checked my coolant today wityh test strips from napa. came out this way. nitrite, ideal. freeze point -37. PH, between 8.0 and 9.5. Is there anything else I need to check in coolant? thanks

 

your Sca's

 

how do i do that ah1988? I thought these strips told all

 

I dont know i have never done it my self , i always here the guys talking on here about testing the sca's with strips from napa , i was more of just repeating what i have heard , someone will probaly be here shortly to tell you .

 

you are running standard green coolant right? sca's are the additive that you put in your coolant to get it to the premium settings to prevent cavitation. thats what your doing with the test strips. you add sca's as needed. sca's are supplemental coolant additive. also found at napa along with your test strips

 

ok, so with what i found out with these test strips, do I need to check out something else or is the nitrite or ph the same as sca or thats just what you add to get the results i have? nothin about SCA on these strips at all. just wanting to understand it

 

yea its green. so with these test strips my coolant is good to go, I would,ve had to add SCA to get the results I have if they werent that. is that right. just tring to understand

 

nitrate is the sca's. If they were ideal, you should be fine in that aspect.

I'm curious about the pH too. I tested mine a few weeks ago, nitrate was fine, freeze point fine, but I wasn't sure about what the pH should be, or how it could be adjusted if needed. Now I forget what the pH value was too.. oh well.

 

thanks for the info. i dont know about none of it lol. i,d have to ask what to do if some checked ok and some didnt. i was curious what the PH is for in coolant myself. guessing is has something to do with stuff growing in there ,like in a swiming pool. I just dont have a clue. thanks again guys

 

PH is the acid or alkali levels. Neutral PH is about 7.0, lower than 7 is acidic, higher than 7 is alkaline. The farther the PH moves away from 7.0 the more acidic or alkaline.

PH 4 is ten times more acidic than pH 5 and 100 times (10 times 10) more acidic than pH 6. The same holds true for pH values above 7, each of which is ten times more alkaline than the next lower number.

High PH eats metals as easy as low PH.

 

mistakenID,
thats a good overview of pH, but doesn't at all answer my question:

What is an acceptable level for our trucks?
How can we adjust pH if needed? or do you just have to replace the coolant?

I want to say my pH was somewhere in the alkaline range, enough to worry me, but I don't have a baseline and the test strips don't say anything in that regard either.

 

yeah.
you should have a chart that came with the strips,so you could compare the shade of green to it.
looks like this:
CTS-3 Three-Way Antifreeze Specifications
http://www.baldwinfilter.com/literat...ts/form336.pdf

 

just flush it.
this means basically your coolant has corrosion in it.if you don't keep it clean,then you can threw heater cores(lack of heat in the cab,or leak!) water pump,and even lead to a radiator replacement.
i guess theirs chemicals you can add either way,but if you keep doing it,you can get a mess too lol.
make sure to use distilled water!!!
regular tap water has to many chemicals and will cause your problem.
and just age too.
they make coolant filters to help as well.i know NAPA has 'em and a lot of guys swear by 'em.
otherwise its a good idea to flush the system every 30k miles(or 2 yrs,whichever comes first.)
you didn't just flush the system did you? if you did,did you use distilled water?
if you answer yes to both of these,i would suggest the coolant filter,and change the filter the first time quickly should you notice the temp gauge raise.
id buy two filters and keep the second in the truck should you add one.then if you start to overheat,you pretty much know the fist filter is plugged,and you can swap it road side,before you hurt the engine.
then you could pretty much keep the same coolant,and just monitor it,for a very very long time if you wanted.i don't like the idea of it,id still flush it every 30k for peace of mind lol.

actually,i guess the filters go in the heater core line,so if it becomes plugged,worse thing you lose is heat in the cab.
id still carry a second though.no heat sucks lol.

 

said if PH is off to do regular maintenance to bring it back. everything on this chart says to charge or recharge exept PH. dont know if the napakool additive is what ya need or not. also was wondering, if i change my coolant, can i catch this old and use this in my chevy gas truck or my explorer without hurtin something

 

how old is the coolant grizz,and how much do you like your chevy and explorer?