I was running fleet charge in it for about a year and I had to replace the water pump, an injector cup and the radiator. Probably just because it hadn't had any antifreeze in it for more than a year but I switched back to prestone anyway. I do know that we had to use ethylene glycol in the chill water system on my ships because propylene glycol was not compatible with the seals though. I'm not sure which fleetguard is but that should be taken into account if it's a different chemical than it came with.

 

I did a little more researching into the Fleetcharge. It is low silica Ethylene glycol based and has the same basic characterstics as your regular "green" antifreeze. It can readily be mixed with the green antifreeze.

There are a ton of antifreeze choices out there to pick from. To date, it doesn't seem like there is a confident list of coolants that can be used for our older engines. From the information I gathered... As long as you stay away from propylene style (the environmentally friendly kind) you should be ok. I believe you regular prestone antifreeze (what you'd use for a gasoline engine) are high silica formuations.

I could be wrong.. this antifreeze stuff is confusing. Glad we don't have to worry about Dex-cool!

Here's a like to the other site that explains this.

Are 7.3 IDIs okay with ELC antifreeze? - Diesel Forum - TheDieselStop.com

I hope that helps somewhat in your quest for coolant. Sorry for somewhat hi-jacking your thread.

 

I'm using the Prestone green about 40/60 with distilled water. I need to get some test strips for mine soon b/c in the last 4 years I haven't put a test strip on it. I just put some additive in and ran. Where are y'all getting the test strips? Injector cups in this truck have never been changed @ 330k miles and I don't want to change them anytime soon either.

 

You can buy the SCA test kit at Napa. Check the expiration date on the bottle before you walk out.

 

I will stop by NAPA tomorrow on my way to work then. I have actually never stepped foot in NAPA or even seen the one here in Austin. LOL

 

Is the Ford Motorcraft green stuff okay? When I did a flush about a year ago I used that along with the Ford SCA, no problems yet knock on wood.

 

I run Fleet Charge from Old World Industries in my trucks.
Heavy Duty diesel coolant with the SCA precharged, you just maintain the correct level when you check it every three months or so.

475,000 on my IDI, no problems.
Should see 475,000 on my Stroke with no problems.


Low silicate, DCA 4 formulation, purple in color.

What you don't need is the silicates in regular Prestone green.
Silicates mess with the SCA addatives.

As for the OAT technology, Ford Gold used in the new trucks uses organic acids instead of DCA 4 or Pencool (Dexcool and NAPAcool)
The OAT technology coolants are what will mess with your seals.

Plenty of extended life antifreeze out there that use non OAT technology.
Cat extended life red is another DCA 4 formulation that comes to mind that is fine.

Cummins uses both DCA 4 coolants and also has OAT coolants for the newer engines.

 

ok now im scared a little, so elc will mess with the injector cups? ok, then will stuff like shellzone or fleetguard be a better alternative? i guess im forced into test strips either way then.

 

Wait a second, Cat ELC isn't an OAT coolant? I thought it was... guess I'll have to look into that more.

 

Just watch the label or sometimes you even have to search a bit online.
Just make sure what you are searching online for is exactly the same as what you are looking at.
Some of the names are so close that a letter or two in the name is the only difference.

Most of the manufacturers now have extended life coolants.

Some are OAT, some are DCA4 or Pencool formulations.
Some you use "extender packs" on, some you don't.
The extender packs are just more SCA's and maybe a lubricant to get the levels back to the levels they should be at.

I ran Ford Gold in one of my reman 7.3 turbo IDI engines, and at that time I had to do a lot of digging to find out it was an OAT coolant that I really should not have been running.

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it I blew three of them up in 27,000 miles with sleeves dropping problems, so mone of them had enough miles to cause any seal damage.

Just left me with a very bad taste in my mouth for sleeved engines and got me to build the 6.9 turbo I run in my 86 now.

Research things like coolants, the parts house person may or may not know exactly what they are selling you.

Just like the counter person at Ford, the Ford Gold was the greatest most advanced coolant on the planet for a diesel engine.
And it is, if you have a 99 or up engine.
But it is not what I wanted to be running in my 86 engine.

Sometimes I think these companies change things in hopes of taking older vehicles off the road.
Let's change the fuel so the injectors and injection pumps will die in older diesels.
Then we can change the coolant so it takes out the water pump seals, maybe a few will die out in the middle of nowhere when the engine overheats.
No one ever said ULSD was bad for older injection systems until people started loosing injection pumps and injectors.
No one really ever said the OAT coolants were bad for older engines, until people started loosing water pumps.

 

well i went to international and bought their fleet rite coolant and a couple pints of dca4 and the strips so this will be the proper fluid change needed. Dave, i fully agree that the companies (and government) are trying to kill our old vehicles one way or another.

 

Why is there a problem running Ford gold ELC in the 94-97 strokes? what is the difference?

If someone can shed light on this, I would greatly apprieciate it!

 

Read this, it sums it up about as well as anything else I have read.

Universal Coolant: The Ultimate Antifreeze?

Somewhere I have a link to a few sites that go into a bit more depth, but I don't know where the links are right now.
Can't remember which computer they were on.

 

The only difference that would be significant is that the injector cups on an OBS are bronze and the SD use Stainless steel cups. The rest of the cooling system is the same. But I have also been run Zerex G-05 (ford gold equiv, I think!) for a few years without issue yet! Maybe one day I will though. And if I do I will just replaced my 280K injector cups.

 

So could a guy use the stainless steel cups in an OBS if time came to change them? Or are they a slightly different size? Also, I thought the problem reguarding the OAT was with the sealant used on the cups...not the cups themselves?