Thread: Aluminum termites

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There was a swap meet up in Tucson this last Saturday that I decided to take a load of stuff up to. One of the things I decided to part with was a factory aluminum Q Jet intake for a SBC. It had been painted black and looked kind of scruffy so I figured I just go ahead and bead blast it real quick. It had come off a running engine about 10 years ago but it looks like it won’t ever go back on another one.

IM2 by M Patterson, on Flickr


IM1 by M Patterson, on Flickr




Into the scrap aluminum pile for a while……waiting to see what the price of scrap will go up to with the tariffs.

On the bright side I sold enough stuff to make the trip to the swap meet worthwhile and Cade was able to go up with me.



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It look like Electrolysis, if it where galvanic action it would be next to a dissimilar metal I believe, you know the antifreeze is suppose to have some chemicals in it to prevent this. When I worked at the hospital I asked our water chemist what the best thing to prevent this in a motor would be, besides a sacrificial anode he said changing the antifreeze according to recommendations would be the best. I just sold my supercharger off my roadster and figured the aluminum intake would have looked like this as it had been on the car for 20 years and 5 years before was on for another 5 but when pulled off it looked great, I guess the 5 year antifreeze changes helped?? Or was it the grounding of the motor? I don't know but I don't believe yours is fixable, sorry to say

A guy I worked with at Douglas Aircraft married a gal with a Olds F85, little v8 with aluminum heads, and for a reason I can't remember pulled the valve covers. The walls around the water jackets were paper thin. He had the heads redone and found out a previous boy friend of his new wife had drained the anti freeze because he figured straight water would cool better. It will but causes havoc with dissimilar metals.
I believe the manifold can be saved but the question is whether it's worth it or not.

Both spots could probably be TIGed, but the manifolds nothing special and as I don't have a TIG welder the repair would cost more than I'd ever get out of it as a repaired intake.

It just kind of surprised me as I don't recall any coolant leakage from the engine when I parted it out.



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Distilled water will not support electrolysis.

It is the impurities (minerals) in the water which conduct electricity.

Wanna bet???????

Where your manifold has dissolved? is a common occurance------lots of aluminam erosion in all vehicles/engines over the yers NEAR where the coolant has left the cast IRON area and entered the aluminum. Particularly common in intake manifolds and front cover/water pumps bolted to cast iron blocks/heads-------

Running common ground straps to radiators, etc, can help and I personally believe lots comes from guage sensors being grounded to manifold so current is introduced to coolant at a vulneble area

Whanna bet what? That pure distilled water does not conduct?

Given that every one of my electronics instructors, and my chemistry instructors have all told me this, yeah. I'll take that bet.

I have seen this, you can take a sterile container with distilled water it does not conduct electricity nor will it boil, if you add one grain of salt, dirt etc it will do both, so distilled water in a motor has tds or total dissolved solids in it from everything in the motor and it then will conduct electricity and corrode, I was the water tester at the hospital and that's how we tested water solids is with a conductivity meter, so I would say your bith right as you could never have pure distilled water in a motor even if that's all you put in it

Originally Posted by Matthyj

I have seen this, you can take a sterile container with disstilled water it does not conduct electricity nor will it boil, if you add one grain of salt, dirt etc it will do both, so distilled water in a motor has tds or total dissolved solids in it from everything in the motor and it then will conduct electricity and corrode, I was the water tester at the hospital and that's how we tested water solids is with a conductivity meter, so I would say your bith right as you could never have pure distelled water in a motor even if that's all you put in it

Nothing is absolute, with enough potential it will conduct.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Whanna bet what? That pure distilled water does not conduct?

Given that every one of my electronics instructors, and my chemistry instructors have all told me this, yeah. I'll take that bet.

Theory says that two exposed broken ends of a 50,000 high voltage cable will not conduct if you pick up both ends simultaneously since in theory they are at the same potential. You want to take that challenge?

I think you are talking about condensed steam--------there's no such thing as distilled water------DIS????????Tilled????????????water is solid (ice) liquid (water) vapor ( steam) boiling is the action where it goes from liquid to a vapor and happens at 212*F or 100*C

Mike-----------do you want me to weld that manifold????

Thanks for the laugh.. Now look up De-Ionized Water!

I hate to tell you, but in this world as far as electronics or electricity is concerned there are conductors and insulators and with enough potential difference ANY insulator can be overcome.

Jerry, You are absolutely correct if you are implying I cannot spell, especially since I was on a cell phone and was watching a truck to unload pull in for me to unload , laugh I guess? I can only state the facts told from 2 chemists, distilled water is formed by condensation, it leaves behind any minerals or impurities when evaporated and recaptured, pure water I was told by a science teacher that without contaminants can be somewhat kept from boiling and can be super heated, he said he does this in class and as soon as one grain of salt, rust or mineral is put in it will boil, this I cannot prove nor disprove, I actually don't care. But we tested all waters conductivity in the hospital, be it condensation, potable, boiler etc with a conductivity meter measuring how it conducts electricity, this determined its TDS, or total dissolved solids it did not tell what minerals nor chemicals causing the added conductivity, when its is non conductive or very low it was distilled by some means, same thing goes if the condensate has conductivity there was a leak into it from another source. On forward I happen to be dealing with replacing a hose or something on a car and asked the chemist if I should use distilled water and he said no, two reasons, as soon as its in your cooling system it picks up minerals and electrolysis can still occur, he said use antifreeze because it contains anti-corrosion chemicals to prevent corrosion, make fun or whatever you want, I tested water for 5 years, I saw that distilled water measured 0 on conductivity, and I could add the smallest mineral to it and it raised the conductivity, so yes distilled water in a cooling system can still corrode he told me, it no longer is pure with the rust and impurities from within the system, I did consider him a expert.
Ken you are correct and good point, we did not check high voltage that's not what we where after, we checked the opposite by testing how little it would conduct to see for impurities to see for its corrosive properties, high voltage can jump thru air, so we know it could water...

Well we know that high voltage does exist on a motor, 30KV on HEI (and higher) and even the purest distilled water can ionize from just the air, not to mention pouring it through an engine, and antifreeze surely has some conductivity: so you can't get away from it I suppose.