What happens if my rad is made of copper and the waterblock is made of aluminium? i already have the parts so if its bad what can i do about it?
it's a bad thing to have both aluminium and copper reached by the same water... you'll get the aluminum corroded for an electrolytic process
You'll be fine if you use sufficient water wetter/ antifreeze/ etc. in the water. Running the water without aditive will result in galvanic corrosion! Not to mention algai.
hi, Im also planning on using a copper block with an aluminium rad, what additives will i need to prevent corrosion? Thanks Clarkey
Hi guys, Enak is right you will be ok aslong as you use a additive. This additive could be normal antifreeze or a more specilist type of additive such as waterwetter or zerex supercoolent. This should be mixed in solution with deionised or distilled water (about 20% additive 80% water slater..
That's right. We've had panics about this before. Mixing metals won't take your PC into corrosive meltdown, no matter what some WC divas may proclaim. Relax, and just use a mixture of 5-10% anti-corrosion additive in distilled (or de-ionised) water (always read the instructions). You can use: Water Wetter: foams like a mad dog and smells like a dead one. Be prepared to work at getting those bubbles out of your system. Reasonably effective. Purple Ice: a bit better in terms of smell and foam, but not as effective as Water Wetter. Zerex Racing: The daddy of additives, but unavailable in the UK --order from the US. Doesn't smell, doesn't foam, gives excellent protection. Will turn the insides of your Tygon tubing a bit dull, but nothing major. What it also does, is turn your coolant a pretty Fuchsia colour, which you'll just have to live with... Still, you can always add a UV dye. Specific brand-name additives like the ones by Aqua-Computer, Innovatek etc. Odourless, colourless, made for the job. A good, effective alternative.
I still reckon it looks pink Looks quite cool though. I'm using AquaComputer's anti-corrosive fluid and so far I've not noticed any discolouration or any problem with the mixed metals
Steel and Aluminium don't go together too well, as they weld together as (I think it was BMW who also had trouble with their radiator caps) we found out when trying to change a tyre on my brother's bike.
The problem with the BMW radiator situation was probably that steel and aluminium have different expansion/contraction ratios. Radiator gets hot, cools down (to freezing in winter) then hot again... Eventually the cap sort of settles in the expanded thread and when you then try to unscrew it from a cooled down radiator, the thread has shrunk again and the thing is well tight.
