Coolant fluid for Desoto s11

[tom61]

Hello everyone, Just wondering if anyone out there has a 1947 Desoto s11 or similar car and would know what is a suitable coolant for it.

I think they used to use water with an anti-rust additive in summer and then 'mopar coolant' in winter.

 

What would be a modern coolant for it? Does it matter at all? Nowadays there are soooo many different coolants out there and each one 'designed' for a specific make .... (good old days when things were nice and simple).

 

Why would some coolants be more suitable then others? Affects on Corrosion, galvanic cell, cast iron engines, etc....

 

 

What are your thoughts?

[Guest]

Go back to the main forum page and do a search.  If you search coolant you will come up with 196 pages of previous discussion, if you search antifreeze you will come up with 59 pages.  Skim through some of these.  Some of them have attachments to proper technical information.

I'm not trying to be a smart alec about this but there is so much info it is hard to understand.  I used regular Prestone antifreeze for 59 years and changed it ever two or three years and never had a problem.  Now they have technical terms that I don't understand.  You do definitely need something with a lubricant and a rust inhibiter.

Remember if you ask twenty people you will get twenty one answers.

Good Luck.

[Spinneyhill]

Hear hear. Good answer. Ask the www too. But take care in fora, there are a lot of "facts" known by people that are untrue.

[tom61]

Thanks guys. I'll look it up

[Spinneyhill]

Just remember that engines today are much harder to protect against corrosion and they have all sorts of seals and gaskets in them that our older cars did not have. ANY antifreeze with anti-corrosion additives is good, but you don't "need" the more costly OAT types. Note how it breaks down with time too: change it every two or three years.

 

There will be posts and articles about antifreeze attacking some types of gaskets or seals. If you look for some of my latest posts on this topic it is discussed there. It is not true!

 

Here is one such:

 

Edited November 15, 2017 by Spinneyhill (see edit history)

[hchris]

For the past 30 years I have been on rain water for my early Mopars, no problems yet. Of course I live in a relatively warm climate so wouldnt recommend just water if you live in the freeze zones.