ELC coolant vs others
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ELC coolant vs others
I'm about to do a coolant flush on 2 - 7.3 trucks..
My excursion and My brothers F250.. I found within 1/2 HR.. Delo ELC concentrate but when my brother picked it up they sent with him Mobile 1 concentrate instead..
Would it be worth my while to go back and pick up the Delo that I wanted ?
Thanks
Kyle
My excursion and My brothers F250.. I found within 1/2 HR.. Delo ELC concentrate but when my brother picked it up they sent with him Mobile 1 concentrate instead..
Would it be worth my while to go back and pick up the Delo that I wanted ?
Thanks
Kyle
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From: Hat Creek Ca
The best to go is with the CAT EC-1 rated coolant. It is available from several diferent manufacturers, ut the key is the EC-1 rating. You are then good to go for 300K+ and almost double that with a "refersher". Just need to make sure that you do a THUROUGH flush of the old stuff - do at least two runs of ~30-40 miles with 100% distilled water and then re-flush. Be sure to get the concentrate and not the 50% mix as there will be some distilled water left in the system that will skew the final 50/50 mix otherwise.
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The best to go is with the CAT EC-1 rated coolant. It is available from several diferent manufacturers, ut the key is the EC-1 rating. You are then good to go for 300K+ and almost double that with a "refersher". Just need to make sure that you do a THUROUGH flush of the old stuff - do at least two runs of ~30-40 miles with 100% distilled water and then re-flush. Be sure to get the concentrate and not the 50% mix as there will be some distilled water left in the system that will skew the final 50/50 mix otherwise.
Are you saying short drives with nothing but distilled water and flush again ?
thanks
Kyle
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From: Lake Hartwell, GA
I used about 30 gallons of distilled water to flush my coolant system by using the rubber hose going into the right top side of the degas bottle flowing into an empty gallon jug. I ran the bad/diluted coolant into jugs while keeping a close eye on the degas bottle level and once the fluid ran clear I ran another few gallons through. Once I was comfortable that I had done the best I could I filled the rest of the system with about 4 gallons of Rotella ELC non-diluted coolant.
All of this was done after the coolant was drained from the radiator and plugs on the lower side of the block. If you cannot get the plugs out, I have heard that removing the block heater will do a good job of draining out the coolant as well.
I had to take this route because my home is on well water and I did not want to risk contamination of the cooling system by trying to save $30 on distilled water.
All of this was done after the coolant was drained from the radiator and plugs on the lower side of the block. If you cannot get the plugs out, I have heard that removing the block heater will do a good job of draining out the coolant as well.
I had to take this route because my home is on well water and I did not want to risk contamination of the cooling system by trying to save $30 on distilled water.
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From: Hat Creek Ca
That will do for an initial flush but you really should do a distilled water flush as well. City water will still have some "extra stuff" in it that may not be compatible with the ELC. For what an engine costs, distilled water is dirt cheap.
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Will buy cooler water .. like you said..
Cheap enough
Kyle
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When I replaced my water pump some years ago I did the Gooch method for flushing. Worked out good. I run prestone HD elc, no problem. Go to Walmart and tell them you want to buy 6 cases of distilled water, and tell them to bring it out on an L cart for you.
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"Cooler water" will have minerals in it, possibly even added for flavor. You do not want minerals precipitating out in the coolant system. Cooler water is OK for the initial flush, but real distilled water has the minerals removed and that's the only stuff to use for final flush.
What year is the truck? Not sure of the year but in early 7.3s the cup adhesive is not compatible with ELC. Also if running green coolant the flush needs to be pretty complete. But for gold coolant it's not so critical. Basically what gold is left in the system will blend with the ELC and run fine. Rufushusky posted something to this effect some months ago IIRC, and he has a lot of background in coolant tech.
If I was to switch to ELC I'd install a new pump, hoses and thermostat as well. No sense spending money on 300K mile coolant if you're going to drain it 30k miles from now when one of those other parts fails. IMO.
What year is the truck? Not sure of the year but in early 7.3s the cup adhesive is not compatible with ELC. Also if running green coolant the flush needs to be pretty complete. But for gold coolant it's not so critical. Basically what gold is left in the system will blend with the ELC and run fine. Rufushusky posted something to this effect some months ago IIRC, and he has a lot of background in coolant tech.
If I was to switch to ELC I'd install a new pump, hoses and thermostat as well. No sense spending money on 300K mile coolant if you're going to drain it 30k miles from now when one of those other parts fails. IMO.
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"Cooler water" will have minerals in it, possibly even added for flavor. You do not want minerals precipitating out in the coolant system. Cooler water is OK for the initial flush, but real distilled water has the minerals removed and that's the only stuff to use for final flush.
What year is the truck? Not sure of the year but in early 7.3s the cup adhesive is not compatible with ELC. Also if running green coolant the flush needs to be pretty complete. But for gold coolant it's not so critical. Basically what gold is left in the system will blend with the ELC and run fine. Rufushusky posted something to this effect some months ago IIRC, and he has a lot of background in coolant tech.
If I was to switch to ELC I'd install a new pump, hoses and thermostat as well. No sense spending money on 300K mile coolant if you're going to drain it 30k miles from now when one of those other parts fails. IMO.
What year is the truck? Not sure of the year but in early 7.3s the cup adhesive is not compatible with ELC. Also if running green coolant the flush needs to be pretty complete. But for gold coolant it's not so critical. Basically what gold is left in the system will blend with the ELC and run fine. Rufushusky posted something to this effect some months ago IIRC, and he has a lot of background in coolant tech.
If I was to switch to ELC I'd install a new pump, hoses and thermostat as well. No sense spending money on 300K mile coolant if you're going to drain it 30k miles from now when one of those other parts fails. IMO.
Both trucks are 2003's and mine has a fairly new water pump. I just rebuilt oil cooler, changed all rad hoses , added a billet Stat housing.. I just replaced the coolant until I can be sure gaskets and orings are all good.
Kyle
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From: Lake Hartwell, GA
Kyle, you can buy just plain old distilled water in gallons for about $1 each. Go with that and know you doing right by your engine. I am confident I got all of the pockets of coolant out of my engine because while flushing the system via the method I mentioned above the truck was running the entire time in the garage. This took me quite a while to push 30 gallons of water through the system.
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