Acidic Antifreeze

[akghound]

I can get a couple hundred gallons of used auto antifreeze. The shop manager said it is quite acidic. Can it be neutralized with backing soda?
I want to use it in an open loop heating system.

[vdubnut62]

I would probably dose it with sodium or potassium hydroxide. My uneducated guess is that it would take a LOT of  baking soda.
I'm sure that one of the members with more experience in chemistry can give you a real answer.
Try a small sample and check the ph with litmus paper?
Ron.

[LowGear]

How much are you saving over the best brand new great conduction stuff you can buy?

Oops.  That was rational wasn't it?

Casey

Feasibility:  The difference between the ideal and the real.

[mobile_bob]

get a gallon of it and test it, then buy some dca fluid and treat it to correction
then compute what it will cost to treat the whole batch.

the dca fluid is not that expensive, and it usually doesn't take but about  a buck a gallon to treat the worst offending antifreeze.

actually it usually only takes one small bottle (4 dca units) to treat around 10 gallons, last i checked the stuff was only about 5 or 6 bucks a bottle.

bob g

[akghound]

Thanks Bob. Is DCA fluid bought at a parts house?
Casy ... 200 gallons at about $13/gallon? ?? Verses Free ... hummm
Ken.

[akghound]

Ok, I think I got it. Fleetguard DCA2 or DCA4. At first all I could find was some medical stuff. Thanks again.

[LincTex]

Everything in my cooling system is Iron. Wouldn't coolant slightly acidic help negate mineral deposits and rust from forming? Seems like it would be an advantage.

Newer cars have so many aluminum components in their cooling system, the acidic coolant slowly destroys the parts.  I see no problems running it in a system that was all iron.