Evans Waterless Engine Coolant

The Lady that I help with her model A has evans in it. it has a sticker on the rad that says evans add no water
 
CarlG said:
At fourty bucks a gallon (plus shipping) It's gotta be gooooood stuff!
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I know! That's why I figured I'd ask.

In the summer heat in Texas I have a slow boil off loss of coolant. This stuff sounds like it would slow that down quite a bit or stop it, due to the high boiling point. Back in the 20's and 30's, I'd say people just kept adding water to bring the radiator level back up. Nothing wrong with that.


Model A Man said:
The Lady that I help with her model A has evans in it. it has a sticker on the rad that says evans add no water
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I wonder how that ended up in there. Someone that worked on the car must have been into racing. Perhaps being in California they experienced the same slow boil off that I have. How does it seem to work for her?
 
Well, here's the deal. It will take a 'marginal' heat exchanger and make it suffice enough to 'tour' adequately. It will do nothing for a stopped up core, --or one that all the cooling fins have become detached from the tubes.

The real issue is WHY do you need the Evans? In the case of that Oakland where a new custom-built radiator would likely be $4,000-$5,000 by the time a new core is manufactured authentically and everything is restored, spending $100 on 2½ gallons of coolant to make that 100 year old original radiator perform is a small price to pay in the grande scheme of things. On the flip side, spending the $100 for coolant in a used radiator where a new Model A rad. only costs $500 is not so much of a value in my view. Maybe others have thoughts too.....
 
Skinned Knuckles did an article on coolants a while back. The big advantage is aluminum protection. SK's bottom line was they recommend a 50/50 blend of conventional anti-freeze, largely because of cost.
 
Jim/TX said:
I know! That's why I figured I'd ask.

In the summer heat in Texas I have a slow boil off loss of coolant. This stuff sounds like it would slow that down quite a bit or stop it, due to the high boiling point. Back in the 20's and 30's, I'd say people just kept adding water to bring the radiator level back up. Nothing wrong with that.




I wonder how that ended up in there. Someone that worked on the car must have been into racing. Perhaps being in California they experienced the same slow boil off that I have. How does it seem to work for her?
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Her late husband restored cars for a living. He had a shop in Burbank CA. then they moved to Montana. so I am guessing that is when Evans was put in.
 
BRENT in 10-uh-C said:
Well, here's the deal. It will take a 'marginal' heat exchanger and make it suffice enough to 'tour' adequately. It will do nothing for a stopped up core, --or one that all the cooling fins have become detached from the tubes.

The real issue is WHY do you need the Evans? In the case of that Oakland where a new custom-built radiator would likely be $4,000-$5,000 by the time a new core is manufactured authentically and everything is restored, spending $100 on 2½ gallons of coolant to make that 100 year old original radiator perform is a small price to pay in the grande scheme of things. On the flip side, spending the $100 for coolant in a used radiator where a new Model A rad. only costs $500 is not so much of a value in my view. Maybe others have thoughts too.....
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I ordered a Brassworks radiator from Tam's last summer. Received it the next day and installed it right then. So efficient, that I had to put a thermostat in the upper hose. Without the thermostat I couldn't get the temp above 135 degrees no matter what. With the thermostat, it rarely exceeds 170, hovers most of the time at 150. The old radiator frequently over heated even though it had been to the radiator shop twice. 600 bucks was a small price to pay for the assurance that I will never overheat again due to an inefficient radiator. I can run a 50/50 mix with no problems.
 
I wonder how much it foams. Straight H2O, none. Lo-Tox (Sierra) very little. Standard antifreeze @ 50/50 moderate. Pump cavitation and slight head gasket leak at full throttle make foaming a concern for some A's. I would hate to find out $100 after the fact that an engine running OK on standard 50/50 has foaming problems.

A pint of the stuff and an old blender might make a good comparison to plain H2O, regular50/50 and LoTox50/50.
 
