It’s critically important that you make sure your vehicle always has not just the right amount of coolant under the hood to control temperatures, but that you are using the right kind of coolant for the project as well.
Not that long ago there were only a handful of coolant options available on the market, and all of them needed to be mixed or “cut” with water for them to be effective.
Today, though, the overwhelming majority of coolant options available for sale come premixed and ready to rock and roll. Many of them are 50-50 coolant options designed to provide your car with the proper coolant capacity with a whole host of other benefits as well.
Below we run through almost everything you need to know about coolant, the differences between coolant and antifreeze, and how to make sure that you’re always running the right type in your vehicle.
Let’s go!
What is 50 50 Coolant?
50-50 coolant is almost always a very high quality (usually a “single phase”) coolant solution made with ethylene glycol and deionized water in a 50/50 ratio mixture.
This kind of coolant is generally safe to be used in passenger vehicles (cars, trucks, and SUVs), but is also strong enough to often be used in more heavy duty equipment – including diesel trucks and diesel machinery.
There are a couple of different benefits to using a 50-50 coolant combination, not the least of which is that it has a lower level of silicate in it than other (richer) formulas.
That lower level of silicate allows it to be used in different kinds of vehicles, like heavy duty diesels and heavy duty equipment, without degrading or contaminating the: system itself.
50-50 coolant can also refer to any coolant option that has been diluted with water already, as opposed to antifreeze that is sold “concentrated” – antifreeze that you have two dilute all on your own.
The overwhelming majority of coolant options today are going to be premixed and ready to be added to your vehicle right out of the bottle. In fact, the odds are pretty good that if you phoned a vehicle for any amount of time you only ever use 50-50 coolant in the antifreeze system!
Why is Coolant so Important?
There are a couple of different reasons that coolant is so important in a modern vehicle, but the biggest one is (obviously) making sure that your vehicle is not overheating.
Every gasoline and diesel powered engine is based off of Internal Combustion Engine engineering. This means that there are hundreds (sometimes thousands) of tiny little explosions happening inside of the engine bay every minute your vehicle is on the road.
All of those explosions are going to cause heat to move through the engine block, and engine block that is already pretty hot because of the friction generated from metal on metal contact from all the different moving parts.
Oil definitely does a good job at mitigating some of that heat (minimizing friction as much as it can), but oil alone is not enough to keep your vehicle at optimum operating temperatures.
No, that’s where coolant comes into play.
Pressurized coolant moves through your engine system, transferring heat from the engine components to the coolant itself before dissipating that heat in the radiator system and then cycling back through all over again.
Without coolant your engine would overheat, seize up, and (potentially) catch on fire.
The Difference Between Coolant and Antifreeze
Most people are going to use the terms antifreeze and coolant interchangeably with one another, and there’s really nothing wrong with that.
At the same time, though, there is a little bit of a difference between coolant and antifreeze – especially when it comes to whether or not these formulas have been pre-diluted into that 50-50 (or 70-30) ratio already.
Antifreeze (as a general rule) sold in concentrate. It has to be diluted with water before it should be added into your vehicle.
Coolant, on the other hand, come straight from the factory diluted already and is bottle that either 50-50 ratios of antifreeze and water or 70-30 ratios of antifreeze and water.
If you are looking to buy coolant just make sure that that’s the term you find on the bottle. If you’re buying antifreeze (and you don’t see any ratio dilution information) you’re probably going to have to dilute by hand.
Is There Any Difference in the Colors of Coolant?
You also probably noticed that there are a bunch of different colors of coolant available on the market today.
Yes, there’s a difference between each of these different colors – and a reason for these colors to exist in the first place – and it’s important that you understand exactly what you are working with.
Up until just recently the overwhelming majority of coolant options were made with an ethylene glycol-based antifreeze that had been mixed with water. These coolant options were almost neon green and pretty much the only kind of coolant available.
Recently, though, major new breakthroughs by the automotive industry have led to more effective antifreeze options being produced.
Now we have bright green, bright red, yellow, blue, and even orange: to options to pick and choose from.
Each of these different colors has different properties that may work better for specific vehicle.
It’s a good idea to research what color: you should be adding to your vehicle before you buy a jug and start dumping thing into the reservoir. The difference between these options may not look like much, but it will make a world of difference in the long run.
Can You Mix and Match Coolant Types in Your Vehicle?
As a general rule of thumb you really don’t want to be mixing different coolant types and coolant colors with one another.
For example, mixing neon green coolant with an orange coolant – or an orange coolant with a blue or yellow coolant – will almost immediately lead to a really bad chemical reaction inside the reservoir.
You’ll end up with a big, thick, brown sort of sludge in the tank that has to be removed (a long, drawnout, and expensive process) or run the risk of gumming up your coolant system and blowing your engine completely.
Stick to one color of coolant and stick to that like glue!