Does engine anti-freeze additive really useful under low temperature?

In winter, the vehicles are easily frozen and start difficulty, which causes the water tank to crack due to freezing and the high cost of maintenance. Many users doubt whether engine anti-freeze additive is really useful in cold weather.

 

What are engine coolant additives?

Engine coolant additive is composed of deionized water, antifreeze additive (ethylene glycol or propylene glycol), and various additives (like corrosion inhibitors, dye, and bitter agent). The amount of the additive is less than 5%.

Deionized water is an important component of the coolant additive, not only because water has a good thermal conductivity, but also because the commonly used coolant additive plays the anti-freezing role by the way of being formulated as an aqueous solution of a certain concentration.

Because the water has a high freezing point, it's easy to freeze in extreme weather. The main function of adding a certain antifreeze additive (the most commonly used is ethylene glycol) to the coolant fluid is to decrease the fluid's freeze point.

At present, the anti-freeze additive can be divided into ethylene glycol and propylene glycol.

Ethylene glycol has an excellent performance of decreasing freezing point, with a high boiling point, moderate viscosity, low toxicity, and safe use. It has been widely used in the preparation of engine coolant.

 

How does the engine coolant additive function at low temperatures?

The ethylene glycol in the coolant additive can decrease the freeze point greatly, which can help the fluids keep their original state and prevent freezing under extreme cold weather, and prevent the cracking of the engine block and radiator.

In the meantime, the fluid coolant can circulate normally and start dissipating heat immediately after the engine starts, ensuring its normal operation.

The functions of antifreeze additives

Nowadays, most vehicle engine adapted forced circulated water cooling system. Freezing fluid is the main hot transfer medium that has the performance of anti-freeze, anti-boiling, anti-corrosion, and anti-scaling.

 

• Anti-freeze protection: ensure the engine's normal operation under low temperatures.

The main component of coolant additive is ethylene glycol, and by adjusting it to a proper concentration (usually at 33~50%) that can make the antifreeze coolant not freeze between -20℃ to -45℃. And some formulations can even keep the fluidity under -70℃. This makes the engine start normally under extreme cold temperatures, and it can also avoid the damage of the pump, radiator, and cylinder block due to freezing expansion.

• Anti-boiling protection: avoid the engine boiling over at high temperatures.

Ethylene glycol can not only reducethe freezing point, but also improve the boiling point.

With the increase of concentration, the boiling point of the coolant can be over 104.5℃～108.5℃. When used with a pressurized radiator cap, the actual boiling point is even higher.

• Anti-corrosion protection: protect the engine metal part long term stable.

The cooling system of the inner engine includes multi-metals, like aluminum, iron, and copper, is susceptible to chemical and electrochemical corrosion.

Adding anti-corrosion additives and deionized water in antifreeze additives can prevent the corrosion reaction, protect the metal surface from corrosion, avoid serious malfunctions such as thin pipe walls, perforations, and leakage, and prolong the life span of the whole cooling system and the engine.

• Anti-scaling deposit: keep the cooling system's high efficiency through dissipation

The unsolved running water has multi-metal ions and inorganic salts that can form scale and deposits, which seriously influence the heat transfer efficiency. Antifreeze additive formulated with deionized water can prevent the formation of scale, deposit, and sludge to make the heat transfer smooth and guarantee the engine is in the most suitable working temperature.

 

The antifreeze affects under different low temperatures

The antifreeze ability of engine coolant additive mainly depends on the freezing point, which has a direct connection with the proportion of ethylene glycol and water in the freeze fluid. In short, the higher the ethylene glycol ratio, the lower the freeze point, the stronger anti freeze ability.

How to choose suitable engine coolant additives?

1. Choosing coolant according to environmental temperature: the freezing point of the coolant additive you choose should be at least 10℃ lower than the lowest temperature of your current area.

2. Avoid mixing: you should not mix the different brands and formulations of coolant additives. Because they have different additive formulations, they may cause chemical reactions after mixing, performance failure, and corrosion.

For example, coolant additive package AC7040 has good anti-rust and anti-scaling performance that can prolong the cooling system's life span greatly.

3. Don't use water to replace ethylene glycol for a long time: although water has a good dissipation effect in a short time, the high freezing point (0℃), low boiling point (100℃), using water for a long time will cause the engine to boil over and freeze, and produce scale and rust.

Therefore, it is only under an emergency situation that you can use water to replace ethylene glycol.

 

Chorus AC7040 is an organic acid technology (OAT) corrosion inhibitor package. It is environmental protection that can reduce the consumption rate of additives to prolong the lifespan.

7040 has an excellent anti-rust and anti-corrosion performance, which has a good anti-rust ability for the engine cooling system, especially for heavy load vehicle wet cylinder liner corrosion resistance is greatly improved.

Choosing suitable antifreeze additives can prolong the engine's life in cold weather.

 

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