refilled coolant but did I mess up bad?

[Brad_SwiftFur]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

isnt my DT-360 basically a PowerStroke? I know its a wetsleeve engine... but I thought it was similar to early version of the powerstroke...

-Christopher

The 7.3 Powerstroke and DT 444 are essentially the same engine, basically an offspring of the previous IH 6.9 engine.

IH built the 9L and 6.9's up until ~1987 at which point these engines could not meet emissions taking effect in 1988; the 7.3 replaced these 2 engines ... They are all V8 style engines and at least the 9L's do not have sleeved cylinders.

The DT 360, DT 408, DT466, and DT50? are all straight-6 arrangements. They are known to generate more torque than the V8 style engines. They are "wet sleeve" designs, which can be a failure point if the cooling system has been neglected - The O-rings and metal cavitation will allow coolant to get into the oil. It can be fixed, but it is pretty much an engine rebuild to do so.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Timelord

I think that's the T444 engine. The DT-360 sleeves will be destroyed in short order if one does not have the proper components in their coolant. Further, the newer coolants last longer and are less hard on the components of the cooling system in general. It is far more than frost protection and mixed-metal compatibility going on.

exactly what i thought and why I replaced my lost coolant with fleetcharge as it has the SCA's mixed in... when I got the bus in May the coolant was tested good by a shop for SCA's and for Ohio Freeze protection (the bus came from ohio originally)...

fast forward to a few days ago I drained a good bit (close to 6 gallons) out so I could replace my under-hood heater valves with new electronic ones.. and also remove the driver console heating unit because it was a disaster..

I goodled SCA's online and I found "fleetcharge".. which I bought and poured in at nearly dark time... got good circulation and drove the bus from my house back to its storage unit .. as I like to be nice to my neighbors and not keep the bus home all the time...

the next day I noticed that said coolant was Pink and not green like what was in there... it has similar chemical properties as the green stuff.. but now im freaked that something bad will happen esp since I want to run the bus all over creation soon here..

so I do have SCA's in it now... it just sounds like I need to have all one color in it and not a mix even though the colors seem to be made up the same except for the SCA's in the fleetcharge..
-Christopher

[onenationundergoat]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

any idea of the total system capacity in the average skoolie?

Our DT360 seems to hold about 7 gallons when we drain it, but we didn't completely flush it out so it's probably a bit more.

[family wagon]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

is distilled water the same kind of water as what comes out of my central air conditioner unit at the house?

The evaporator condensate might also be thought of as water that rinses off the evaporator. I'd expect it to have dirt and who knows what else in it -- anything suspended in the air that made it through or around the air filter and then collided with water droplets on its way through the evaporator.

[EastCoastCB]

Distilled water is around 80 cents a gallon at wallyworld.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Distilled water is around 80 cents a gallon at wallyworld.

I saw that when i was there today.. I didnt have my pickup truck with me or id have gotten some.. (20+ gallons of water wont fit in a smart car)..

I figured I'll just use my heater boost pump to pump it through the system after I drain as much of the coolant into buckets as I can get...

I must have gotten much more of the green stuff out than I thought before since my coolant color is only a little off from the Pink that i poured in the other day.. I had gotten 6 gallons or a little more out and since the heaters were draihed.. i only put about 4 back in to get the engine loops full and circulating..



fortunately as i mentioned all of my heater loops are currently drained since that part of the bus is disassembled..

-Christopher

[cadillackid]

Ok so I called Peak coolant company today and talked to their tech support.. and here is what I got from them..

1. FLEETCHARGE coolant is nothing more than common green coolant with the SCA's pre-added assuming a 50/50 mix is used.. they made it a Pink color as an identifier. this coolant REQUIRES PERIODIC SCA testing with the 3 way test strips.. and supplemental SCA added as required..

2. FINALCHARGE GLOBAL coolant is an extended Life maintenance free coolant with OAT in it. this coolant should NEVER HAVE SCA ADDED TO IT! and requires testing only with the single Finalcharge strip..

what can you mix and what can you not?

1. you MAY MIX together FLEETCHARGE and standard GREEN coolant and the SCA's(remember testing still required)

2. you MAY NOT MIX FINAL CHARGE WITH GREEN COOLANT OR FLEETCHARGE!!

Distilled or regular water??

1. FLUSHING with TAP water is perfectly acceptable as long as the system is drained down to 25% or less water remaining..

2. FILL with DISTILLED water REGARDLESS of the coolant being used. both fleetcharge and finalcharge can handle some tap water and cause no issues.. however distilled water is recommended.

3. NEVER USE WATER SOFTENER WATER if it is softened with salt for flushing or filling... even irony well water is better to flush with than the salt-water that comes from a softener...


so the take home is that I didnt do anything bad... though if I had put final charge instead of fleetcharge in I would have to flush and fill...

and thats that from Peak coolant company themselves..

-Christopher

[onenationundergoat]

Hmmm. I always thought that the Finalcharge was just the pre-diluted version of the Fleetcharge. Glad to know that, because when we first got the bus I know I definitely mixed the two, but then we developed a significant radiator leak and drove across the country adding a gallon of Fleetcharge every few hundred miles til we could get it home to fix the leak. Then we added more Fleetcharge to top it off, so it's bound to be completely Fleetcharge by now. Wish they would make that clear on the bottle. Why would they make it the same color if they can't be mixed?

[onenationundergoat]

According to the Peak website it won't harm the engine to mix them. From their Q and A:
Q: My truck is filled with FINAL CHARGE GLOBAL Coolant/Antifreeze and I know a conventional coolant was added at top off. Will this affect the coolant performance?

A: FINAL CHARGE GLOBAL Coolant/Antifreeze is formulated with Contamination Tolerant Additives (CTAs). The performance benefits of FINAL CHARGE GLOBAL Coolant/Antifreeze will not be adversely affected by the occasional addition of conventional coolants. However, it is recommended that effort be made to keep contamination levels below 25%. This can be accomplished by topping off with FINAL CHARGE GLOBAL 50/50 Pre-Diluted Coolant/Antifreeze and the periodic adjustment of the cooling system to maintain between a 45% to 60% coolant and a 55% to 40% water mix.

[Jolly Roger]

I don't remember which one but either somewhere or milkman turned me on to blackstone labs and they are great.
The test bottles are free and it cost 26-7 dollars to ship back to them.
They will send you a full diagnoses of your fluid and tell you if it is right/wrong and how much engine life you have on that fluid?

[cadillackid]

there IS a pre-diluted version of finalcharge and it says so on the bottle... there is also a full strength version of final charge..

on the phone he told me that a maximum of 20% of 50/50 mix could be present of other coolants in the system when converting to finalcharge...

fleetcharge is a different makeup than finalcharge.. the bottles are totally different...

fleetcharge is pinkish purple in color..
finalcharge is red..

im talking the full strength bottles.. it will say on it if it is a 50/50 mix

it could be too that mixing the 2 makes it tough to test for proper amounts of the correct chemicals for the anti cavitation but that your engine is still protected...

im only going on what the engineer told me when I called .. my guess is there's likely other scenerios where the engine and cooling system are not at risk but that they dont recommend
-Christopher