Antifreeze Protection

[billbadalato]

I was looking at a US post about a 2015 that was delivered in March of 2015 and the antifreeze protection was at 10deg, F which is -12 deg C. from the factory.
This is not good enough for our northern cars.
I checked mine yesterday and it is good for -22deg C which is not good enough either as I store my car in an unheated garage and last year it got to -32deg C in London, so i will add some antifreeze to bring the protection to a better level.
You may want to check your antifreeze protection,

 

[smackYYZ]

Looks lie according to the manual http://www.chevrolet.com/content/da...ip/Manuals and Videos/02_pdf/2k14corvette.pdf They are saying

Use a mixture of 40% DEX-COOL coolant and 60% clean, drinkable water. If using this mixture, nothing else needs to be added. This mixture: . Gives freezing protection down to −28°C (−18°F), outside temperature. . Gives boiling protection up to 129°C (265°F), engine temperature

and then:

If ambient temperatures are anticipated below −28°C (−18°F), make sure a proper mixture ratio of 50% DEXCOOL coolant and 50% clean, drinkable water is used.

Luckily I keep mine in a heated garage during the winter months.

 

[tyho]

One would think that if GM is shipping these cars to Canada, they would know the temps drop below -28C, especially to the northern parts. This may be another cost cutting measure (to save on antifreeze) or simply overlooking the facts ... but wait. Does Alaska have any C7's?

 

[Black 03 Z06]

This is a great discussion and information. I am willing to bet most people would put their cars away for the winter and not give the strength of the anti freeze one thought. I think most would just assume that it would have the strength to handle even minus 40F.

Apparently not.

 

[smackYYZ]

Now I just did a search and found this on a Stingray Club site:

DEX-COOL® Engine Coolant/Antifreeze and Water Mixture Recommendation

The 2014 Stingray uses a new recommended engine coolant/antifreeze and water mixture of 40% DEX-COOL® antifreeze and 60% clean, drinkable water. A 40/60 mixture is 2:3 (2 parts antifreeze – 3 parts water).

• In the United States use DEX-COOL Coolant GM P/N 12346290
• In Canada use DEX-COOL Coolant GM P/N 10953464

For more information, refer to: Cooling System Draining and Filling (Static Fill) and/or Cooling System Draining and Filling (GE 47716) in SI.

So I wonder what the difference is if any. I searched teh AC Delco site and couldn't find the US part number but found the CDN part and there was no good information.

 

[Riley P]

Very interesting find! I am surprised that the cars would not have the correct strength of antifreeze!

 

[C7Driver]

I'm going to check mine , I am in London as well , my car was stored in a unheated garage but it is attached so stays warmer than the outside temp. We leave for Florida in the winter, mine was in that garage last year during that cold. May have to do something about it if it is that weak a mixture. Here some new record lows set in Southern Ontario this past winter as of Feb 23rd from a article so there might have been even colder days after that. I see in 1970 that London hit -30.7c according to records.

Many cities across southern Ontario posted new record lows, or got close to them, Monday morning. At Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, the recorded temperature at 7 a.m. was –21.6 C, breaking the previous record of -19.4 C, which was set in 1972.


Hamilton’s new record is -25 C, compared to -22.2 C set way back in 1870. London’s new record of -24 C beat the previous record of -19.3 C, set in 2011, and Sarnia dipped to -23.1 C, beating the 2011 record of -20.6 C.

 

[Keith Tedford]

Years ago the mix was 50 - 50. Now they call for 40% Dex-Cool and 60% water. Whatever, I stick with the old 50-50 mixture. I don't know what the coldest was in the Peterborough area this past winter, but the cemeteries were going over four feet to get through frost when digging graves. One farmer has a water line from the house to the barn. They know that the line is down about five feet and it froze this past winter. First time ever. Rad flush and all new antifreeze this summer in the Corvette so it's good to go for a few more years. As far as the different part numbers, it might be nothing more than labelling and the American gallon versus ours. Some times the environmental laws are a little different dictating slightly different ingredients in the mixture.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Manny replaced all the fluids in my car in May 2014. I did check the anti freeze when I put the car away and I think it was minus 50F. There were times in February that it indeed felt that cold. We burned more wood this past winter trying to keep warm than ever before. It was indeed a brutal winter and it is worth keeping an eye on fluids in both the Corvettes and daily drivers.

 

[Keith Tedford]

Global warming is so real that Obama stated lately that is a matter of national security. How scary is that. Al Gore got rich pushing it. Several miles of ice was lost off of one side of Antarctica. They just failed to mention the little point that several miles of ice were added to the other side. I think we will all be pretty safe at a 50-50 mix either way in our lifetimes
.

 

[C7Driver]

Checked mine today , at -35c . Ok with that it sits in attached garage in the winter, -30.7 is an all time low for our area and of course that is for an hour or so in the coldest part of the day, the garage would never get that cold.

 

[VINDIC8R]

Global warming is so real that Obama stated lately that is a matter of national security. How scary is that. Al Gore got rich pushing it. Several miles of ice was lost off of one side of Antarctica. They just failed to mention the little point that several miles of ice were added to the other side. I think we will all be pretty safe at a 50-50 mix either way in our lifetimes
.

I so hear that. I am really not buying into global warming as anything the human race is doing other than dirtying our planet. I do believe our Sun has a whole lot to do with the climate change. I have never blamed my furniture for the unusual warming of my living room. I have always blamed my furnace. It's going to get a lot warmer before we have to do any adjustments to our antifreeze levels [chortle].

 

[wilyvet]

Very interesting find! I am surprised that the cars would not have the correct strength of antifreeze!

If you follow the Corvette Forum USA, you will see hundreds of posts regarding the problem of premature calefaction with C7 Z06s (overheating prematurely in track use). GM Bowling Green apparently anticipated this problem by changing from the earlier 50/50 : water/antifreeze factory mix to a 60/40 : water/antifreeze factory solution for 2015 Corvettes. To mitigate the problem of 2015 Z06s overheating, Z06 owners have had partial success by going further - to an 80/20 mix, or even 100% water with some Water Wetter. Of course one would change back to a mix featuring antifreeze before winter. Aftermarket suppliers are already offering better water radiators for C7 Z06s.

 

[C7Driver]

Climate change, couldn't we just get back to controlling pollution and focusing on that. They don't have a computer sophisticated enough to accurately predict fluid movement thru a pipeline yet , forget about the vast multitude of variables and the interactions within our climate. Turn the sun off and we know what happens, have it get active for a few years and the world heats up , just ask the dinosaurs about climate change. The study of climate change sure employs a lot of scientists though, all those grants and private foundations that fund their research to support their views, any wonder they are sure they know the answer , but of course it need mores study. Oh and never mind Al Gores spends $30k a year on hydro at his residence or flies private jets around the world, limos to his conferences...

Oh and glad my antifreeze is ok