I know Im drudging up an old thread but....

I will be changing my coolant, flushing and replacing with CAT EC-1 proper. Found some at a semi service business locally. My question is will I have issues with what I can only assume to be the original water pump? Im replacing the lower rigid pipe gasket but dont have the pump at this point. Thanks in advance.

 

How many miles?
Just changing the coolant shouldn't effect the pump. I replaced mine a couple of years ago when I changed to ELC, made flushing very easy, and I wanted to do hoses and all anyway. No issues noticed, didn't spring leaks like some say.
If it is original, it wouldn't hurt. Peace of mind.

 

180. Have enough to do already though. I'm going to do the flush properly so I guess I won't expect any problems.

Sent from my SG4 using IB AutoGroup

 

Adding this PDF file that was posted in another thread.

The document repeats a lot of stuff already covered here in this thread, but the info it covers is compiled in one doc.

Stewart

 

Thanks Stewart, good article. I don't remember seeing that before.

 

Great document. Thanks Stewart and the OP

 

I wish my tap water wasn't so bad. I am thinking of some way to use cleaner water. My water is very hard, which means that things like the water heater in my home fail due to heat transfer surfaces getting caked with calcium deposits, sediment, etc. If my water heater elements suffer premature failure, do you really think I should pour tap water into my radiator? Sounds like it is asking for trouble.

 

HELLZ no! Buy some distilled water at the super market.

 

Did you read the instructions in the first post? You're not leaving the tap water in there, you're only using it to flush the old coolant out, then using the distilled water to flush the tap water out.

Just make sure you use enough distilled water to flush the hard tap water out. I mean, if your tap is that bad, buy enough distilled to do a few extra flushes, for peace of mind.

Stewart

 

I was concerned about tap water flushing, not filling. I wouldn't fill with tap water except in some kind of emergency.

I know that after a tap water flush, the tap water will be diluted with the coolant. And I know tap water back flushes have been done for 100 years or so. But since many of us are going to be treating our Powerstroke like a big rig engine by switching from universal automotive coolant to HD ELC coolant, I just wonder if a tap water flush is best? What do the big engine manufacturers like Cat, Cummins, Detroit, John Deere, Volvo, and in our case Navistar recommend for coolant flushes? I understand that the newer OAT chemistry is tolerant of tap water top-up, but they still recommend distilled for that.

Do big shops have a way to flush with 100+ gallons of distilled water for each big rig?

 

Ok, but you still are a tad confusing because right after you post the above, you follow up with this part...

That bold part is incorrect.

After you flush your engine with tap water, the next step is to flush the tap water out with distilled water. The heavy duty OAT ELC is then added (in concentrate form) to the distilled water. There is no tap water in your engine at that point so the coolant won't be diluted with tap water.

First and foremost, the base coolant (the traditional "green" coolant) may be the same as what is used in gasoline engines, but you do understand there is a fundamental difference between the coolant used in a gas engine, versus the coolant used in a diesel engine, with regard to the additives needed for the coolant to be functional and proper for diesel engines, yes?

I'm not trying to be a jerk, I just wanna make sure we're on the same page.

None of that matters. You won't be doing any harm to your engine by using hard, tap water to flush out your old coolant because it's not gonna be in there long enough to leave minerals behind. You're gonna flush the tap water out with copious amounts of distilled water.

Stewart

 

Well, I just found that the guys at Summit (not the racing people, the truck people) have both the flush I wanted to use -- Restore, and one of my choices for coolant... Shell Rotella ELC. They have concentrate, which is harder to find than the 50/50 mix. I am going with the Red stuff, not the yellow stuff (which is nitrite free and newer). The Shell Rotella ELC concentrate has a black lid but the stuff is red. Found it for around $20 a gal.

I never found anyone locally that sells Restore Plus. But it sounds like if you don't mind the fact that it doesn't dissolve rust and such, Restore is supposed to be a good cleaner.

I had checked out my local Cat, Cummins, Freightliner, and Peterbuilt dealers. The Diamond/International/Navistar dealer got her done -- one stop did everything except the distilled water. By the way, concentrated Caterpillar ELC coolant was the only concentrate I found besides the Rotella at Summit, but it was over $30 per gal. I never found Delo anywhere local. (Delo was at the top of my list, but who stocks it?)

And, yes, I picked up 40 gallons of distilled agua from this great parts supplier... It's this little place I found across town called wally-world super-center.

So I am all set to clean this thing out and start using the HD antifreeze. I guess it will be for another thread to talk about nitrate free (yellow) ELC. It seems to be all the rage in some areas but not necessarily what we want in a Powerstroke. I have a hunch that in a few years people will be using the yellow and preferring it to the red. Someone in 2017 will look back at this thread a say, "hey, you should have used the newer nitrate free. It's the best. You guys in 2014 were stupid." HINDsight is 20/20. Ouch. Ouch. Red ELC is like soooooo 2014 stupid people.

 

I have a hunch that you'll look back on this in 2017 and realize how untrue it was.

ELC is not going out of fashion. It's been around longer than many of us realize, and hasn't created problems for its long-term users.

Pop

 

You're fine with the red OAT ELC that has nitrites in it.

I found a local petroleum lubrication point of sale outlet that carried Chevron products, and ordered my Delo ELC from them.

Yup, that's usually where everyone gets their distilled water. Less than a dollar per gallon.

It can be used, but unlike some diesel engines that require a nitrite free OAT Extended Life Coolant, the 7.3 doesn't.

I dunno, the nitrite free OAT ELC (Chevron Delo NF, Shell Rotella Ultra ELC, etc) has been available since 2010 when International updated their MaxxForce DT diesel engines.

There are a few differences, but in my opinion, nothing that makes it all that superior to the "standard" OAT ELC (AKA red ELC), especially when compared to Delo ELC.

Stewart

 

Stewart,

Thank you for the manual. The manual notes that one of the two primary reasons the coolant might not appear to be in good condition is due to, "Mechanical problems." The manual goes on to provide an example of a mechanical problem being, "exhaust blow by into the coolant."

I apologize if it's a dumb question but where would exhaust blow by enter the coolant stream? If this was happening, what "failure" might have occurred?