A lot of the liner cavitation issues went away when mid stop liners came around, not so much of a big deal as you know. Most water filters from fleetgard anymore don't have much additives in them.
Yellow antifreeze
- Thread starter 03Duramax
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None of them should have traditional additives if you are running OAT coolants. They sell ones for ELCs that have no additives and have a thicker housing sometimes to hold up for the longer service interval.
Ok dumb question.... Is all this coolant talk based on a built engine or stock? My completely stock trucks just shy of $50K miles. Il probly change it soon. What is the stock recommendation for coolant? Thanks! Its My first diesel but i had plenty of vehicles in the past where we ran your basic 50/50 ecto-green prestone.
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I was just about to post that. It works great. I just used it to flush the cooling system on a 6.0 that was filled with oil from a failed oil cooler.
That's what I was getting at, the filters on newer ISX's are only filters, but they do make maintenance filters still.
For all duramax engines, built or not. Run dexcool unless you flush the hell out of it like these guys were talking about.
Funny you say this, I've seen CAT dealers install DEX-COOL coolant in there shops and say it's the same exact thing(even allowed by CAT as such). This was about 7 or 8 years ago though.
To keep life simple, just stick with Dexcool. The Dexcool issues/nightmares/lawsuits were related to incompatible gasket designs on some of GM's engines. 2-EHA is a common additive in OAT's from any brand, it is often blamed for deteriorating some gaskets. Overall its not that bad of a coolant.
My opinion is to simply use what the OE wants until you learn enough otherwise. Honestly the only reason I even go through the work of learning a lot about coolants and other fluids, is to reduce the number of different ones I have to keep on the shelves. Reduces costs, complexity, confusion, waste, etc. I buy the Delo 100+ gallons at a time, and buy the stuff for the German cars in jugs. They don't take much and I'm the only one ever working on them so its not a big deal. Their coolants are fairly different generally, is it necessary? Will something like Delo work? Don't know, haven't looked that far into it and honestly its very low on my worry list. I also like the pricing of fleet ELC's like Delo, versus something like Dexcool.
As for intervals, you can follow the OEM reccommendation of 5yrs/150k if you want. Change it sooner if you want. Or get the proper test strips to see what the coolant is really doing and then decide what to do. Remember to get strips for your coolant, as they all differ slightly. Remember that they expire as well.
On enough of our stuff, once you get past the first few years, you end up just changing the coolant when you have to drain the system for some sort of repair. It usually works out pretty well.
Some of them don't even have filters. A lot of the Cat's don't. There are still "boosters" you can add to the ELC's. I know with Delo if you add the booster at 500k it is supposed to go to 1 million instead of 750k miles. I still don't mind having the filters on there, theres still some junk they catch but I can't say I'd go through the work of adding one to something.
Yep. It may have changed, but the Cat ELC was Delo for awhile which would explain why Delo would be one of the few that actually went through the work of passing Cat's tests. Very similar coolants either way. IMO its a better coolant than Dexcool (Same company as Delo, Delo is a Chevron Brand, Texaco makes Dexcool and is owned by Chevron, this is irrelevant info though), and a better value. Its compatible, which is what matters. OATs can be mixed with other OATs, just not with IATs. HOAT's can be mixed with either, thats why the generally Yellow G05 is "all makes/models".
If you have a KW or Pete Dealer close by, you can buy the same stuff pretty cheap in TRP jugs. I would assume its Delo as well since Delo is the factory fill for PACCAR.
Theres a lot of other good brands out there as well. I mention Delo a lot, but most of the brands offered at big truck shops will be very similar in performance and value.
I find that hard to believe, Cat doesn't use anything but Cat labeled fluids in their shops. Regardless of who supplies it to them, it would not carry the Dexcool brand name.
Could be wrong though.
Good info, more than I care to know lol.
I've never ran into a HD Cummins that didn't have a filter, but Cat and Detroit may be different I don't have much time with those.
I've never ran into a HD Cummins that didn't have a filter, but Cat and Detroit may be different I don't have much time with those.
It was really bad on the one I did. The coolant was like mud. I was surprised how well it cleaned it up. Actually, I have a picture of the coolant.
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I don't understand it all either. Just enough to be dangerous lol. Some of its important, other stuff doesn't matter, the rest gets tangled up in marketing.
I haven't found a Cummins without one yet either, lots of Cats and euro motors without them though.
Tell me about it! When I was at the Cummins tech center, all we ran was Fleetguard ES Compleat. That made it easy, only time we ran different was maybe a Chinese based engine that they had to run some dark red looking bs. I forget what it was exactly, probably cause I couldn't read the barrel lol. But you didn't want that sticky crap on your hands! Kinda stung bare hands, never did taste it though :rofl:
I ran pond water and some old cheap stuff from the rig in my lly, but it drank gallons at a time. After that I just ran the green junk because I always had to drain it from breaking shit and it was free. Got the dexcool in my lmm until it becomes a heathen like the other truck.
It's made by Prestone so y'all should be able to get it down there. Just dug out my jugs and found a premixed one at 50/50 so I guess it is available in both. 
FWIW I was running Prestone Dexcool for over 200 000km with no issues so I guess their stuff is OK.
FWIW I was running Prestone Dexcool for over 200 000km with no issues so I guess their stuff is OK.
