Corrosion from the outside due to salt spray is a much more likely problem. As long as correct coolant mix is used and changed or refreshed as required internal mixed metal corrosion is virtually a non issue. The main issue I see with modern cooling system is plastic parts becoming brittle and cracking although I have also seen rads fail due to physically getting rubbed through by unsupported looms and hoses .
Some designs of crossflow rads are prone to fatigue of the tubes due to vibration from rough roads. Back on the old days of brass rads we also used to see a lot of fatigue failures in soldered joints on rads, the soldering on the top hose spigot would split due engine vibration transmitted through top hose, not helped by the age hardening of the rubber hose.
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Where I see the lack of corrosion protection with old coolant or electrolysis is inside the engine where 2 dissimilar metals meet the aluminum head or intake will act as an anode and take the brunt of the corrosion
We used to see a lot of this especially pre 1985 or so, in those days a lot of tbe cheaper antifreezes sold in Europe as suitable for engines containing aluminium in fact were formulated as a mixture of glycol and some methanol as a result on engines with mixed cast iron and aluminium the aluminium would suffer. In those days we were Chrysler UK (Rootes/Simca) dealers and we used to have to we send a lot of alloy heads out for TIG welding repairs to the water ways where the cylinder head contacted the cast iron cylinder block through an old style copper asbestos gasket.
These days we have coolants based solely on with ethylene glycol or less commonly propylene glycol it is much less of a problem, the thing you have to watch now is to avoid mixing coolants with different corrosion inhibitor types.
Glycol based antifreeze was first produced in the USA and only appeared in quantity around 1939 and the import to the UK for use in the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine was an important factor in the Battle of Britain.
" We're trying to plug a hole in the universe, what are you doing ?. "
(Walter Bishop Fringe TV show)
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