This weekend I delved deep into my cooling system. New hoses, thermostat check on stovetop, search for corrosion. I have a number of old cars, always have worked on them myself, and one thing I do differently than many is I change out the coolant mix well before it "expires." I was always told a 50/50 mix of glycol coolant with pure or distilled water (or premix) will protect all metals well as long as it it not allowed to go bad, and that is exactly what I have found over the years. A commercial MG BBS site out of England claims no matter how well managed your coolant is, to expect corrosion and crud buildup wherever differing metals are present. No way to stop it, they say; Ph matters not in your coolant, it is only about salts they say, coolant is made up of salts and all salts expedite corrosion so be prepared by buying replcement parts before you find out you need them on the side of the road, at night, during an unexpected blizzrd. The 35 year PO of my TC had a similar philosophy on coolant as me, always kept it fresh, which explains why the original aluminum piece coming out of the head, just below the thermostat assembly, is original and pristine. I suppose all the PO's kept the coolant fresh, actually, as it would not take much time with expired caustic coolant to destroy that aluminum piece.
Though my TC does not run hot, occasionally it does probably get hotter than it could if I used one of the updated 6-blade impellors. Anyone know a source for a water pump with one of these? I prefer to avoid spending a huge amount for the racing grade 235 BP water pump (racemate or something such) being peddled on the BBS commercial site. It seems to me that one of the 6 blade impellers, properly mated to the water pump base, could avoid the traffic and idling heat-up to some extent that the 4 blade may not prevent well enough. Any thoughts or sources? Thanks so much.
