anybody knows the total coolant capacity? am about to prepare a coolant mixture for the whole cooling system for my yearly change of coolant by next month, thanks in advance.

 

According to the book I have at home tonight 5.8 qt's. Which means if you just drain the rad, it will take about 4 qt's/1 gl to re-fill. The engine block holds the difference.

 

so i would say a 7 quart mixture is safe and i have already a 1.2 quart for my top offs, right? thanks poorman212!

 

Don't stress to much on the mixture. IIRC, I did a flush (so the block had pure water) last time. So I put about 1 qt of 100% anti in, then top the rest with the normal 50/50 mix.

 

this is what i plan to do:
1. drain the rad and the block.
2. fill in new water (distilled) + 2 qts 100% anti in the radiator. I suppose this would make a 30-70 coolant-water mixture for the whole system.

will this be ok?

 

Where do you live?
30% antifreeze & 70% water will have a freezing point about +5 deg.F which is not low enough for most places. That will also give you reduced anti-corrosion protection with shorter lifespan (antifreeze-change interval).

I'd shoot for 50/50.

 

actually, am in a tropical country..Philippines...afaik, anti-freeze is not applicable here so am gonna use anti-rust/coolant like prestone. there were some info i got that water is still the best that helps cool our engine and i don't wanna rob out that one so a 30/70 would be just fine. please correct me if i'm wrong. thanks.

 

I can't find the chart right now, but anti-freeze also RAISES the boiling point. You don't want the boiling point to be down near 100 C.

So there's a couple things going on here...

Prestone wants you to use 50/50 to get adequate corrosion protection.
50/50 gives a boiling point of 130C but I don't know what the boiling point is for 30/70.

Of course, Prestone wants you to buy more product, but I don't know how much that influences things. What does Honda's owners manual say in Philippines? Here in USA Honda says you should use 50/50.

 

Hi JimBlake, thanks for that and oh my bad..I reviewed the article I 've read and its a coolant additive that would help smoothen the tension created by mixing coolant and water and better allowing water to absorb heat from your engine.

Yes my manual says it should be a 50:50 mix. Actually, I've been using 100% pure water only in the past 3 yrs since I got my baby and no problem at all..my temp is very stable and never did I encounter any rise in temp even on long drives or heavy traffic under the sun. I wanna try now to use coolant for its anti-corrosive properties. Ok i'll use a 50:50 mix or opt for a pre-mix (ready-to-use) Prestone Coolant.

Btw, I wanna share the article. Its from a motoring section inside a reputable newspaper here:

Coolant additive. Water is the best heat transferring medium for a car’s cooling system. But it lacks lubricating and anti-corrosion properties to preserve the internal water galleys and your engine’s water pump. Hence, a mix of about 50:50 coolant and distilled water is usually applied to help protect your engine’s innards yet deliver lubricating and anti-corrosion protection. However, coolant tends to rob some of the latent heat absorbing capabilities of water, so adding a bottle or two (usually 500ml in size) of coolant additive helps smoothen the tension created by mixing coolant and water and better allowing water to absorb heat from your engine.

Some promise lower overall coolant temperatures, while some promise an increase in boiling resistance by as much as 10 degrees Celsius when used in conjunction with a higher capacity radiator cap. There are only three known brands of coolant additives that have been proven to work in motorsports and extreme climates. These are Redline’s Water Wetter, Royal Purple’s Purple Ice and Motul’s Coolmax coolant additives. Expect to pay P1,000 to P1,500 per 300ml-500ml bottle.