I bought 5 gallons of Evans NPG years ago for a project. I put it in, drove it 23 miles to make sure the driveline was sorted out and then took the car to the body shop. That was 10 years ago. I have now carted this 5-gallon bucket full of expensive coolant from PA to CA to TX and now I'm moving back to PA. I put it on CL to see if I could sell it (cheap, too... $20) and no one seems to want it.
Now that I have a Powerstroke Van I'm thinking about just putting it in the 'stroke. The van will do some very heavy towing for part of its life (starting with several trailer loads from TX to PA) but before I dive in and trust it I wanted to get some feedback.
For those of you who don't know, Evans NPG is propylene glycol instead of ethylene glycol and you use it without water. The point is that it won't boil until something like 350 degrees. It makes sense, but at the same time I can't help but wonder if the reduced heat transfer of a coolant that doesn't use water will be too much for a big diesel tow rig. Evans' argument is that as temperature rises it doesn't matter since the coolant won't boil like traditional stuff. My concern is... which is greater - the higher boiling point, or the lower heat transfer ability? What I'm trying to figure out is, if the boiling point is higher by 20% and the loss of heat capactiy is 40%, its a losing battle. If its the other way around (where heat capacity is diminished by a factor less than the increased boiling point) then I'm golden.
Anyone use it, and what are your thoughts? Math and physics are welcome.
i haven't heard about that stuff for years.. i don't know if it's any good, but i haven't seen any magazine tests on the stuff since they stopped buying full page ads in those same magazines over a decade ago..
Someone I know used it in a 16v scirocco and it constantly ran way warmer than with normal coolant. He only used it for a short time then switched back to normal coolant and it was fine after that.
Travis... the point of it is that it CAN run way warmer. The limitations of EG/water are the fact that the water boils. An engine doesn't "overheat" at 240 degrees, its just that the water starts to boil. When the water boils, massive nucleate superheating starts and you cause damage. Without that nucleate boiling, you won't (theoretically) damage things until a much higher temperature.
People want engines to be cool. Engines want to be hot (within obvious parameters)
There was a thread on another forum i use in which the poster talked to Evans himself.
My conclusion from all that was you were balancing the consequences of your car running hotter (at least 10 degrees was mentioned but YMMV) ALL the time against the possibility your engine could catastrophically overheat and destroy itself using "normal" coolant.
There are practical issues, too. It isn't readily available so you couldn't top it up just anywhere. And if you ever add water to it accidently you have to flush it all out and start over.
Curtis.. I have looked into that stuff ears ago. Never got around to buying any due to the cost. How much do you want for the 5 gallons and where in PA are you moving?
I'm moving to Pittsburgh. Gimme $20 for the headache of moving it and its yours. Its in a five gallon bucket with a lid, but the lid recently got a crack in it, so I would pour it out through a t-shirt or something to catch any thing that might have fallen in that crack.
Basil Exposition wrote:
My conclusion from all that was you were balancing the consequences of your car running hotter (at least 10 degrees was mentioned but YMMV) ALL the time against the possibility your engine could catastrophically overheat and destroy itself using "normal" coolant.
There are practical issues, too. It isn't readily available so you couldn't top it up just anywhere. And if you ever add water to it accidently you have to flush it all out and start over.
That's kinda how I viewed it. Engines don't overheat at 240 degrees, coolant does. The damage comes from large pockets of steam (which is terrible at absorbing heat) lets the engine parts get screaming hot and major damage happens.
I was wondering about the tech and engineering involved with Evans stuff and engine temps. Let's say I might peak at 300 degrees with Evans... what is bad about that? As long as my oil and tranny fluid doesn't cook, what could it possibly hurt?
Another question, does it deteriorate over time? Standard antifreeze does, you're supposed to rotate your stock so I'd wonder about that.
Not sure. I'll have to check into that.
let me know about the deterioration and I will send you the 20. Sometime soon we can meet up. I have family in the eastern half of the state, so maybe we can meet halfway
Yeah, looks like deterioration is an issue. Supposedly it needs the heat cycles to keep absorbed water out of it.
Guess its off to the hazmat recycling place 
