"trader_4"
wrote in message
On Monday, September 21, 2015 at 12:28:44 AM UTC-4, Tony Hwang wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote:
I've got some pink RV water line anti freeze.
Says not to use in auto radiator / cooling
system. Anyone know why this is? I did a web
search. One site says it eats aluminum,
another says no additives.

Anyone want to share the real reason, and
a web site for reference?

The simple difference is RV one only concerns freezing
Auto. one is both freezing and boiling under pressure.
And different chemical dealing with metal, alloys, etc.

IDK what the actual boiling point difference is, but seems like that
could be a valid point, if the RV type has a lower boiling point.
Also, as someone else pointed out, auto antifreeze has specific
corrosion and lubricating properties that RV probably would not have.
I would think the corrosion inhibitors required might be toxic
and/or not needed in the RV product.
Someone said it would probably be OK if only a little is used.
I would disagree with that. Years ago I had a Pontiac that had
the extended life, 100K mile antifreeze in it. I took it for service
to Jiffy Lube and they topped it off with regular. It wound
up fouling, gunky up the cooling system and creating a big mess
that the dealer had to fix.

Putting RV type in a car would probably be like using cooking oil for
engine oil
or at least like putting some straight weight oil without proper
detergents,
additives, etc in it. If I were in some emergency situation, with no
other
choice for some odd reason, I'd use it temporarily.

At the museum in Flin Flon Manitoba there is an old tractor on
display and they used kerosene in the cooling system! Apparently
they had no antifreeze at all back then so they used that instead.