I tried it a few years ago and it makes the engine run too hot, 275 degrees f. The boiling point of Evans is a lot higher than that. I can't remember what it was. At 275 the motor started making some strange sounds. The oil gets too thin. I drained it out and went back to H20. I tried to recycle it and nobody wanted it. I tried to give it to anybody and noboby wanted it. I tried to send it back to Evans and they didn't want it. Lesson learned. Nothing dissipates heat beter than H20
 
4banger said:
I tried it a few years ago and it makes the engine run too hot, 275 degrees f. The boiling point of Evans is a lot higher than that. I can't remember what it was. At 275 the motor started making some strange sounds. The oil gets too thin. I drained it out and went back to H20. I tried to recycle it and nobody wanted it. I tried to give it to anybody and noboby wanted it. I tried to send it back to Evans and they didn't want it. Lesson learned. Nothing dissipates heat beter than H20
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Yup...DISTILLED h2o, with anti rust additive, keeps my B running clean/cool! of course a new block and recored radiator helped also:)!
 
Paul from Maine said:
I ordered a Brassworks radiator from Tam's last summer. Received it the next day and installed it right then. So efficient, that I had to put a thermostat in the upper hose. Without the thermostat I couldn't get the temp above 135 degrees no matter what. With the thermostat, it rarely exceeds 170, hovers most of the time at 150. The old radiator frequently over heated even though it had been to the radiator shop twice. 600 bucks was a small price to pay for the assurance that I will never overheat again due to an inefficient radiator. I can run a 50/50 mix with no problems.
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I did the same as Paul about seven or eight years ago. My experience with the Brass Works radiator also the same as Paul's, along with the same kind of temperature results. I run 50/50 Sierra and H20. Never a concern about over heating and that includes parades of which I am not a great fan.
 
Frank Nemo said:
I did the same as Paul about seven or eight years ago. My experience with the Brass Works radiator also the same as Paul's, along with the same kind of temperature results. I run 50/50 Sierra and H20. Never a concern about over heating and that includes parades of which I am not a great fan.
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I installed a new B-W "heavy-duty" radiator in my '28 last year, and am well-pleased with its performance.

Like Paul from Maine, I had to install a 160* thermostat to get the engine temp up above 130* !

Now that warmer-weather is here, she runs around 160-170* but no higher, even on long hard pulls.

I've been running 50-50 ethylene glycol and a leakless-pump with very good results.


Brent's logic for using the Evans on a brass-era (or other vehicle) car where a new rad is thousands of dollars makes some sense.
 
4banger said:
I tried it a few years ago and it makes the engine run too hot, 275 degrees f. The boiling point of Evans is a lot higher than that. I can't remember what it was. At 275 the motor started making some strange sounds. The oil gets too thin. I drained it out and went back to H20. I tried to recycle it and nobody wanted it. I tried to give it to anybody and noboby wanted it. I tried to send it back to Evans and they didn't want it. Lesson learned. Nothing dissipates heat beter than H20
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Ummm, are you sure? Water's surface tension is relieved when a surfactant is used. That is why they make products such as Water Wetter or ProBlend's 40~Below.
 
4banger said:
I tried it a few years ago and it makes the engine run too hot, 275 degrees f. The boiling point of Evans is a lot higher than that. I can't remember what it was. At 275 the motor started making some strange sounds. The oil gets too thin. I drained it out and went back to H20. I tried to recycle it and nobody wanted it. I tried to give it to anybody and noboby wanted it. I tried to send it back to Evans and they didn't want it. Lesson learned. Nothing dissipates heat beter than H20
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Holy cow, 4banger! 275 degrees? That's amazing! I agree with you, I would not run a Model A at that temperature. I'm surprised your temperature gauge even went that high.

So when you went back to water, did you have to change anything on the engine to get it to run cool?

Which NPG did you use? They are selling 3 or 4 different types now, one of which is a new low viscosity version that is close to the viscosity of antifreeze. Maybe they only had the original one back a few years ago and it is a lot thicker than antifreeze.

It's starting to sound like more trouble than it's worth.
 
I've considered using it . I'm interested to see it was used in a 1909 Oakland . I have a 1910 Hupmobile with marginal cooling at low speed . It has an inefficently located fan and thermosiphon circulation only ie no water pump as standard The radiator is (an expensive) reproduction. I have a vaguely accurate motormeter on it. My only concern with using this coolant is that I could seriously overhead the engine with no evidence that I was doing so. At least with water I get steam if it gets to hot and I stop and let it cool down
 
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