Coolant additives and cavitation erosion

[Smoky]

Dang!  That message was "above"!!

 

[blueblood]

Dang!  That message was "above"!!

Sorry about that. Forgot one can display in either order. I obviously opposite from you. :-[

 

[Smoky]

LOL, maybe one of us is reading from Australia? 

 

[Smoky]

Just to add to the confusion .... from another forum:

Subject: Re: Re: Coolant types used

I wish coolant maintenance was as easy as you say, but from what I have
experienced it may not be.  For instance what kind of SCA do you
add?  There are 4 kinds.  You need the correct one for your coolant. And
you cant go by the color of the antifreeze because for every color there is
more then one kind.  Also if you check the cummins specs the water has a
spec (Calcium/Magnesium Max.170ppm as CaCO3+MgCO3, Chloride Max.40ppm as CI
,Sulfur Max.1 ppm as SO4. Just a mix of 50/50 is not enough.

What I am attempting to say is that everyone should know what kind of
coolant is presently in their system and stick with that exact type. Adding
coolant to an unknown coolant in your system is just asking for trouble.
Engines and radiators are just to expensive to take chances.

Here is a warning from Penray:
http://www.penray.com/bulletins/compatibility.htm

IV. WARNING:
There are organic acid antifreeze/coolants on the market marketed as
"extended life" coolants (i.e. DEXCOOL?, Texaco? Extended Life Antifreeze
and Caterpillar? Extended Life Antifreeze.  These products' performance may
be compromised if mixed with conventional coolants. Do not mix the
two.  Organic acid antifreeze/coolant can be recognized by its distinctive
orange or red-orange color.


  I was talking to a diesel mechanic friend of mine yesterday. He told me 5
of his customers in the last month have had cooling system leaks using the
extended interval coolants in their cummins engines. It eats O rings and
gaskets. This same problem was documented with Dexcool some time ago.

Thats why I do it myself so I can be sure of what is in my system.

*****

I thought the Penray link was most interesting.  Leads me to believe, "never add coolant"  just change it.

 

[blueblood]

I wouldn't argue with his basic premise that sticking with the original antifreeze used in your motorhome would be the easiest. However, I think posters sometimes just make it too technical. For example, the water chemistry. Fleetguard uses the words "use good quality water" throughout thier literature. Yes, they feel its incumbent upon them to at some point to define what "good water chemistry" is and they do posit the formula the poster used. But he left off the other part of the story. They identify this as either deionized, distilled or deminealized water. Most of us have easy access to at least the later two formulations.  We don't need to go around hunting for the exact formula. As for SCA, Cummins specified DCA4 beginning in 1984 and it hasn't changed in over twenty years, so not too complex.

What I think is most interesting is that over the years manufacturers such as Fleetwood have strived to provide product that takes out these variables and it's a hard sell despite recoomendations from such organizations as Truck Maintenenace Council (TMC) to use them.  I'm referring both to so called fully formualted and pre-mixed versions. 

 

[Smoky]

Are you recommending or not recommending Fleetwood?  Not sure by the way you said that.

 

[blueblood]

Are you recommending or not recommending Fleetwood?  Not sure by the way you said that.

Too may Fleet's in here. I use whatever the chassis manufacturer intially does in the intial engine dress.  In my case it was Fleetcharge (Not Fleetguard or Fleetwood) made by Old World Industries who is better known by consumer brands like PEAK. I purchased replacement bottles from Feightliner dealer under the Freightliner Parts Alliance Brand Name but which uses OWI PN and took the motorhome back to FCCC factory in Gaffney for changeouts.  So, like the recommendation in the posters comments, I stuck to the original and did not worry.

Had I let the Cummins distributor do the coolant changeout at same time as some other engine service, he undoubtedly would have used a Fleetguard version. I do think Fleetguard is a very high qulaity product and prefer it when the situation allows.

One more thing - For models 2002 and beyond Freightliner changed the coolant change to 60 months or 100,000 miles whcihever comes first as long as you checked freeze point and SCA's every six months. The time frame and mileage means few owners are ever going to have to change out coolant.

 

[blueblood]

I was working with Cummins today and asked an application engineer what water filter they were shipping engines with to FCCC. I was surprised when he said that the water filter is now an option and FCCC wasn't buying engines with this option. I'm trying to find out from FCCC if this is true and if so are they adding one or if MH manufacturers are adding one( which I think unlikely); if I decide to trade soon I'm going to be sure my MH comes with a water filter. I posted above or below  ;D the link to a report that shows the amount of stuff a water filter removes. From earlier comments by Monaco folks it seems like Roadmaster is using a water filter.

 

[Tom]

From earlier comments by Monaco folks it seems like Roadmaster is using a water filter.

Just for clarification, if I was one of those Monaco owners, I'd have been referring to the "DCA filter" which, of course, is not really a filter.

 

[blueblood]

From earlier comments by Monaco folks it seems like Roadmaster is using a water filter.

Just for clarification, if I was one of those Monaco owners, I'd have been referring to the "DCA filter" which, of course, is not really a filter.

WAter filters and DCA filters are one and the same. The water filter is simply impregnated with DCA to bleed out over time. One can buy a water filter only; in the Fleetguard system it would be a WF 2077 for either DCA 2 or DCA4. You used part numbers that included units of DCA.

 

[Tom]

WAter filters and DCA filters are one and the same.

OK thanks for clarification. I'd read somewhere that none of them performed any filtering per se, and that the WF2077 was merely a "pass through". I need to go research where I read that.