Effects of voltage in engine coolant

[mwilson]

Been waiting for one of this to come through here, finally got one.

CAT BXS 3406.

Thermostat Housing

This is the housing, water flows (I believe) as indicated by my very pretty blue arrow...(had a lot of coffee this morning but didn't twitch too bad while making the arrow).....

In case I haven't mentioned it lately it is soooooo much easier to put pictures on here since the change...

 

[mwilson]

First Housing with a year's worth of time on it....

 

[mwilson]

It was so bad that it made a pinhole in the housing, they had to put a screw in it to finish the run...

 

[mwilson]

Second Housing, been on the engine for only 4 months.....

 

[mwilson]

So boys and girls, what's the problem????

Nobody panic, it's not a Cummins.....

 

[TJJEEPER]

Well, since you mentioned voltage I suspect there is some electrolysis going on in there.
There is some serious erosion in there!

 

[mwilson]

Yes, I should have asked "What's the cure??"

 

[JR]

My cousin and I went to a seminar hosted by John Deere over the spring and the engineer touched on this. I didn't get the chance to listen to his whole spiel but he was saying how with all the different metals in a cooling system now proper coolant type and maintenance is Paramount. I wouldn't think this would be the issue here as many back to back problems as this one has had.
I'm gonna guess either poor grounds within the charging system. Or a haywire alternator, but again there should have been other obvious symptoms to go along with that.

 

[NIsaacs]

If it is just Cat...maybe poor cast. I assume it has the pre charged water filter. Some people say to use Marvel Mystery Oil....

Dang, that's bad!

Nick

 

[mwilson]

The owner of this particular fleet is a maintenance freak. Green coolant with the proper additives and monthly testing with strips.

This is just blowing his mind......

 

[mwilson]

I'll let you guys pick away at this for a bit, then I'll fill you in on the rest....

 

[TFucili]

I have read of bad engine grounds causing stuff like this, but I get the impression you have something bizarre going on here, like from a "tuned up" CB radio

 

[JR]

What is this truck used for? Lots of aftermarket add on accessories?

 

[mwilson]

East Coast Long Haul, covered in LED lights similar to the Delaware Chicken Haulers (if you've ever seen those after dark heading for NYC)....

 

[NIsaacs]

Someone ground the welder to the engine and weld somewhere else?

Nick

 

[mwilson]

Just discovered they are mixing the coolant with tap water, told them to cut that out right now.....use distilled only. They have hard well water which is not helping the situation at all....

 

[Wayne M.]

Definetly done sort of galvanic action/ electrolysis going on there. Without being there, and looking where I want, I'm going with bad grounds or other bonding issue. Usually hard or tap water causes scale and mineral buildup.
Anything going on anywhere else in that system?

 

[fest3er]

Since you mention current/voltage *in* the coolant, I'll suspect dissimilar metals combined with ionization and anodization.

 

[mwilson]

Getting back to this before the day gets underway..

Our diagnosis is bad ground (s) .......

We called our CAT guru to confirm our conclusion and he agreed 100%.

The best part about calling him is getting his "The worst I've ever seen!!" story...

So I am more than happy to share it with you guys..

Called to inspect a CAT 3406 in a new truck that was 9 months old. Upon teardown it was discovered that several of the cylinder liners had pinholes!!!

When the engine had been re-assembled he went back to the dealership with multi-tester in hand, put one lead in the radiator expansion tank and the other to ground. At rest with NOTHING turned on or active he got a reading of 0.9 Volts!!
He got to poking around and decided to remove the ground cable from frame to engine. Upon removing he found there was a 1/2" hole both in the frame and cable end but factory had only used a 3/8" AND had never scraped the paint / coating from the frame rail at the connection point. Scuffed the paint off and used a 1/2/" bolt to hook it back on. Tested after and had almost no reading.

After the fact he had the dealership pull up the warranty history, truck had also suffered bearing damage to the transmission.

This next one I had never heard of....

Couldn't keep U-Joints in the truck either, kept trashing the needles.....that voltage was going the entire length of the power train...

Something that simple can cause some major issues....

 

[TFucili]

That's a pretty impressive story!