# Could You Replace water (In Car Cooling System) With Light Oil?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-replace-water-in-car-cooling-system-with-light-oil/734990
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 18, 2015, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-replace-water-in-car-cooling-system-with-light-oil/734990 "2015-10-18T12:26:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2015, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-replace-water-in-car-cooling-system-with-light-oil/734990/1 "2015-10-18T12:26:51Z")

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Suppose you used a larger radiator? Oil would solve many problems-no corrosion, better high pressure performance (no boiling). Of course, the heat capacity of water is the best…but has any manufacturer ever tried this?

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### Author: ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2015, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-replace-water-in-car-cooling-system-with-light-oil/734990/2 "2015-10-18T12:38:08Z")

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Oil coolers are used in some vehicles and there are oil cooled engines. The engine designs are optimized around their cooling method so simply replacing common coolants with oil won’t work well.

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### Author: ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2015, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-replace-water-in-car-cooling-system-with-light-oil/734990/3 "2015-10-18T12:53:03Z")

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You ought to suggest this to the car manufacturers. Letter-bomb them all.
