I'll stick with the distilled. 1st because I have never heard deionized mentioned here at the Dealer level. And plus your description of the deionized water would scare me to use in automotive applications. With the newer coolants Ford specifies "distilled" water mixed with their full strength anti-freezes. Since we in the Bump era use the ol' standard green anti-freeze, we don't HAVE to worry about this. But I still heed their advice. Especially with the high calcium content water we have here in the Phoenix Metro area. With the newer anti-freezes mixing 50/50 with "distilled" water give the coolant the PH level Ford designed their cooling systems to carry. Which is why they now have dark green, gold, and orange in different applications. The end PH level is part of the differences between those anti-freezes I have been told.

 

Stick around, pal. Keep writing. Nothing arrogant about a well stated physical point. What you say may go over our heads but it keeps us off the barstool and in the back yard thinking.

Semper Fi

 

Hey John, this guy could be your Son. (compliment to you both) If he sticks around and keeps this up I'm gonna add him to the Kingdom as Court Advisor (3). On the line right under yours.

 

My son? Was he born in Vietnam or Okinawa or the Phillipines or... in 1968?

 

Yup me too given the choice I use distilled also. Deionized water usually has bittering agents added to it so you you are discouraged from drinking it. As prolonged consumption of deionized water is considered to not be not healthy supposedly. You can guess what happens if you consume it long term and the water molecules are looking to replace those missing ions. hemoglobin contains iron, bones contain calcium plus all the other trace elements in your body, so you see where that is going. I guess it could really mess ya up over the long term.

Some times you will see deionized water in the pharmacy and in auto stores for coolant. I generally only use distilled also I'm not keen on the water pulling ions out of the engines metal lol. And we have the same issue here with our water here it's hard like concrete.

The coolants are definitely changing. Personally I use Rotella Ultra ELC in everything.
(Heavy Duty Diesel Engine Coolant-Antifreeze | Shell ROTELLA®.)
and
http://rotella.shell.com/products/an...s-brochure.pdf

It is compatible with ALL cooling systems regardless what was used form the factory.

Just do proper rinse of the coolant system and install. And it is good for the life of the engine. (even better you can get it at Wally World)
It is one of the very few coolants that meet the very tough new Caterpillar coolant specs.

Diesel coolants are specially formulated to prevent cavitation. We all know about the 7.3L IDI cavitation issue. This was not a failure in design but a failure in the coolant used. We know that the issue was from the cylinder walls flexing/vibrating and then cavitating the coolant and eating away the cylinder walls..


The pistons in an engine can move up and down up to and over 100 times a second. This movement can cause your engine's cylinder walls to vibrate, a lot. Although the outer wall of the cylinder is surrounded by coolant, its vibration/flex creates tiny vacuum pockets, causing bubbles of vapor to form on the cylinder wall (cavitation). When the cylinder wall vibrates/flexes back, these bubbles collapse under an huge pressure and take small chunks out of the wall eventually, you will have a failure of the cylinder wall. That is exactly what happened in the 7.3L IDI, in ALL thin wall casting engines the cylinder walls flex/vibrate.
The same effect happens in the water pump on the trailing edges of the impeller much like a propeller on a boat.

This is even more of a concern for the engines in our old trucks that may have seen multiple over bores with no guarantee that the cores were properly placed when the block was cast originally. Short of sonic checking there is no way to know for sure.

The new Caterpillar specs are aimed directly at stopping cavitation in the cooling system weather it be from the water pump or flexing/vibrating cylinder walls,

Rotella ULTA ELC not only eliminates this issue it also has no silicates in it like the old green coolant and is formulated to extend the life of gaskets and seals. Plus it provides better heat transfer than traditional coolants. And is compatible in older engines such as the ones in our trucks.


The Ford Gold, Ford recommends for their diesels is just the bare minimum at best in that application while fine for gas engines it is marginal for the diesels. The amount of SCA's (Supplemental Coolant Additives) in the Ford Gold is marginal. But of course this is to be expected as the products are built to a price point.

I run Rotella Ultra ELC in everything the trucks, the cars and the motorbikes and quads. It allows me to have just one type of coolant on the shelf in the garage and regardless of application I know I have the best coolant available for that application..