28-02-2018, 03:45 PM
Well done Ruairidh!
Michael, it's fairly normal for the first spurt of water to be fairly brown and skanky. If it doesn't run clearish after that I'd suggest attention may be called for. Beware of de-scaling solutions, unless you're about to strip the engine, as all the resulting debris can very easily obstruct the water passages in the block. I've never used anti-freeze, I simply drain in winter and re-fill as and when I want to use the car. However anti-freeze does include corrosion inhibitors which are ultimately quite a good thing for engine and radiator life (and have you seen the price of new radiators!) Downside of anti-freeze is it's not great if your car is prone to squirting coolant in your face from the rad cap under braking (don't over-fill), and it makes your engine run marginally hotter than pure water (at least until all that corrosion takes its toll).
Michael, it's fairly normal for the first spurt of water to be fairly brown and skanky. If it doesn't run clearish after that I'd suggest attention may be called for. Beware of de-scaling solutions, unless you're about to strip the engine, as all the resulting debris can very easily obstruct the water passages in the block. I've never used anti-freeze, I simply drain in winter and re-fill as and when I want to use the car. However anti-freeze does include corrosion inhibitors which are ultimately quite a good thing for engine and radiator life (and have you seen the price of new radiators!) Downside of anti-freeze is it's not great if your car is prone to squirting coolant in your face from the rad cap under braking (don't over-fill), and it makes your engine run marginally hotter than pure water (at least until all that corrosion takes its toll).