Question about water vs. coolant

You have some kind of leak. It's not because you put in water instead of coolant that you have lost about 5 gallons in 1 day. Good luck.

 

You got problems.Get to a shop asap.Should be easy to find leak.Thats a big leak.1st Id ck coolant filter. Mine leaked once upon a time.(Freak) Ck tightness at all hoses. Do the things you can as a driver. cover your ###

 

If your loosing that much coolant a day I wouldent add squat. Id get to nearest dealer. Tell co cant drive trk. PERIOD. Ya you do need to add lube. to your system if you plan on driving.

 

http://www.finalcharge.com/questions.html

 

You have a secondary leak somewhere. Water will only boil over in extreme heat like over 90 and freeze in winter under 32.

It's hard to say when we don't know the problem. If it's the water pump, head gasket or EGR cooler, you are not far from total failure and won't make it.

If it's just a random "other" leak like a heater core, then you can make it with keeping the system topped off. It's even possible you have fan clutch problems and it can't handle idling.

A typical system holds 12 gallons and is a 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze.
Anitfreeze also has conditioners that keep the cooling system from rusting and lowers the boiling and freezing point.

Roads repairs are expensive. But a towing fee is even more. I would go to the dealer and at minimum get a diagnoses if you can't find the problem yourself. My guess is the water is going out the exhaust if you can't see anything. That means head straight to a shop.

 

If possible use DISTILLED water if your using only water or if its the 50/50 Glycol ( antifreeze ) and water. Minerals in plain water does damage

Race cars use only water and run 200'F and higher.

 

A road repair is a lot cheaper then a new engine due to it seizing from overheating.

 

The engine is designed to shutdown before that point hopefully. Anything is possible. Worst case scenario's are like a total EGR cooler or head gasket failure and the cylinders flood with coolant. Then the engine hydrolocks and scorches the cylinders, bearings and bends valves and stuff. Oil/water doesn't lubricate well.

Flatbed is correct on distilled water. But do what you can do get to a shop and then they will flush the system and fill it correctly after the repair.