Coolant

Cat Cool extended life coolant.

 

This is Cats oem coolant. It comes premixed ready to use straight out of the jug. For best pricing, purchase at a Freightliner or International dealer or similar, not from a truckstop.

 

I just bought some on the Cat coolant at KW. It was just under 10 bucks a gallon. Don't forget to add the extender at 300k miles.

 

You can buy test strips pretty cheap. That will tell you the PH balance, freeze point and for the most part, the overall condition of your coolant. I still always flush mine out (non extended life coolant) every couple years regardless of what the test strips say because I always worry that some of the crude will not be acidic or caustic enough to change the PH, or have a similiar PH to what is considered normal. Also it's good to flush the radiator out on the outside. I bought a cheap wand that attaches to my garden hose and put about a 60 degree bend in it so I could flush the radiator from the engine side outward. Be carefull not to bend your fins.

I'd be curious how often others change out their coolant.

 

I can't remember since it's been awhile and I also used to do it myself, so I don't know what they charge at a shop. I would take a plastic tote like you buy at Walmart to store food, or whatever and place it under the drain. I would pump the antifreeze out of the plastic tote and into a 55 gallon drum as it was draining since the plastic tote only held 5 gallons or so. Then I would take a garden hose and flush out the radiator for several minutes. Then fill it back up with filtered water and pure antifreeze. Seems to me like it was cheaper that way, then buying the pre-mixed stuff. I wanna say it took about 20 gallons on a 12.7 detroit? I would get rid of the old antifreeze every winter from the guy that would buy my used oil. I never had any radiator or water pump issues, but I'm not garunteeing my method was correct.