alright, i flushed my cooling system about a month ago and added too much water to the mix. my system did not drain fully after the flush, so excess water was left in the system. i added half a gallon of pure antifreeze and then filled the other half with water and added all of that. then the system was full, but very water down, only tested -4 on the hydrometer. i figured since we are in summer months now, that it would be ok, but would the watered down mixture make it boil easier too? i thought water had a higher boiling point that antifreeze did. the reason i ask this is because when i got home today after driving you could hear the coolant boiling in the radiator and as soon as i popped the hood it all came bubbling out of the overflow tube. what should i do, should i drain about a half gallon out and then fill up with half a gallon of pure antifreeze(dexcool)? please help. thanks.

 

Just making sure I understand correctly, you refilled your cooling system with Dexcool and not a glycol base antifreeze, right? The antifreeze should raise the boiling point temp over a water only system. Also, what temp thermostat are you using? Can you tell if the fans are working? If the overheating persists, I would pull the radiator and have it looked at by a shop. Perhaps some scale and dirt flushed out of the block and into the radiatior core tubes.

Good luck,

Richard

 

But from my understanding, running distilled water in a radiator will run cooler than antifreeze. But can you get away with that in the LS1 since it calls for dexcool?

 

Cannot recall the BP of straight antifreeze, but,

when you mix pure water in the pure antifreeze you form a eutectic solution (hope my memory is correct). This means that by mixing the two, the end product will have both a higher boiling point and a lower freezing point than either of the two liquids when used alone.

Wow! If I am correct on the term, I haven't used it since the late 1960's!!!!!

If I am wrong, please someone let me know. Gracias.

Steve