Protecting Plastic parts in cooling system

Joined
Jun 8, 2003
Messages
31
Location
houston
Land Rover SC V6 owner - Just wondering if insulating plastic parts my prolong life of them. Also, will something like Evans coolant prolong plastic part life? This is a big deal


thanks
 
I do not have any information regarding how the Evans coolant would effect plastic. But several years ago I phoned Evans and had a long conversation with someone in there company about using there products.

In order to get the benefits:

1) Drain and flush the old coolant out with water.
2) Drain out as much of the water as you can. Tilt the vehicle as much as you can in multiple ways while draining. Lift back with front down, lift front with back down, lift right with left down, lift left with right down, repeat a couple of times. If you can then air dry cooling system with forcing air through it such as connecting a shop-vac to the cooling system and running it overnight.
3) Unless the engine has been out of the vehicle enabling it to be tilted in enough directions to insure that no water at all is left in it, and then air dried preferably with forcing air through the cooling passages long enough to totally dry them out, but enough of the special product they sell to absorb the remaining water, to fill the system, and circulate it, and drain it as best you can with multiple tilts. Note this prep product is also expensive just like the Evans coolant.
4) install a closed overflow big enough to have enough airspace so it is not vented to atmosphere.
5) Fill with Evans coolant.
6) Expect connections that had no leaks with regular coolant to have leaks with Evans coolant. Apparently this coolant is fantastic at finding any microscopic means of escaping the system.

It is recommended that Evans coolant only be installed on new vehicles, because older vehicles that had no leaks with manufacturers recommended coolant will usually have leaks with Evans coolant.
 
It's living that life now. Replace plastic cooling parts like clockwork or wait until it fails where it leaves you stranded.
 
just use 70% water 30% dexcool, evans will only make things worse especially on hot running new cars with average size cooling systems.

the water pumps on those engines like to break and there’s an updated part so replacing preemptively makes sense. also consider an OBD2 temp gauge, might give you some peace of mind.
 
I am more concerned protecting metals in the cooling system, not plastic. I don't think there is a way to protect plastic.
 
Hot not cold. Thanks for all the answers - As many may know - the JLR v8 ans the SCv6 have a crossover pipes to each head - fore and aft - these plastic (nylon?) seem to fail when least expected - but usually around 50 to 90k miles . Slow leak at first then quick failure and lack of pressure - if engine is not shut down instantly ,,,,, ouch.. Plastic is 2 piece and glued - most failures are at the seam. See attached (not my arm...)

So what really is happening here? Is it heat soak? Radiant heat from the engine or coolant from the inside,,,,It is possible to insulate from radiant heat for sure.. maybe the expansion characteristics are just too much? Are the chemicals in the coolant to blame? Now I read that is cold climates the parts become brittle. Maybe a heat shield and a fan on thermostat,,,, My old turbo beemer has a blower on a timer to cool it down..

Or, I could just forget it and spend 2k every 50k miles or who knows? My LR is low miles but its 5 years old and not a lot duty cycles

>>
 

Attachments

  • crossover pipe.jpg
    crossover pipe.jpg
    88.4 KB · Views: 31
Last edited:
Reminds me of the cracking plastic crossover pipes and coolant pipes on the modular Fords. Had to replace the entire manifold when it happened.
 
All coolants transfer heat pretty much identically because chemically most coolants are at least 95% identical (being a nominal 50/50 mix of water and ethylene glycol). From reading the Evans High Performance Waterless Coolant sds it's no different as it's listed as being 80-85% ethylene glycol. It's also an incredibly bad value at the posted retail price of $49.95 a gallon. Your Land Rover plastic parts are failing from age and being exposed to many heat cycles which is the nature of plastic parts. Since the SC V6 Land Rovers are not very old, it's more likely that they're exposed to too much heat during the engine heat cycles. If the new oe parts are no better (i.e. redesigned) I'd suggest looking for alternative made from aluminum or trying to protect them from heat generated by the engine with something like a metal heat shield or a layer of heat insulation over the plastic crossover pipes.
 
Last edited:
Plastic, in my opinion, is not the best option for cooling system components. We've all seen cracked intake manifolds, thermostat housings, radiator tanks, etc. over the years. BMW, in their infinite wisdom, now has their water pump impellers made of "fiber resin composite", which isn't really doing all that well at all in my neck of the woods. Constant heat cycles will eventually get to those components and they will fail. If an all-aluminum option is available in the aftermarket, that may well be the way to go.
 
Back
Top