HEATER CORE PROBLEMS THAT INDICATE REPLACEMENT
PLUS...... THINGS YOU CAN
DO TO PREVENT PROBLEMS
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1. Copper/Brass heater cores
last about 50,000 miles or 5 years.
2. Cooling systems should to be serviced, flushed, and refilled every
24,000 miles or 2 years.
3. Additives in anti-freeze should help maintain the system and slow corrosion.
Be sure you maintain an adequate mix of anti-freeze and water.
4. The flow of coolant through the heater core
can cause erosion This is more severe in aluminum heater cores (check yours). More engine rpm's will
create more erosion with the faster flow. You might consider an "inlet restrictor".
A manual controlled heater valve can be toggled to reduce flow during high rpm operation.
5. Your cooling
system can accumulate debris as acid can attack base metal when not keeping your coolant at an effective mix of anti-freeze
and water.
6. Heater cores can be attacked by electrolysis and fail. Electrolysis is enhanced
when the coolant system pH is acidic and the temperature is high (which you can imagine is mostly the case inside an engine).
This is more reason to maintain your system by flushing and replacing fluids.
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ELECTROLYSIS
- "The hidden enemy"
.
Electrolysis
is electrical activity that results from improper grounding and the interaction of the various metals encountered inside the
cooling system (interaction of dissimilar metals is known as "galvanic corrosion", a form of electrolysis).
Elements of the breakdown in these metals will not show up in the coloration of your coolant, making it difficult to know
what is happening inside your system. The end results is erosion in your cooling system from this process which breaks
down the various metal elements inside your system.
.
Particles of metal resulting from
the electrolysis will end up damaging components, heater core, radiator and even hoses.
,
Electrolysis
in a radiator or heater is the localized degradation of the metal caused by excess electrical current flowing through the
cooling system’s liquid coolant or metal transmission lines in search of an electrical ground. When there is no ground
to be found, or there is an ungrounded electrical device creating excess electrical current in the vehicle, then this
is trouble.
It is recommended that you check your system with a volt meter using
the positive electrode inserted into the radiator fluid through the filler neck and determine if voltage in
exess of 0.1 volts is present, See discussion below for details on this procedure.
.
One
remedy is regular flushing of the cooling system, especially more often when your Ride sits idle for long periods of time;
but this is not a cure for the reasons that harm your system.
.
Cooling
System Voltage Check Process:
1. Attach the negative lead of a volt meter to the battery ground.
2.
Place the positive lead of the volt meter into the coolant inside the radiator caring to not making contact with the filler
neck.
3 If voltage is greater than 0.10 V, it's positive for electrical currents flowing through
you car part system.
4. Check the voltage readings between the engine and the coolant by touching the
negative lead to other auto parts respectively.
6. Duplicate the previous steps with the positive lead touching
the radiator itself.
.
Ground, Ground, Ground!!!
Be sure your electrical
system is properly grounded. One often overlooked ground is between the body and frame. Later
model vehicles have ground connections in up to 20 different locations which accomodate electrical systems requirements throughout
the vehicle. Radiators are not grounded.
.
Taking It Further:
Some
sources indicate the use of distilled water mixed with anti-freeze as still another way to slow down electrolysis.
.
Aluminum radiators & components (check pH levels):
Aluminum
is more vulnerable to electrolytic corrosion than either copper/brass or cast iron because aluminum is a highly reactive
metal. When the corrosion inhibitors in the coolant are depleted and the pH of the coolant drops to 7 or below, aluminum becomes
a sacrificial element of high exposure and is eaten away.
.
Checking the
pH of the coolant with chemically-treated test strips can help you determine if the coolant is overdue for a change. The alkalinity
of a typical antifreeze/water mixture will vary depending on the additives in the antifreeze and the ratio of ingredients,
but is usually somewhere between 8 and 11. The average for most antifreezes is around 10.5, but when diluted 50/50 with water
and added to the cooling system the pH drops to the 8.5 to 9 range. Higher is not necessarily better, though, because some
of the new long-life coolants have a pH of only 8.3.
