Question On Coolant?

Hi All,

On my first major road trip with my Damon Ultrasport Diesel Pusher, I had a heater core hose fail and lost a lot of coolant out on the freeway. I had to get coolant at the nearest truck stop and after some quick looking, chose a red coolant designed for diesel semi trucks. I wasn't paying much attention and never really considered the coolant beyond the fact that it was designed for diesel trucks and I am a Cat 275.

I have done a little reading on coolant here lately as I want to have my cooling system flushed and refilled and that's when I discovered that these red coolants have some specific properties to be long lasting and they shouldn't be mixed with other coolants. Well, far too late for that as I have already had this red coolant in the system for quite a while now. There was also some bottled water added to the system to top it off to facilitate the road side repair. Now I drove this rig all over the country like this and have not experienced any cooling issues. Right now, I am low on coolant and I need to top it up but I am now worried about putting any other coolant in the system based on what I learned.

My feeling is to just add water at this point as I don't remember what particular red coolant I used? Does this seem like the smart thing to do as I prepare to take it into Caterpillar for a full flush and fill anyway? Totally worried about mixing yet a third coolant into the system even if it is only for a brief period of time.

It's a newbie mistake but when you are broken down on the side of the highway, your thoughts go towards getting off the highway and not what particular coolant you use to make that happen.

Bernie

I?m running a Cat also. At this point I think if you really want to know what you have you should drain and refill with Cat ELC coolant (it?s a 50/50 premix, do not add water!). Until then, top up with the same thing, again not water.

Well that's the rub you see.
There are supposedly two types of red and I don't remember which one I put in there. Apparently they are not compatible

There was already water added when I put the red stuff in so I guess a little more short term won't be a big deal

If in doubt, I would drain and flush to start over.

However, the worst that happens with most coolant brand/type mixes is that you lose whatever extended life properties one may have had. I've not heard of any damage resulting as long as it was a diesel grade coolant.  Naturally, the coolant manufacturer always says "don't mix", because he has no way to know what you may may mix it with. And he wants to sell you his own stuff, of course.

Basically there are coolants that use Supplemental Coolant Additives (SCA) and the OAT-type that do not.

might wanna read this:

http://www.motorhome.com/tech/diy/what-you-need-to-know-about-diesel-antifreeze-and-coolants/