Probably a stupid question but is it advisable to be using coolant as my car runs cool but has only water in it.wats the best to use as theres a new yellow one on the market which can be mixed with any other brand and lasts 5 yrs,suppose to be americas no.1 so the add goes.

yes you should be running coolant. not as critical as 6 cyl as no alloy heads but still very important. i wouldn't be mixing any coolants either regardless of what the adverts say. 5 years is a long time between drinks as well. i just use tectaloy gold and change every 2 years. may not be the best but does the job.

I was going to recommend tacaloy gold also, been using it since i bought my EL

Yeah focus more on frequent change of coolant as opposed to super-dooper stuff that lasts 1 million kms... same principle with oil really...

Always always always use coolant. If not for its increased cooling capacity, for its rust inhibitors!!!

It also makes it much easier to answer that dreaded question "what's that pissing out of my car?"

Thanks fella's,i rang my engine builder and asked him why its only got water he said we always run water for the first 1000 k's or so,check everything fine then fill with coolant,he's want to wait till i get it tuned before he goes over everthing and takes it for a spin,goes in for a capa e series chip on monday.

no matter what car, no matter what material the block/heads are made of ALWAYS use coolent. coolent comes in 2 forms. these are CORROSION INHIBITOR and ANTI FREEZE/BOIL. At work we use burson brand CORROSION INHIBITOR i reckon this stuff is the bomb use it on all my cars even my mums saab.

when you do change your coolent do it this way, its foolproof and fail safe.

1. connect up your garden hose to the tap
2. turn the cars heater tap on
3. take your rad. cap off
4. remove one of your HEATER hoses off AT THE FIREWALL
5. Start the car
6. Turn the tap on, and jam the garden hose into the heater hose you disconected
7. after a minute or so swap the graden hose from the heater hose and put it in the radiator neck
8. Reapeat steps 6 & 7 2-3 times
9. Your cooling system has now been flushed full of clean water
10. stop water from exiting the garden hose
11. let approx a litre of water run out of the engine
12 quickly put your heater hose back on and tighten the clamp
13. top up your system with coolent
let it run until the t/stat opens. after the t/stat opens wait 5-10min for the system to bleed
14. top up with water if neccesary
15. put the rad cap back on and your done

sounds good but i thought most coolants are a 50/50 mix with demineralised water not tap,especially in sth.aust ours is pretty high in salt.

Water alone will run cooler than coolant, but as 4.9 said, it's function is to prevent rust.

why is that???