The Importance Of Grounding Heater Cores And Radiators

[toobroketoretire]

When your coolant circulates thru your heater core and radiator it creates a tiny bit of electricity that will slowly eat your heater core and radiator up from the inside out. The process is known as "electrolysis" and you can limit the damaging effect by grounding your heater core and radiator with a simple ground wire that is attached to the frame. Here's a picture of my radiator ground wire that is soldered to the coolant recovery tank outlet and grounded to the hood hinge bolt. If soldering or bolting isn't an option you can also use common alligator clips to connect to your heater core and radiator (I'm using a big alligator clip to attach to my heater core inlet tube).

 

[bill81vette]

You really need a life

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[stevolwevol]

When your coolant circulates thru your heater core and radiator it creates a tiny bit of electricity that will slowly eat your heater core and radiator up from the inside out. The process is known as "electrolysis" and you can limit the damaging effect by grounding your heater core and radiator with a simple ground wire that is attached to the frame. Here's a picture of my radiator ground wire that is soldered to the coolant recovery tank outlet and grounded to the hood hinge bolt. If soldering or bolting isn't an option you can also use common alligator clips to connect to your heater core and radiator (I'm using a big alligator clip to attach to my heater core inlet tube).

toobroke, I've never ever heard of this before. I thought radiators, and heater cores fail 1. when they get old, or 2. coolant hasn't been changed as it is supposed to be. Can you tell me how you came about this info? I had a radiator fail when I went through a hail storm (an old truck). The copper was so brittle, that the hail stones caused leaks.

 

[Antz81]

While it can happen, it's not as big an issue as you toobroke makes out. The radiator is likely to fail for other reasons before the electrolysis gets it.

Not sure about that red ground though.

 

[kpic]

Interesting however as usual, close but no cigar..

Electrolysis 101 | Vehicle Enhancement Labs

"Today’s vehicles have more electrical components/systems and computers, which causes higher demands on the electrical charging system and higher amperage output from the alternator. Cooling systems are more susceptible to electrolysis problems than ever before. Since the coolant conducts electricity the stray voltage will travel through the coolant to find a ground. Again, because aluminum is the softest metal in the system it is the most vulnerable and is most prone to failure."

"stray voltage will travel through the coolant to find a ground" and it appears toobroke... has added one.

It might be better to provide a sacrificial zinc as the aluminum engine on my bass boat has??

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

When your coolant circulates thru your heater core and radiator it creates a tiny bit of electricity

No it doesn't. Nothing to do with circulation.

Fail. :ugh

Keep the rest of your car in good condition, change the coolant occasionally and it'll be fine. No hokey wires required.

 

[kpic]

PS: Use distilled water.

 

[dougelam]

When your coolant circulates thru your heater core and radiator it creates a tiny bit of electricity that will slowly eat your heater core and radiator up from the inside out. The process is known as "electrolysis" and you can limit the damaging effect by grounding your heater core and radiator with a simple ground wire that is attached to the frame. Here's a picture of my radiator ground wire that is soldered to the coolant recovery tank outlet and grounded to the hood hinge bolt. If soldering or bolting isn't an option you can also use common alligator clips to connect to your heater core and radiator (I'm using a big alligator clip to attach to my heater core inlet tube).

If it was able to produce a bazillion volts being forced thru the radiator it would discharge itself to the engine ground in which is the SAME ground toobroke tied into!

Here's what he is referring to,
How to test for electrolysis | Vehicle Enhancement Labs

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[Peer81]

You can use the same method with old iron windows in a building. Connect all of them with a small wire, put a low current on it and at the end a small piece of aluminium. This way the softest metal will corrode and not the iron.
As for our vette's as pointed out above the engine ground will be fine.

Greetings Peter

 

[toobroketoretire]

The Damaging Effects Of Electrolysis

And it is the electrolysis that destroys your hoses. Gates has spent millions of dollars creating new "rubber" formulas that resist the damaging effects of electrolysis. Over time you will notice your hoses always get soft and bulge right where they connect to metal and it's the electrolysis that causes that.

When it comes to knowledge of electrolysis nobody knows more than our U.S. Navy.

 

[dougelam]

And it is the electrolysis that destroys your hoses. Gates has spent millions of dollars creating new "rubber" formulas that resist the damaging effects of electrolysis. Over time you will notice your hoses always get soft and bulge right where they connect to metal and it's the electrolysis that causes that.

When it comes to knowledge of electrolysis nobody knows more than our U.S. Navy.

No it don't!!!

Rubber is an insulator which means it doesn't react to electromotive forces

You see the hoses bulge at the outlet ONLY because the engine heats up during hot soak and the rubber at that point expands more and breaks the internal cords sooner than the rest of the hose.

I have NEVER and I mean NEVER saw a lower radiator hose fail!
And that covers 30+ years

You know toobroke;
If you posed your thoughts as questions or theories instead of "this is how it's done and the rest of you are idiots" you might be taken a little more seriously!

It's amazing how many DIY'S have an idea on how to repair their rides to keep them going and think the rest of the world doesn't have a clue!

Who do they think came up with, designed, engineered, built and tested these things?

And furthermore one who says "I can do brakes, I do mine and my friends all the time"
Hanging pads and rotors on a weekend is NOTHING like doing it for a living, every day, all day along with diagnostics for many crazy problems .

Some make money
Some make a mess

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[Antz81]

As dougelam said, rubber is immune to electrolysis.
Electrolysis only occurs when you have two dissimilar metals. Rubber is not a metal and so it is not effected.

 

[stevolwevol]

Is it possible that under the hood rubber breakdown is caused by ozone??

 

[kpic]

As dougelam said, rubber is immune to electrolysis.
Electrolysis only occurs when you have two dissimilar metals. Rubber is not a metal and so it is not effected.

Antz and Doug,
Electrolysis is limited to conductors. Last I heard rubber is not a conductor. However, as usual, toobroke's logic defies both science and also, common knowledge.
That said, you have to admit toobroke's inane bull malarkey is amazing in an insane, odd, and perverse sort of way.
Anyhow, he is worth a good

The wife is an engineer also. As she said he is enough to get a mare to bite her colt.

 

[toobroketoretire]

You should never ground an electrical device to a radiator but you should ground the radiator to prevent current from flowing thru it.

 

[kpic]

If you'd enjoy trying something interesting... Using an ohm meter, touch one lead to the radiator and the other to the frame.