Yong Heng and antifreeze coolant ?

I have an AV compressor and have always run Prestone 50/50 antifreeze in it for exactly that reason. If I would ever add any extra fluid it would be distilled water. 

Anti-freeze is not as good a conductor of heat as water alone. It is there to stop freezing and provide some chemical benefits to the metal. It may help prevent corrosion, but distilled water would probably keep the compressor cooler better than anti-freeze, even a 50/50 mix.

I can't say if using ant-freeze vs. distilled water would be noticeable or not. If you try it, keep an eye on the temperature and don't let it get much beyond 45-50 degrees C.

IMO, do not use anti freeze, can make a big very poisonous mess, and not necessary unless your compressor is in use below <32° temps.

Use Water Wetter with distilled or reverse osmosis filtered water. Better heat transfer than anti freeze. Adding a more powerful pump (than the small cheesy one that comes with the YH) creates turbulent flow for much better heat transfer. A cheap fountain pump from home depot works great and lowers temps considerably compared to the pump supplied with the YH..

Water wetter provides anti corrosion/anti rust protection and the heat transfer is outstanding when mixed correctly.

The last thing I do after using my compressor is to use my other air compressor to blow the water out of the lines and water jacket.

I have used antifreeze, water as a coolant in my compress for over a year with no noticeable ill effect. I have not had my two+ year old Yong Heng apart but out of curiosity I removed the inlet and outlet fittings and saw no signs of corrosion. I use a five gallon bucked with a lid, which I leave out on my car port year-round. I have yet to change the water/antifreeze, haven't seen a need to. The antifreeze also keep alga from growing in the bucket.

I too only direct fill my airguns and have had no overheating problem even on our warmest days.

If you do need to dispose of old antifreeze many landfills, recycling centers, garages, and auto-parts stores accept old antifreeze.

As to your lime build up. Distilled water would help. An alternative is to occasionally nun a Vinegar/water solution through it. Vinegar is acetic and will dissolve the base calcium carbonate. 

Some corrosion may be attributable to the galvanic current set up by 2 different metals. In this case iron and aluminum and maybe brass. Additives may work but Prestone anti freeze is formulated to prevent that type of corrosion. 

Why would antifreeze not cool as good as water, I ask? 

If the thought process is that a 50/50 mix of antifreeze is slightly more viscous than water, and therefore would "run" through the system slower, that would not be the reason. The reason there is a thermostat in automotive engines is to initially retard the flow of liquid so the engine will run at it's "best functioning" temperature. 

Does anyone actually know the "best functioning" temp to run a high pressure compressor at? I doubt if it is room temperature. I run my AV 4500 compressor for around 18 minutes every week or two to fill my 74' CF tank. The temp never goes over 66 degrees C. 

That outer sleeve should just pull off and it's sealed with two Orings.

jking

Why would antifreeze not cool as good as water, I ask?

Click to expand...

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/glycol-or-water-coolant/

Springerrr... OK I'll concede that maybe the heat transfer to a mix of antifreeze may not be as efficient as that to water. Just like it is probably easier to heat a piece of aluminum with a torch than it is to heat a piece of steel, however, in that article it said: "Compensating for the reduced heat capacity of coolant/water mixes would require circulating more fluid through the system". 

OK, if you have a cooling system that trickles fluid through your compressor, water would be the best choice based on that conclusion from that article. However, if your cooling system actively circulates fluid, there is no reason to believe plain water will significantly reduce the temperature of your conmpressor, and it will certainly not protect it from corrosion.

Since the OP stated: "My Yong Heng started to run hotter than normal. Took the top off and found a lot of lime from the cooling water (city tap water) was greatly slowing down the water flow. Quite a bit of corrosion in the aluminium cooling parts. Just thinking I should run distilled water with maybe some aluminium spec antifreeze". I would totally agree on his conclusion.

If you have a regular air compressor and really want to cool the cylinder head, you could buy a cold air gun, and that would really put a chill on the head. I have used them in milling and grinding operations to reduce heat build up. 

You can chill a warm can of pop on one end, and the exhaust end you could warm up a cold cup of coffee at the same time. You could even add a Y fitting to get 2 nozzles aimed at the cylinder head. I know putting ice in the bucket helps a lot but this is an amazing tool, no moving parts, simple and easy to use. https://www.amazon.com/Flexible-Aluminum-Mechanical-Process-Cooling/dp/B07B489N2L

That's pretty ugly far_shot. What kind of water and antifreeze mixture are you using. I was curious what my 3 year old AV looked like under the cooling shroud and I was very happy to see no corrosion at all. My coolant is 50/50 antifreeze with a little extra water.

jk

I think you can get the whole upper assembly, well let me rephrase that, you can order the whole head from China. Hopefully without the coronaviras attached...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32791488183.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000014.47.4281776c65XLeD&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.13338.128125.0&scm_id=1007.13338.128125.0&scm-url=1007.13338.128125.0&pvid=dfe66f16-34b3-4c8f-bdbc-030be12c7351

That's pretty ugly far_shot.

Click to expand...

Just plain ol city l hard well water. I'm going to go with distilled water and a little bit of antifreeze when I get it back together.

Click to expand...

Same here, as soon as my Water Wetter gets here I'm going distilled or at least purified.

jk

IMO, do not use anti freeze, can make a big very poisonous mess, and not necessary unless your compressor is in use below <32° temps.

Use Water Wetter with distilled or reverse osmosis filtered water. Better heat transfer than anti freeze. Adding a more powerful pump (than the small cheesy one that comes with the YH) creates turbulent flow for much better heat transfer. A cheap fountain pump from home depot works great and lowers temps considerably compared to the pump supplied with the YH..

Water wetter provides anti corrosion/anti rust protection and the heat transfer is outstanding when mixed correctly.

Speaking of better pumps home depot sells replacement pumps for wet tile saws, I bought a ryobi pump for my Y/H and it has performed flawlessly.

Click to expand...

That's pretty ugly far_shot.

Click to expand...

Just plain ol city l hard well water. I'm going to go with distilled water and a little bit of antifreeze when I get it back together.

Click to expand...

Might want to check your ph. If your water is acidic it will play havoc on aluminum parts.

Being new to the hobby and looking at the YH, I have been wondering why everyone is still using a bucket of water or whatever cooling fluid of choice instead of setting up a radiator based system? PC guys have been doing this for years and with the right pump and rad you could easily cool as efficiently if not more, PLUS you minimize the risk or a watery mess with a tipped bucket of coolant. Heater core from the parts store, 120mm fan that could run on a relay attached to the pump an a decent water pump and you have a nice closed system.