7.3 idi coolant, cavitation questions

[furfishgame]

i was told to get low silicate coolant, add sca's and id be good to go. I read that low silicate antifreeze would be green, and say "low silicate on the bottle, if it doesnt say it, it isnt." with out it, my understanding is that, when i add my SCA's it will gell up my radiator.

So my question is, i have called every dealer and parts store i know, and the only one who even knew what that was was international. the only thing they said was they have the convintional green, which to my undersanding, is standard silicate levels of around 125. the only one they had that was lower than that was red coolant (propoline glycol?) and its levels are less that 1. so. is the red stuff what i need?

thanks, Cameron

 

[79jasper]

Go to any parts store and get fleet charge. The pink stuff. It's precharged with the SCA's.

Sent from my SM-T537R4 using Tapatalk

 

[C_Luft]

Honestly, I would just go look for caterpillar elc(300,000 mile) coolant it has everything you need, other options fleetcharge/fleet guard I think, and cummins coolant. I think you can find fleet charge/fleet guard at napa if I can remember right.
If you do stop by napa pick up a coolant filter kit 4019, here is a link
http://www.oilburners.net/articles/coolfilter1.html

 

[79jasper]

^ Yeah the cat elc is good, and fairly cheap.

Sent from my SM-T537R4 using Tapatalk

 

[furfishgame]

do i need to get that from a cat/NC dealer?

 

[79jasper]

Only place I've seen it. Unless you wanna order online.
When I checked, it was something like $9/gallon.

Sent from my SM-T537R4 using Tapatalk

 

[CDX825]

The red stuff the international dealer was going to sell you is the same as Cat ELC. All diesel rated ELC coolants are red. If you decide to go with this type of coolant you don't ever have to worry about adding SCAs.

I will say this, flush your system out good and do the final flush with distilled water. If you buy full strength coolant only use distilled water as well to mix with it. Tap water is not good for cooling systems.

 

[furfishgame]

Got it. And ill be adding a coolant filter soon too, thanks for the link i appreciate it guys!

 

[whiteboyslo]

Honestly, I would just go look for caterpillar elc(300,000 mile) coolant it has everything you need, other options fleetcharge/fleet guard I think, and cummins coolant. I think you can find fleet charge/fleet guard at napa if I can remember right.
If you do stop by napa pick up a coolant filter kit 4019, here is a link
http://www.oilburners.net/articles/coolfilter1.html

Fleetcharge. Fleetguard is a completely different company.

Mike

 

[furfishgame]

One the cavitation article posted on this forum, (where im getting 80 percent of my cavitation knowledge) it said pre made ELC can do harm to hoses and the like on older trucks such as the 7.3 idi's. What kind of things should i be looking for ( i added the cat elc, $25 a gallon, btw)

 

[79jasper]

$25 a gallon? Pfft. I'd be shopping around.
If you question the life of your hoses, just change them all.

Sent from my SM-T537R4 using Tapatalk

 

[fx4wannabe]

What is the best way to flush one of these? I need to change mine before it gets too cold out. On all my gas burners I have always just stuck the water hose it it and let it run till the water ran out pretty clean and then filled it back up with coolant but I'm pretty sure that ain't too good for these trucks.

 

[CDX825]

Depending on how the cooling system has been maintained would determine how I would flush it out. I'm OCD though and firm believer in do it right the first time.

If the system is fairly clean I would drain the coolant. Then refill several times with tap water and run it up to operating temperature. Drain and repeat until the water coming out is good and clear. After that I would do a final flush with distilled water and drain it out. Pulling the block drains if you can get them out helps greatly. Then refill with your choice of coolant.

If the system is in questionable shape or is clearly dirty. I would drain the coolant and flush a couple times with just tap water. After flushing a couple times with tap water I would use some type of cooling system cleaner such as fleetguard restore plus. Run the cooling system cleaner per instructions and do several more tap water flushes until the water is coming out clear. Do a final flush with distilled water and refill with coolant.

Is this method overkill? Probably but I cant see spending 15 plus dollars a gallon on new coolant to dump it into a dirty engine and cooling system. Cleaning the cooling system is not only good for the engine but it also means the new coolant will be able to do its job better.

Before refilling with your new coolant is a good time to change any hoses that need changed. Better to just change both lower and upper radiator hoses and heater hoses while your at it. Cheap insurance in my book.

 

[stealth13777]

+2 on above. Fleet charge claims that they have an additive allowing you to use regular tap water. So if you didn't do the final distilled water flush it *might not hurt anything.

That said, it's extremely cheap to just do it, plus it's an extra flush, meaning a cleaner engine. And I wouldn't fill with anything but distilled/ coolant regardless of what fleet charge says.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[riotwarrior]

NO ONE ONCE mentioned BLOCK plugs...

DON"T go about a cooling system flush and not remove the block plugs, that makes the job so easy and if you install petcocks that makes it even simpler to flush your cooling system.

Good luck with it.