Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Coolant Flush w/ Fleetguard Complete

[kscheffler]

I just completed a coolant flush with 12 gallons of the Fleet Guard complete, blue coolant. My truck has 17k miles with the original OEM coolant, green coolant. I used an elevated bucket to delivery the new coolant on the inlet side of the radiator and another line to discharge coolant from the discharge side of the themostat to flush. System worked great utilizes the trucks water pump to do the flushing. After flushing with 12 gallons of the new coolant the discharge changed from green to blue after about 10 gallons of new coolant.



My question is do you guys think that I flushed the system enough to remove all the old coolant. Also, is there any harm if there is some of the green coolant left mixed with the blue coolant anyway. I think I flushed it sufficiently the discharge at the end of the flush was blue with no signs of the green coolant.



For future reference I should have done a complete flush with DI water first. However then you never know what the exact coolant mixture is either. Anyway looking for comments and wondering if I should flush some more?

 

[TomGolden]

Well, I also switched on my first coolant change to Fleetguard Compleat. I did it at around 25K miles, and figured that being so new, there really wouldn't (shouldn't) be any debris or buildup to need a true flushing, so I just drained as much OEM coolant as I could and filled her to the top with the Fleetguard. I did the same again at 50K (also replaced the thermostat then) and will continue this same procedure forever unless something happens to make me feel this is not a good thing to do. Also plan to change all radiator hoses at 100K, and maybe every 75K thereafter.



Oh, I have 64K miles as of today, for what it's worth...



Tom

 

[kscheffler]

Green coolant vs. blue coolant

My real question is: are the OEM green and the Fleetguard blue compatable with each other? Do I need to be concerned about the potential of some of the original coolant still in the system even though I flushed with the new coolant. I have read some previous threads about the orange extended life coolant can only have a maximum of 10% of the original coolant. I would think that since both of these coolants are ethylene glycol based that a small amount of residual would not matter. Even though my original coolant was two years old with 17k miles it looked perfect and so did the metal in the radiator. I did not need to do this flush at this time but I want to get started with the new fleet guard coolant.



Does anyone know about compatability of the Dodge OEM coolant and the Fleetguard Compleat? Do I need to be concerned if my 12 gallon flush left some of the original coolant in place?

 

[BLandau]

I would call Fleetguard @ 800-22FILTER. I called them last month with coolant questions. They were very helpful.

 

[kscheffler]

Blandaue

Thanks for the suggestion Fleetguard was very helpful. The OEM coolant and the fleetguard Compleat coolant are compatable but if a sufficient amount of the OEM green coolant is not removed the silica content can exceed the solubility limit and a gel can be produced. Anyway my flush seemed to be sufficient. The fleetguard compleat product has the DCA 4 additive of which we do not need in our coolant since we do not have a sleeve. However, if you are going to leave this coolant in for more than 2 years fleetguard does recommend testing the DCA level and recharge as necessary. The bottom line is just flush the coolant every two years and be done with it... kts