Cutting Oil as a coolant

[bigben2k]

No it's not chrome.

There are many ways to make something looks shiny, chrome is one of them, nickel is another.

I've been battling a heatercore leak on my car for three days now; some bumbling i*iot manufacturer thought it was a cool idea to put a steel insert in an ABS plastic tube. This pic shows why it's not:

[charlie b]

nickel-chrome plating very similar ... yes and if they do it right its shiny

[charlie b]

For a percentage with a refractometer i usually mix it at 7%,for volume measurements varies for different coolants but for most its around 400ml to 25L it should look opaque milky white (with a blueish tinge when spread thinly on a surface, try pouring it on a flat dark surface to form a shallow puddle and you will see what i mean. pH also varies for different coolants but if you mix it at the right spec it should be fine if you have not got universal indicator papers for this.

[ibmkg]

bigben2k:

For the heater core, as far as I have seen, instead of steel they use brass or Al (material similar to rad tank). Better yet, some hard plastic sleeve. There are alternatives to this but I am sure someone of your caliber (you) would have found a solution by now.

I am not sure about nickel plate but they do the chrome. Would chrome plating help prevent the corrosion? Compare it with steel pump i.e. would I see any benefit excluding looks?


charlie b:

This question goes to you too charlie. I mean, do you think that cutting oil would react to chrome?

I do not know where to get that PH paper (litmus paper they call it or something). Used it in school years ago I do not want to call my chemistry teacher for this either.

The cutting oil I have (synthetic one) has amber color (yellow). The low quality one, which I used earlier, used to be of black color that turned milky when mixed with water. I could see some oil floating on top as well. This floating oil used to get ‘mixed’ when circulating in the rig. I used a water cutting oil ratio of 5:1 (I was told 2:1 to be used that was very wrong I guess).

This synthetic one does not form layers. Its color when mixed with water remains same i.e. slightly changes color of water to opaque yellow (hardly noticeable).

In my next post, I shall post few pics to clear things up.

BTW today I visited doc and had a checkup.

[ibmkg]

Pic 1 shows cutting oil. To the left you can see GulfCut gallon. In the diet coke bottle, its the synthetic gulfcut oil mixed with water. Notice the amber color.

To the right you can see ordinary cutting oil (diesel based). If you mix this with water, you get milky white solution (which you can see in my previous posts).

Second pic : GulfCut mixed with water.jpg is the close-up of water-synthetic oil mixed. (Notice how soluble it is i.e. no layers formed. This solution I made more than 30 days ago).

Third pic is the reservoir pic. The hole that you see is where the pump would be.

Fourth pic shows the rad and fan with 1/2 inch pipe. Notice the rad 'tank' and barbs are made from brass.

I could not find another bottle to show you the actual (non-mixed) form of synthetic oil (was not able to finish up a bottle of coke myself ). However, I shall show you that in my next post as soon as the 'T's are made and perhaps nickel plate /chrome the pump also.

[charlie b]

most of the barbs you buy ie danger den are just nickel plated normal iron or steel so this won't react at all its more generally rubber based plastics that you have to worry about, and the mix in picture 2 is it 5:1 ratio i would make it a little stronger but only a little

[ibmkg]

The mix in pic 2 was about 10ml cutting oil with 1 lit water. This I did for testing purposes i.e. see if there is any bio growth or forming of layers.

Calculated solution will be made later on, which I would carry out as per your advice.

Also, I could not find replacement for T's (could not think of a way to make them from plastic). So I am going to use the old T's that I made from Cu tubing, quarter (coin) for blocking the holes at either end of tube and sealing it off with solder. On Saturday, I shall conduct the experiment.

One important thing I came to know: The fuel pump already has a coating of some sort. I actually asked some tech person to nickel plate it for me and he said that I do not need to as this pump has anodized coat (factory default, so that it does not react with petrol). Nickel will not be strong enough according to him.

[ibmkg]

I have resumed the experiment with synthetic cutting oil. Ratio is set to 1:50 (used 30ml cutting oil with 1.5 Lit of water).

If the pics are not clear enough, do tell me as I can provide quality pics.

The black residue you see in pic 'reservoir closeup' is due to some dirt and perhaps old cutting fluid, which was left in tubes (could not clean it away).

The pump is making some noise, which I could not hear with the use of old cutting oil (non-synthetic one). Perhaps this could be because I used a higher cutting oil ratio then. I am assuming after a little wear-tear this noise would be reduced.


Rough block dia.JPG ... Is the WB diagram I am currently using.

I would like to hear from you people about my current block (which I homebrew).

charlie b: Is the cutting oil-water ratio good enough?

[charlie b]

That looks about right, a little difficult to see but if it is in the tubing too then yes its about right. is there any opportunity for the liquid to evapourate, is it a sealed circuit.

I would leave a small breath hole on reservoir, for bacterial growth is either aerobic (in air) or anaerobic (no air) this stuff is not design to be without air after mixing and could grow some other anaerobic nasties as opposed to the aerobic ones that its used to which may in turn have their own odd effects.

Better stick to what you know to expect from it than do your own bacterial research, lol.

remember that the liquid will get stronger over time and will need topping up from time to time. When you do top it up, don't just add water, you must mix a weak coolant solution and add that to it, or you can have separation occur. I know it sounds strange but i've seen it happen. Doesn't always and its pretty rare in my experience but i don't risk it since i saw it.

[bigben2k]

I suggested Nickel because it's not too far from copper, on a galvanic chart. Chrome is a bit too far, for a good solution:
http://www.engineersedge.com/galvanic_capatability.htm

Nickel is just about ideal, and quite feasible. If you go that route, I'd recomend contracting this out, and make sure that you tell them that it's an anti-corrosion coating; they should know what to do.

Let me know how it turns out; I have no idea how much they charge, but I've also got a piece to do.

[ibmkg]

Good news and bad news.

Good News:

The black/brown residue that I used to get in the loop was neither algae nor corrosion.

Bad News:

The residue was actually carbon bush wear. Results in pump jam.

Conclusion:

Fuel Pump would never work. I am switching to washing machine pump. Should I post its details here or start a new thread?

[bigben2k]

Oh, a fuel pump, right... Sorry, I completely forgot about that part! No work around: new pump.

Thanks for sharing your experience; hopefully others will benefit.