haven't had to top it up. the new engine has used very little oil at all. i did however use the full load ring sealing technique to see if that made any difference to oil consumption but i have nothing to compare it to. if your engine hasn't used any oil either then it would have appeared to make no difference.

maybe thats why the s2000 engine oil consumption varies so much.

if i had to top it up, i would be topping it up with gtx magnatec, as that is what was used as a new oil and what honda technical confirmed a new engine should be filled with for the first 9000 miles in the uk.

 

Just called the garage who fitted my new engine. Their response was that I should take it into my local stealers and get them to check for leaks as it could be leaking from anywhere (mmm, very technical answer, not.)

I asked if it was ok to top up woth distilled water (knowing that Brian had already said this was ok), they said use tap water! Distilled water is only for batteries!

Question is, what water are they drinking! Are all dealers really that stupid?! Like I'm going to put London tap water into my engine, you must be joking! The amount of limescale in my water is insane!

 

firstly, i checked my coolant at lunch time. no loss at all. hurrah.

secondly, filling an engine with deionised water is not necessrilly a good idea. unless the antifreeze/corrosion inhibitor is designed for use with di water, you shouldn't use it. DI water is actually very corrosive and eats aluminium, iron and steel for breakfast. in my old mr2, the coolant was designed for use with DI water. normal antifreeze is not and if you use di water with it you will disable the corrision inhibitors straight away and may end up with a corrosive coolant.

 

This is top up, not filling. Without knowing what the local tap water is like, it's valid to use it to top up. The impurities in the tap water can potentially do more harm to your engine. Deionised water will mix with any ethylene glycol based coolant which is what should be in the car. It'll even mix safely with propylene glycol coolant (whcih they won't have used). The coolant itself contains the corrosion inhibitors, along with lubricats. (The additives are actually making the coolant less efficient at cooling, but are there for corrosion protection, and lubraction. Using the wrong coolant, doesn't only hasten corrosion, but hastens wear particularly the water pump.).

-Brian.

 

Normally the long life coolant used in engines is around about 45% concentration nominal. A normall engine fill will be 45% LLC plus the remainder de-ionised water and this won't cause any problems at all.

A hard water won't any problems so much as the volume is kept low. Less than 100cc's won't cause any problems whatsoever so will be ok for small amount top ups.

Hard waters will allow the minerals in it to precipitate out and could cause some blockages in the coolant system or passenger heating matris but in small quantities this is negligable

 

di water will mix with all types off coolant, but will disable the corrosion inhibitors. hence the coolant has to be designed to work with di water. di water is corrosive and will therefore react with the corrosion inhibitors. this in itself won't cause damage but if the coolant isn't designed to work with di, then all the corrision inhibitors may react with the di and no longer be corrosion inhibitors. if there are insufficient quantities of corrision inhibitor in the coolant mix, you will end up with a corrosive coolant.

 

Bit of info that might be useful:

Went up to Bristol Honda yesterday to order some parts for my 54k service. Was going to get some Honda Type 2 coolant but the Parts chap said that they use Castrol Antifreeze concentrate (they also use Castrol oils).

So it seems fluids differ from dealer to dealer too.

 

Wow - thread resurrection!

There is an international standard for the coolant, so they should all be of a minimum quality.
I just used the Helfrauds stuff to do a flush and change on mine.
Just be sure they bleed it properly.

 

"There is an international standard for the coolant"

Like Oil,
And Windscreens.

You know what happens when you try and discuss those on here Mikey