1. Physical and chemical property of glycol

Table 2. The glycol concentration, density and freezing point

The anti - freeze solution is classified to be the direct - use type and the concentrated type. The concentrated type can not be used directly and must he diluted to a particular concentration as stated in Table 2 according to the operating temperature. 

Nowadays there is a new long; lasting effected anti - freeze solution on the market, what is its true facts? The main components of the prolonged action anti - freeze is still the glycol. The glycol features of anti - freeze and anti - boiling, which make it a necessary component for the solution and is the key factor to keep the characteristic of heat - conduction of the solution. The differences between the traditional and the long lasting effected glycol - based solutions are as follows:

From the above table we can see that the differences between them which lie in the anti-corrosion agents.  Since the long lasting effected anti -freeze solution is made up of organic acid salts, so it can make the chemistry properties more stable and the effect longer and better.

2. The five functions of the high quality anti -freeze solution

A. Anti - corrosion

Anti - freeze solution contains a system of excellent and lasting corrosion inhibitor, which achieve certain balance with the metal through various agents and form a protection film on the metal surface; moreover, it can strip the existing corrosion on the cooling system to prevent further corrosion. Tests show that qualified anti - freeze solution can be 50 to 100 times less corrosive to metal compared with water.   

B. Anti cavitations

 Cavitations are formed by numerous foams impinging the metal. Tests show that hard waters containing salts and bases are several dozens faster in its cavitations speed compared with that of clean soft water. While anti-freeze solution does not contain hard water, and the anti - foaming in it can inhibit the production of foams. 

C. High boiling point character

The boiling point of anti - freeze solution is usually at 105℃ ~110℃, even higher than that of water.

D. Anti-scaling character

High quality anti - freeze solution is made from the distilled water and it contains anti - scaling agent, hence it does not produce any scale.

E. It has the following characters:

1)Superior anti - freeze performance

2)Anti - corrosion and anti - rust

3)Non - swelling or erosion on the rubber seal guide.

4)Preventing scaling of the cooling system.

5)Anti - foaming.

6)Low viscosity at low temperature.

7)Stable chemical properties.

For more Yuchai diesel engine maintenance information, please read: 

Important Maintenance Tips

Diesel Engine Operation

Operation and Maintenance Tips

 Troubleshooting for Temperature, Injection and Governor