Quote Originally Posted by speedyfix View Post
use coolant for its anti rust properties. not for the cooler engine temps.

open up the civic and the lancer and i'm pretty sure which one will have cleaner water passages.
+1

The Lancer's water pump failure could be due to any number of things not related to the use or non-use of coolant.

I'm really pissed with one of our former drivers... he made it a habit of topping off the Crosswind with tap water. Now we have a problem!

After 10,000 kms of use with tap water, the coolant bottle is full of rust and the radiator looks like it's full of mud... and it's losing water every few hundred kilometers... I'm thinking quite a few of the internal water passages are clogged by now.

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While you can run a car for quite a long while on water only, it's a huge compromise. The Civic might be able to get away with it, due to its well designed water passages and an engine that doesn't need as much cooling as other 1.6s and which can survive overheating better than most... (I'm still amazed by the tiny radiator in that thing) ...but it's not going to be a very happy engine by the time you need to overhaul it.