If Ford were to publish their ELC is downward compatible with the vehicles that originally used premium gold I would jump on board.

FYI - I've yet to change out a water pump on any Ford product that has come with the gold coolant.

 

we see 03/04's with water pump issues from time to time not common.

 

03 right here! almost 220,000kms not one sign of water pump leak! although I have changed the coolant three times. once when i bought at 55,000km second when i installed the espar heater, third when i changed the T-stat and knocked the bucket over and spilled it on the floor(expensive T-stat change!!)LOL

 

I have never replaced one for leaking. All the ones I have done were from broken impellers or failed barings casding the vdf harness to get cut.

 

Well today's the day i'm off the next 3-days as of right now i have the VC-9 in her ran about 30 miles on the I-10 at 70 mph.Now the part that stinks waiting for her to cool down that way i can drain her

 

well here the new news,1st flush man it was nasty with VC-9,the bad thing fellas i just had it flush like 5,000 miles when my oil cooler went south along with my EGR cooler.I wish i new how to put pics on the web sure would like for you all to see it was far from red more like brown.This was also my first coolant filter change it was nasty to.I sure hope this Rotella ELC works a lot better

 

Well finally i'm done,But i have one question. the fleet guard it was purple and the rotella was red pink ,they said it is compatible i hope so because i had one of each had a hard time finding them.Please help thank you

 

Besides the Rotella, what exactly did you buy?

 

The multiple recent posts about how nasty the VC9 flushes have been have gotten me to thinking (be afraid... be VERY afraid! ).....

The amount of garbage coming out of these flushes would seem to indicate that the Ford Gold coolant does a great job of keeping ALUMINUM from corroding, but a lousy job of keeping CAST IRON from corroding (aka rusting). Note that we rarely hear of radiator failures and/or plugging with the 6.0. And even in the 6.4, the radiator failures were with the PLASTIC components, not the aluminum.

This would be well in line with the idea that it's a good coolant for CAR engines (which are largely made out of aluminum these days) but not for our trucks. (This also lends credence to the theory that they used a fleet-wide coolant for cost reasons, not because it was "better".)

Couple this with the fact that on the occasions I've had to look inside my Detroit, rust was never really an issue. And it's always been operated with "industrial" coolant; both "normal" and ELC-type coolants. Add into the fact that Navistar does not use Ford Gold coolant in the VT365.

I wonder if / suspect many cooling system problems (and associated EGR cooler failures) don't ultimately root in poor coolant selection. (Casting sand? I don't recall any OTHER motor ever having THIS many problems with it; or did I miss something somewhere? It seems to me that a wet-sleeve casting would be easier to wash out than a "normal" engine.)

It would seem to many of us that Ford could do itself a world of good and step up to the plate and admit to poor coolant selection. However, I wonder if they ever will; it's been glaringly obvious that both Ford and Navistar would really prefer to wash their hands of the 6.0 all together; yes, it's a good engine, but it was hampered with too many problems that were foisted on them by folks (aka the EPA) who didn't give a damn about engine problems and reliability. Now that the 6.0 is TWO engine families (or three, depending on how you count) behind leading edge, I wonder if they'll refuse to make backwards compatibility "official", simply because it's far enough off the radar that it's just not a "real" issue any more.

Then, on the other hand, the fact that they're still coming out with updated engine software some 3 years after the end of engine production, would seem to indicate that they're still interested in "making things right"; or at least continuing to reduce their warranty costs, at any rate.

Thoughts?

-blaine

 

+1

I couldn't agree more than what Blaine just said about the coolant issue.

I for one have had no problems with my cooling system, but I have had it flushed more than I would think necessary. I do find it funny that we are still pulling "casting sand" out of these systems with our coolant filters over and over again when I think that after full-system flushes and a few filter changes, all the sand would be gone. I'm due for another coolant change, but this time I'm going to use the VC-9 for the flush and then refill with an ELC coolant like Texaco or Shell if I can find any. Thanks to everybody for making this topic of coolant so interesting.

Now my only question is can I use this stuff in my Honda Civic and Toyota Sienna? I figure that I can since they state that these ELC's are good for automotive, especially Japanese vehicles.


Thanks for all the info......good read!!

Now, where do I go to find either the Rotella or Texaco ELC? Thanks.

 

I agree too Blaine. Keith (Ford Doctor) has stated that he does not believe that we are getting out sand either, he thinks it's silicates. I do too. I THINK the gold coolant is forming them when going through the high heat in the egr cooler.
I wonder how many people with egr deletes are still finding "sand"?

As far as Ford admitting the coolant is causing these issues, I doubt they will.

I know the VT365 is tuned differently and all, but we have seen International techs report that they change very few oil coolers.

 

They might well obsolete the Gold, and simply issue a TSB saying the new Red is backward compatible. No admission of failure, you can be sure of that. Just stop making it like they have done with ATF>>Mercon V and Mercon SP>>Mercon LV.

 

So I've spent the last few days looking for either Texaco or Rotella ELC and couldn't find either. Can anyone point me in the right direction on where to pick this up? Thanks.

 

The local International dealer here carries Rotella ELC 50/50 mix. I haven't gone on an all out hunt b/c I'm still under warranty. As soon as I near the end of my warranty I'll start looking for someone that carries 100%.
Try all the big truck places in your area like Volvo, Cummins, Intl, maybe even John Deere, or Cat. Also there maybe part houses in your area that specialize in OTR trucks. Let your fingers do the walking. Good Luck

 

Thanks solaratomic for the heads up. I went to a few truck stops and many parts stores in the past couple of days without any luck, but I'll have to take a trip to the nearest city and go to some of the big truck dealerships to hunt it down. I just ended my warranty and so I want to do a VC-9 flush followed by a filling with an ELC coolant (and hopefully delete the EGR system at the same time).

Another question about these ELC's, what is the anticipated life expectancy of these coolants in our 6L trucks? I saw on the website that it is 600,000 miles in the OTR trucks, but what about in our trucks? Thanks for the heads up.