What metals cant you mix

if they are not electrically connected then you have no problems
But say you had a aluminum and a copper radiator and they are both bolted to your case then that may give you problems
you are more likely to have problems with corrosion if you run pure/distilled/d ionised water with no additives in it, or/ and PH levels are acid
 
davev8app said:
if they are not electrically connected then you have no problems
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Not sure what ^that means :rolleyes: but as mentioned, avoid mixing aluminium and copper in a loop. Not so much of a problem nowadays as almost everything is nickel or copper (fine to mix) but older radiators used to be made from aluminium.
 
gcaster said:
Not sure what ^that means :rolleyes: but as mentioned, avoid mixing aluminium and copper in a loop. Not so much of a problem nowadays as almost everything is nickel or copper (fine to mix) but older radiators used to be made from aluminium.
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I dont think i explain it to well... the corrosion happens because of electrolysis.
for electrolysis to take place the different materials need to be eclectically connected, like say a ally rad and a copper rad bolted to the case, the case will make the electrical connection
To explain why Distilled water or D ionised water will corrode metal
The water has had its ions removed doing the distilling/D ionizing process, water really likes to have ions so will pull ions from metals thus corroding them, this makes the water acidic which the will dissolve metal this will make the water conductive, so electrolysis is set up as the electrical connection thats needed in now though the water.
When additives are added to coolant like antifreeze/bioside etc this adds the ions back to the water so all is safe
I hope i have explained it i bit gooder
 
I'm not sure what my rad is. Being a cheap phobya external it's probably ally. gpu blocks are copper, cpu is nickel plated copper, fittings are *something* plated brass etc.

I'm ditching the external rad soon anyway, so meh
 
andybird123 said:
I've got nickel plated fittings, copper blocks and an ally radiator (mounted outside my case) and I have no issues with corrosion
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Same here, if you take precautions it's not an issue. At the very least all you need to do is use a coolant with corrosion inhibitor or just add corrosion inhibitor to plain water (you should be adding some form of biocide anyway, might as well use something that does both).

The big thing that scared people off mixed metals was seeing photos of people that didn't use corrosion inhibitor or were using mixed metal blocks where the plating failed allowing rampant galvanic corrosion to destroy the block.
 
jokester is right, if the coolant has some sort of inhibitor then it will be fine.

remember a lot of car radiators are copper when the engine block is ally. though i think modern cars cooling systems are all ally
 
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