OMG, that's awful! I hate the thought of going thru the vc-9 procedure first, but that one paragraph makes me want to. Yech!

 

Question: Do you have to use special water to mix with ELC?
Answer: Water can be corrosive and/or have too many solids. This is one of the reasons
why additives are required in coolant. The water quality needed for use with ELC is no
different than that required for standard heavy duty or automotive coolants. While
deionized water is always preferred, good clean tap water from most municipal facilities is
usually satisfactory for an emergency situation. To eliminate the concern over water
quality, Cat ELC comes pre-mixed.



Now i get this great info

 

Read that again. That would not make me want to use tap water. Not when you see "usually" and "emergency situation". Those are weasel words. Stick with distilled, or deionized as a second choice. Deionized costs the same as distilled, or pretty close anyway.

Also, premixed isn't going to work for you unless you can get all the clear water out of the system before refilling. How exactly would you accomplish that in a 6.0?

 

So after reading the data from Cat is it your opinion that it is safe to run in the 6.0's?

 

I'm running elc right now. If Navistar fills the motors they sell to the public with it how can you go wrong? They designed and built our 6.0. I run it based on the theory that silicates may be plugging the oil and egr coolers. Maybe they are, maybe not. I haven't seen any lab reports on the so called casting sand found in the coolant filters so nobody knows for sure yet.

 

After all the reading I have been doing since this thread popped up, I don't see how you could go wrong as long as you are past the warranty period. Turns out a lot of 7.3 guys have been using this stuff for a long time. I appreciate your willingness to be an early adopter in our 6.0's.

I would not recommend this to anyone still laboring under the weight of a Ford warranty.

 

I had the solids from my filter analyzed - it was mainly silica. However, that does not eliminate either casting sand or coolant additive.

 

I have been using ELC (Fleetgaurd a Cummin's product ES Compleat?) in my 2000 Ex since it had 40'000 miles on it, we are now at 186'000, the 02 has had it for about 30'000 miles.

 

So there it is. Bismic is ahead of his time. It's not just theory that G05 coolant releases silica dropout. No more silicate precipitation when using elc and casting sand should eventually be picked up by a coolant filter. If this motor came with elc and a coolant filter from the factory how many oil coolers, egr coolers and headgasket issues would have been avoided? This is taking into consideration early tuners that caused more heat than they do now therefore causing more silicate dropout.

 

Sand is silica. So, as Bismic said, finding silica doesn't prove anything. Other than it's either casting sand or precipitates from the coolant.

 

For your reading entertainment:

Dex-Cool Mud issues - Diesel Place

 

Sand CAN be silica.

 

HD elc is not Dexcool. It is similar but HD elc has nitrite and moybdate in it. Dexcool is orange and elc is red.

 

Well, finally found the thread discussing International's reasoning for adding coolant filters to pre Jan 2006 built VT365 engines and the potential block heater reason. Just more info for the discussion and why International retrofitted coolant filters on some of their engines even though they came with ELC.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...ars-story.html

 

OK. So casting sand CAN be silica. That doesn't change the fact that you don't know if the silica that bismic found was casting sand or precipitates.