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Silicate free antifreeze

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 6:59 pm
by Beetleman
I don't know if you can read this or not but I found a antifreeze reference chart on O'Reilly auto parts web site. Handy for finding a silicate free antifreeze.

Re: Silicate free antifreeze

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 5:11 pm
by propav8r
Nice. Right click>open image in new tab makes them a little bigger, or just Ctrl+ to zoom in. I filled my '78 up with G05 yesterday. Might be worth a drain and a trip back to the parts store for Zerex Asian vehicle coolant.

Re: Silicate free antifreeze

Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 1:43 pm
by JoelDean
I just bought the Zerex Asian vehicle for my '78 GW. Seemed like a no-brainer since it clearly states "Silicate & Borate Free" on the front label. Decent price at O'Reilly too. This is what the jug I bought looks like:
481DC04B-9F91-4BAA-8342-58B08B48B5BA-1461-0000018722981BEE.jpeg
481DC04B-9F91-4BAA-8342-58B08B48B5BA-1461-0000018722981BEE.jpeg (28.59 KiB) Viewed 1072 times

Re: Silicate free antifreeze

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:08 pm
by raiddrten
Good to know.Too bad I did not check here first....
I just completed a change with Honda car anti-freeze in the gallon size. It was $18.00 cheaper than buying the quart size at a motorcycle dealer, I suppose.

Re: Silicate free antifreeze

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:26 am
by salukispeed
Good information on the silicate free, one thing I do not see in most of the information is whether these antifreeze's are yellow metal friendly since we all have brass radiators and few if any of the Asian manufactures use brass radiators. nearly all cars use aluminum radiators today. It has become crazy, I have 6 vehicles and 5 are different manufactures so I now have a gallon of specific antifreeze for each, all different colors. all will have to be disposed of when the cars are retired what are we doing. and then some claim compatibility with all others????.

Re: Silicate free antifreeze

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:27 pm
by chunk
I've started using Prestone CorGuard yellow coolant to not have to buy different coolant for each vehicle / motorcycle. Prestone (I emailed them) said it is compatible with all metals and all colors of other coolants, although i would flush a system first. It is nitrite free (makes my bmw k75 happy) and silicate free to make the G/W happy. It has a small amount of phosphates that it can be considered phosphate free. This is all according to the Prestone technical department relayed to me in response to my inquiry. YMMV, cheers. Scott.

Re: Silicate free antifreeze

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 1:15 pm
by Sidecar Bob
The requirement for silicate free coolant is a web myth. There was no such thing as "silicate free" anti freeze when these bikes were made and it isn't mentioned in any of the Honda shop manuals or in any Haynes or Clymer's or the owner's manual.
They all say "50% water & 50% ethylene glycol". The only one that says anything more is my original GL1000 shop manual and it says "use coolant for aluminum engines".

There is some anecdotal evidence from people that said things like "I put anti freeze that wasn't silicate free in my 30 year old bike and a year later the original water pump started leaking" but I had the opposite experience with my 'Wing's water pump leaking the summer I changed to silicate free.

I believe that the "requirement" for silicate free came from the label on bottles of Honda coolant, where it was probably added by someone in sales who thought it would make people distrust other brands and if it was a real requirement it would have been mentioned in the manuals that were written by the engineers that designed the bikes. I don't know about you but I'll trust the engineering dept. over the sales dept. any day.

All that said, I don't think silicate free coolant will do any harm. I just don't consider it an important factor in my choice of coolant.

Re: Silicate free antifreeze

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 6:06 pm
by Whiskerfish
From the GL1800 manual.

Using coolant with silicate corrosion inhibitors may cause premature wear of water pump seals or blockage of radiator
passages.

Re: Silicate free antifreeze

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:01 pm
by Sidecar Bob
Um... I thought we were talking about 4 cylinder 'Wings here....