Now for the rest of the story! (I miss that guy...)
After I sent the full epistle of this journey down Prestone lane to Freightliner's head tech advisor and a subsequent follow up phone call, I present the following information.
At the factory, eleven (11) gallons of coolant is pumped into the system at 3 gallons per minute to avoid any air pockets. That's important.
Flash back to radiator hose clamp repair, and after that clamp was installed, the tech brought out six gallons of 50/50 antifreeze and five gallons if distilled water, like he knew that was the capacity. I was standing with him when he started to refill the radiator.
First red herring for me - there is a placard at the radiator that gives specific instructions on how to refill and purge the radiator. Written on it in Sharpie was "26 qts". I assumed that means put 26 quarts (6.5) gallons back in the radiator. Wrong! Smudged below that was the word "oil". Not seeing the oil note at the moment, I assumed we're putting 6.5 gallons back in the radiator.
Here's the math part - the tech puts four gallons of 50/50 of the six on the ground in, and three of the water, and the reservoir tops. Make a note, there's two gallons of 50/50 on the ground and two gallons of water. We crank it up, fine, we pressure test for 30 minutes, fine. We load the spare 50/50 and the water in the storage bay, and off we go.
You've figured out already we probably never had 11 gallons in the radiator.
Freightliner also says they have seen coaches run out 3,000 miles before they burp all the air. I think that's crazy, but that's their experience.
Over the course of the next 5,200 miles, I end up mixing and adding a quart or more on a regular basis.
On the way into Gunnison a couple weeks ago, pulling a pass, we get another low coolant, stop engine event, and I fill some more, still have maybe a gallon of mixed coolant and water left afterwards.
In Gunnison is when I get FTL on the line and we talk about the problem. I use the last gallon of coolant mix and fill the radiator and FTL says fill it to the top, past the MAX COLD line. At this point, I know for a fact that 11 gallons of coolant has gone into the radiator since the hose blew.
Two weeks later, I have to climb Monarch Pass, ~11,000 feet, and Poncha Pass, ~9,000 on the way to Taos. I decide this is the ultimate test if we have a fix or not, so I have Christi drive the Jeep, instead of towing, and I pull Monarch Pass and meet her at the top. Check the coolant level, just about right where I started. Fabulous! Absolutely no indication of any temp anomalies crawling the steepest part of the pass at 40mph, so we hook up. I pull Poncha Pass towing, stop at the top, still no issues, still full coolant.
Pull into Taos, still full to the mark on coolant, very normal temps.
So, 5,200 miles later, this is the best we have looked, we'll see if there's any more coolant to be added, but maybe, just maybe, the fix is in!
A long story with maybe a happy ending! And don't we all like happy endings?
More than one adult beverage has since been consumed.
