What boils over first ?? Who's the chemist

[67chevemall]

Antifreeze and water OR oil??

Just wondering if your oil boils and burns when the rad goes off smoking like a fiend.

[sdmahr]

Definately the water first. I'm not sure about the actual "boiling points" but my guess would be antifreeze second and oil third.

Anybody else?

[67chevemall]

50/ water 50/ Atifreeze
OR

Oil

[Jeepster376]

Water first @ 212 in open atmosphere but under the pressure determined by your radiator cap and mixed with anti freeze it's higher, like 240. If the pressure is released it's gonna boil right away. Hence the big release of steam, if you get a leak.

Motor oil boiling temps vary by oil types but it's in the range of 400 to 600+ degrees farenheit depending on the specific oil type, so don't expect your oil to boil too soon.

[72C203503ONTHETREE]

If your engine is hot enough to burn oil its basically destroyed beyond use.

[atcavage]

Wait, oil can be used as a coolant? Maybe I'm just not that truck-smart, but I don't get it. Please help me out.

[68 Suburban]

Originally Posted by atcavage

Wait, oil can be used as a coolant? Maybe I'm just not that truck-smart, but I don't get it. Please help me out.

Oil does not dissipate heat as well as water. Anti-freeze does not dissipate heat as well as plain water either. That is why you should not use more than a 50/50 mix.

[NPilot1975]

I could be wrong, but straight anti-freeze will boil sooner than water. You have to mix it to make it work correctly.

[3intheTree]

The three ways heat dissipates from the engine is from coolent, oil and air. Though coolent does the bulk of the work, oil will transfer heat from the hottest parts of the engine (heads) to reletively cool areas. Another reason to check the oil.

[Jeepster376]

Originally Posted by 3intheTree

Another reason to check the oil.

Check the what?

[Jeepster376]

Suzuki has used strickly oil cooling systems in some of their sport bikes.

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by Jeepster376

Suzuki has used strickly oil cooling systems in some of their sport bikes.

But most bikes are also designed for Air to do majority of the cooling instead of a liquid coolant.

And if I remember right pure antifreeze boils around 180ish (again why the 50/50 mix), Water 212, and oil depends on the aditives in it, but it's Dang hot.

[Cat Fuzz]

Antifreeze contains water pump lubricant and rust inhibitors. Running straight water will get your engine rusty and damage your water pump.

[shuttermutt]

Originally Posted by 67chevemall

Just wondering if your oil boils and burns when the rad goes off smoking like a fiend.

I'll take a stab at it...

No, in most circumstances your oil does not actually boil when you overheat. Assuming your antifreeze to water ratio is correct and considering the cooling system itself is under pressure, the boiling point of the coolant is well below the boiling point of your average S.A.E. 10W-30 motor oil. I say "most circumstances" because it is possible to boil oil inside an engine, but it's not very probable with even the most exotic automotive engine.

Why? There are a surprising number of factors that prevent boiling, but the first real problems we encounter as we begin to approach the kinds of temperatures required to boil are viscosity and thermal breakdown. This is due, to a large extent, to the high polymer content in multi-viscosity oils. At high temperatures, these polymer additives burn, create nasty deposits, and even trigger a thermal failure of the oil. That's why the general recommendation is to select a multi-viscosity oil with the narrowest acceptable range. In other words, 10W-30 contains fewer polymers than 5W-40 and therefore has a higher tolerance to temperatures outside the norm which is generally considered preferrable.

Let's say, however, that you manage to get around polymer breakdown. Now you've got to contend with the oil's flash point. The flash point is the temp at which an oil gives off vapors that can be ignited. You know those fires they tell you about where grandma's whipping up some fried chicken and burns down the block? A likely culprit is cooking oil heated enough to exceeded the flash temperature which gave off vapors that were then ignited by an open flame.

Most motor oils have a flash point between 400-500 F. When you exceed the flash point of the oil in an engine, you will begin to vaporize the oil itself in the highest temperature regions which, not by coincidence, leaves things such as the piston rings to deal one-on-one with things such as the cylinder wall. This vaporization could be confused with boiling, but it's really quite different. Regardless, it's not likely you'll be maintaining a rotating mass capable of generating the extra 100-200 F required to actually boil the oil in a pressurized crankcase once you've started mashing metal to metal.

I'm sure someone will correct me where I got my facts mixed up. Until then, I'm going to bed since I just realized how much all this typing makes me look like an arrogant ass.

[67chevemall]

Shuttermutt! Good Work!

I guess the motor would be toast if the oil boiled!
I just ran the truck toooooooooo! long with no fan(put it in last night thanks summit)
She started steaming! Just wondering if the oil boiled too!
Love that motor u know!
!

[72C203503ONTHETREE]

Hope you didnt blow a head gasket or warp anything. What was your gauge reading?

[67chevemall]

210!
I turned her off and she went to 250!

Then I opened the rad with a big towel and let all the pressure out!
Put the fan in and had her out last night runs great no leaks

Shut her down just in time!

I was trying to rid the winter blues out by heating her up, but let it go to long!

P.S. Fans are good!LOL