antifreeze

[Mark31]

How often do you guys change your antifreeze? What kind? Distilled water? Premixed? What about the new mix-with-anything antifreeze? My John Deere and Ford tractors use an additive. Does Cummins? Educate me, or send me to a good thread!! Thanks Mark

 

[pwr2tow]

The cummins engines in the dodge application does not need any additives. The newer engines 03 and later use a HOAT type, Zerex makes it and NAPA sells it. If you have a earlier truck it uses any standard anit-freeze but could switch over to HOAT if you do a complete flush. Always use distilled water for mix. A 50/50 mix does good for the lower 48. North of that would be wise to use a 70/30 mix anti-freeze/water.

 

[JNoble]

I just swapped mine, 180000km on truck. I dont know if it had been done before. I drained and flushed and used Cat Extended Life Coolant. Its a premix.

 

[Turbo Tim 1]

Zerex G-05 is available from Napa by the case, I would suggest using that or the Dodge brand stuff but nothing else. Mixing in the green or orange dex-cool stuff will cause jelly. I've got a few bottles of the G-05 in NY if anybody needs some.

 

[DPKetchum]

Factory fill is a 5 year service interval.

 

[MMeier]

I flush mine thourghly every 50-60k, and use Prestone with a dose of RMI-25. 158k on it and inside of radiator is spotless!

 

[rbattelle]

I changed mine at roughly 20k miles (1 year) and replaced with Fleetguard Compleat ES PG premix. The coolant is good until 500k miles or the first engine rebuild, whichever comes first.



I'll never change it again. Every 2 years I add a small amount of the ES Extender. Radiator is clean as a whistle.



Ryan

 

[Wayne M.]

Great topic!

I changed mine at roughly 20k miles (1 year) and replaced with Fleetguard Compleat ES PG premix. The coolant is good until 500k miles or the first engine rebuild, whichever comes first.



I'll never change it again. Every 2 years I add a small amount of the ES Extender. Radiator is clean as a whistle.



Ryan

Ryan, What do you do for a flush-to get all the old stuff out? Did you use the fleetguard cleaner? I put the compleat premix in my 'ol '92 and it was great stuff!

 

[rbattelle]

Well, actually the local Cummins shop did mine. Had I known what they were going to do, I'd not have spent the $400 they charged me for the service. All they did was drain the radiator, refill with water, drive around until the engine warmed up, then drained the radiator again and filled with new fluid.



They didn't even replace the fluid in the overflow, so I had orange factory HOAT in the overflow and blue Fleetguard everywhere else. I'm not sure, but I don't think they removed the thermostat either.



This was Cummins Bridgeway in Union Centre, OH. I've never gone back for service, and I generally advise others to stay away. The method for replacing my coolant wasn't the only thing they screwed up.



Anyway, if I were going to do it myself, I would have done exactly what they did except I would remove the thermostat, run the engine with water for a few minutes, drain, repeat 3 or 4 times to ensure all the old stuff is gone. Then refill with Fleetguard and replace the thermostat.



Ryan

 

[Turbo Tim 1]

And make sure your heater is on when the engine is warm to circulate the old stuff out of the core. When I changed my 01 over to the HOAT stuff I drained the old stuff and filled with water and then drove to work and back, 100 miles, drained it again and refilled with water and did it again, then I drained it and filled with the new stuff.

 

[pwr2tow]

That's how I do mine but don't drive anywhere.

WARNING: Do this on a cool engine.

1. Take radiator cap off.
Syphon anti-freeze out of overflow and clean bottle inside.
Drain radiator, pull out on petcock and turn counterclock wise. use a hose on petcock, drain in appropriate container.
Remove lower radiator hose at engine. Easier to get at.
Remove thermostat housing. two bolts.
After draining close petcock, reinstall lower radiator hose.
Pour just distilled water through thermostat housing hole until full.
Reinstall thermostat housing WITHOUT thermostat.
Top off radiator with distilled water.
Start engine and turn cab heater to full heat.
Run engine for 2-3 minutes.
Shut down engine.

2. Repeat above once more.

3. After repeating step 2 Close everything up again except thermostat housing. (this should be a total of 2 water flushes).
This time pour in 4 gallons of HOAT anti freeze through thermostat hole.
Top off with distilled water in thermostat hole and raditator.
Put in new thermostat.
Bolt down thermostat housing.
Fill overflow bottle to correct level with 50/50 mix water/anti-freeze.
Run engine and check for leaks.

Approximate amounts needed.
4 gallons HOAT anti-freeze.
10-12 gallons distilled water.

The total capacity of your cooling system is 7 gallons so when your finished you should have 4 gallons of anti-freeze and 3 gallons of distilled water in engine or 70/30 mix. You could use just 3 1/2 gallons of anti-freeze instead of 4 if desired for a 50/50 mix. Which ever your comfortable with.

Sounds like alot of cost for distilled water but should be around $15. 00 at wal-mart or other discount store. I have found some at dollar stores also.

 

[skipro3]

I have not checked into this, but on my last truck, a gasser Ford, I installed a Prestone Flush Kit. It included an in-line tap to attach a garden hose. That way, all I needed to do was turn on the garden hose and remove the radiator cap. I also removed the thermostat and ran the heater. It was very obvious that there was only clear water in the system within minutes.



Is there any way to completely drain the cooling system, not just the radiator? I've used EVANS NPT+ waterless coolant in several past vehicles but it can't have any water in the system when changing over to it.

http://www.evanscooling.com/main23.htm

 

[Wayne M.]

Ryan, I can't believe they charged that amount of money to do that job! As far as getting all the coolant out of the engine, there must be a threaded block plug somewhere (like american V8's have) to do a full drain.

To drain the overflow tank, I usually leave the radiator cap on while I open the radiator drain. If the pressure cap is operating properly and there are no leaks, the tank will empty itself, once that is done you can open the cap. I like to remove the tank to really clean it.

 

[rbattelle]

Ryan, I can't believe they charged that amount of money to do that job!

A good reason not to go there for service! $400 is beyond ridiculous considering the poor service I got and the fact that any local Monroe or Midas could do the job properly with a flush machine for much cheaper.



There is no block drain on the 5. 9 block, unfortunately. The mechanic at Cummins spent a long time looking for one. (Although he also stood in front of the truck looking in the engine compartment with me and telling me all about how the accessories are all mounted to the back of the engine ).



Ryan