concerns with red antifreeze

While radiator longevity is a concern, whether a coolant provides excellent protection from cylinder liner cavitation is of more importance. The Dex Cool kinda stuff does not protect those liners. The Green stuff, you need to constantly check the SCA level in it and add SCA's via direct pouring in or via water filters that are impregnated with the stuff. The Red ELC that meets all the OEM diesel engine requirements provides the best protection for cylinder liners with the added advantage that it doesn't have to be constantly monitored for SCA level and no SCA's need added. What would you rather pay for, a radiator or replacing all of the cylinder liners that failed due to cavitation.

So the red ELC coolant is easier to use, lasts longer, and provides better protection for the engine components. No brainer.

As for the engine shops knowing the difference. A personal example. My local Cummins shop (Cummins Central Power - Des Moines) tested my red ELC for SCA level. Since it uses no SCA's, it registered low. They dumped in to bottles of SCA. I confronted them on it. The head shop in Omaha agreed that this was not proper and had to dump the entire system and refill with Red ELC and replace water filter with a blank one. Surprisingly, many shop personnel are NOT up to date on differences in coolant. It is incumbent on each person to research this stuff and make sure that the right product is in the engine. Do not trust that a shop knows what they are doing regarding coolant. Many shops do know, but not all.

 

I am also interested in a changeover to Evans if for no other reason than maintenance(or lack of - no testing, additives). Expensive to buy, though.

 

Lots of bad info in this thread about mixing different color antifreeze. And you guys are right that lots of shops don't know I've seen that before too. This is exactly why I do all routine maintinence myself. It's just too bad I don't know enough to be able to tackle bigger repairs. Red and green are not to be mixed! How difficult can it be to carry a couple or 3 gallons of the correct coolant your truck already has in the sidebox? Why in the world would anyone mix different kinds? I think red is the only way to go and that's what I use. No dumping additives in, just flush and change when it's time.

Evans waterless sounds interesting but I am not sure how it would work with a CAT motor. The engine fan comes on at 217* with a CAT and there is no changing that in the ECM according to Haney. The last time I saw temps of 230* was when it liked to puke water out the overflow and a cracked head turned out to be the culprit. Therefore I use the heck out of my engine fan and hesitate to ever let my water temp go much over 200* although it sometimes gets to 204* on a really hot day.. ..I prefer it to stay at 188* all the time.

 

Evans, seems like a viable alternative, in that there is absolutely no water in the system. And water is the reason for corrosion and cylinder liner cavitation.

Evans also pushes the idea of putting in higher thermostat and stepping up the fan on and off temp triggers. The higher heat in the engine would be more fuel efficient in theory.

But there has been some evidence of some thickening of the Evans coolant in these situations. Also, there has been some increase in head failures due to operating consistently at higher temps. I have no first hand evidence of this, I don't use Evans, and have no dog in this hunt. But I have come across a lot of anecdotal evidence that Evans is not the cat's meow it is made out to be.

I will continue to use the red ELC type coolant that my engine was originally shipped with. Short of some magic formula, it is the best protection that an owner can put in the system. It has a long life, no monitoring or adding of SCA's, and is very cost effective. Just flush and fill when it is time.

So, I would have to say the Rollin Coal and I are on the same sheet of music on this issue.

 

Oh geeze this is hilarious I just got coolant put in last month and asked if the terminal had red he said no only orange but told me it'd be ok to mix them is that why I'm having issues now?!

 

I was told at a Kenworth dealer that it is OK to mix, as long as the coolant is labeled "extended life". Now I'm wondering.
Soooo, I'm just going to use the red extended life which the truck originally came with. SAFE.

 

After how many miles should coolant be flushed?

 

When they first came out with the ELC, Cat did an inframe on my old B model. They flushed the coolant and put Cat ELC in. About a week later, heater core sprung a leak. (I always blamed the ELC. lol)

Anyway I drained it out and put the conventional Cat antifreeze back in. The old stuff worked great up to that point, and it still works.

 

I put almost a million on a Cummins ISX using the red ELC coolant. Never a problem. Changed out at between 400,000 and 500,000. Truck went right to work for next owner. I currently have about 489,000 on initial fill of red ELC on my factory remanned Series 60. Getting ready to do a flush and fill on it. I always added extender at 300,000 miles.

 

many engine makers switched to orange OAT coolant. Rotella has it under Ultra ELC name. it does not need extender at 300000 miles. Not all orange coolants are OAT. Also Red ELC is nitrite free now to meet Detroit Diesel's and new Cummins standards.
if you have conventional coolant with controlled sca level do not switch to OAT coolant. you may have gasket or sunk liner problems.