[Vwdiesel] Electroyisis and heater core/radiator

[Val Christian]

OK, I went outside and took a meter with me.  100 mOhm meter.
Cleaned off a point on the radiator and measured between the radiator
and the mounting screw (which sits at chassis ground).  0.223v,
and less than 2 uA (ie: immeaurable on my meter).  

The car is a 91, and has tap water in it.  I change coolant frequently
enough, and my tap water is relatively good.  The car has a replacement
radiator with 120Kmiles on it.

I would NOT ground the radiator, as that would complete the circuit,
and encourage galvanic decomposition.  I wonder what kind of current
flows on a head / block combination?  You can expect that the current,
whatever it might be, probably doubles with every 10F increase in 
temperature, so the action would be worse on a hot head/block combination.

++++++++++++++

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+++++++++++++

Val

> 
> Hey Val,
> It's new to me also.  The core has a red tag on it to do this check.  
> It claims the anti freeze could be bad if you get .3v.  I've only got 
> 6 months since I flushed it and use distilled water.  Looking on the 
> web I've found a number of sites talking about the car having bad 
> grounds and it's seeking a ground through the coolant and of course 
> metal is being removed.
> 
> I'm not sure how long my heater core has been in the car.  The car has 
> 170k miles on it.  55k since I've had it.  It seems to be blocked so I 
> picked up a replacement.
> 
> 85 VW Golf 1.6 NA
> http://www.rhinocat.com/cvaf4u
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 19:54:50 -0400 (EDT), Val Christian wrote:
> > Wow, that's a new one on me.  If I found a 0.3 volt differential
> > either way on my radiator or any other cooling system part, I'd
> > expect
> > leaks real soon.
> > If you want, I can go digging on the chemistry.  On the other hand,
> > I
> > have enough brothers with piled high and deeper degrees, that I
> > ought
> > to just ask them.
> > Oh, to answer your question, if there is a voltage differential, you
> > can bet your front struts that some metal some place is
> > disappearing.
> > Not good.  My uninformed opinion only.
> > Val
> >> 
> >> I'm about to embark on changing out my heater core.  The
> >> instructions
> >> state to check with a digital voltmeter with the ground lead to
> >> the
> >> neg of the battery and the positive lead to the radiator core.  If
> >> it's greater than .300 volts, the aluminum heater core will fail.
> >> Well I measure mine and it's -.360 (it's negative).  I know
> >> there's a
> >> couple of experts on the list.  To me, if the voltage is negative
> >> it
> >> should be ok by the directions, but to me, there's got to be an
> >> electrolysis issue going on if there's any reading, positive or
> >> negative.  Is my logic faulty?
> >> Bud
> >> 85 VW Golf 1.6 NA
> >> http://www.rhinocat.com/cvaf4u
> >> 
> >> 
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Vwdiesel at vwfans.com
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> 
> 
>