coolant flush

[no_worries]

There's one step that hasn't been mentioned and is very important, especially with today's aluminum cores. After you've flushed the system with the hose you really should close the system back up, fill with distilled water, and run the engine with the heater wide open for 20-40 minutes. Then drain and add your coolant. Regular water contains many different contaminants, including metals, that accelerate the electrolysis process which aluminum is particularly sensitive to. Also, if it can be avoided, never add non-distilled water to top off the system. If, for some reason, you must add non-distilled water you really should do a system flush as soon as it's feasible.

[bob h]

There's one step that hasn't been mentioned and is very important, especially with today's aluminum cores. After you've flushed the system with the hose you really should close the system back up, fill with distilled water, and run the engine with the heater wide open for 20-40 minutes. Then drain and add your coolant. Regular water contains many different contaminants, including metals, that accelerate the electrolysis process which aluminum is particularly sensitive to. Also, if it can be avoided, never add non-distilled water to top off the system. If, for some reason, you must add non-distilled water you really should do a system flush as soon as it's feasible.

i use tap water here with no adverse effects - L/D & H/D

[no_worries]

Some areas will, of course, have water with less mineral content than others. I would expect that crystal clear Canadian water to be pure The effects of electolysis are not short-term. It could simply be the difference between a radiator lasting 800,000 miles or 1 million. KW had a service bulletin out in the last few years regarding this. I know that ever since I've been driving I've been told that you only put distilled water in your car. The pitting that you find in a junk radiator core is caused by electrolysis as is the pitting you find on a cylinder. I'm not saying that tap water won't work just fine but I guarantee that a radiator that has never seen tap water will outlast one that has, significantly.

[bob h]

quote="no_worries"]Some areas will, of course, have water with less mineral content than others. I would expect that crystal clear Canadian water to be pure The effects of electolysis are not short-term. It could simply be the difference between a radiator lasting 800,000 miles or 1 million. KW had a service bulletin out in the last few years regarding this. I know that ever since I've been driving I've been told that you only put distilled water in your car.

i'm still on the fence about distilled water.

i have soft water readily available, and i have read that distilled water has all minerals removed, therefore the water (which attracts minerals) will leach minerals from the engine metals causing erosion

The pitting that you find in a junk radiator core is caused by electrolysis
as is the pitting you find on a cylinder.

diesel cylinder liner pitting is normally caused by cavitation, not electrolysis

I'm not saying that tap water won't work just fine but I guarantee that a radiator that has never seen tap water will outlast one that has, significantly.[/quote]

[no_worries]

You're right bob. I should have said that pitting in the cylinder sleeves can come from electrolysis. I should also add that you have to have an electric current for electrolysis to occur. So, if all of your electrical components remain properly grounded you would never have an issue. Of course, in today's trucks there are so many components and the wiring just seems to get cheaper and cheaper that the likelihood of having a bad ground at some point is pretty good. Cummins and Cat both recommend using only distilled or deionized water in the cooling system.

This is just a link to a product brochure but it does list which components can be affected by electrolysis.
http://www.ve-labs.com/productpdfs/P...%20Revised.pdf

[Blind Driver]

Barrs Leak will clog your coolant system.

Check to see what the temp is when the fan comes on. Could be a coolant temp sensor going bad.

Is the engine really getting hot, or that the guage says it is??
That coolant sensor to the guage might be bad too.

I have also seen the vanes inside the water pump deterorate(sp?) from the coolant having the wrong ph level. Guess someone was too lazy to change the coolant filter :wink:

[heavyhaulerss]

i replaced my temp ga sensor. i will never use stop leak again. but it did work well in my ole 73 chevy umpteen years ago. lol. as far as distilled water... i thought that using the water filter- &- or using that water treatment stuff (not stop leak. lol) was specially designed to combat the eating away of the piston linning.... ????

[heavyhaulerss]

well after flushing out entire sys. & getting crystal clear water out after a lil bit of antifreeze, i replaced all hoses & no more were blocked. none. except for the one i changed a while back witch went from the back of water pump to one side of water filter. even though i had 2 new thermo's put in from shop & later i changed out & put new thermo's in myself.. i decided to do the stupid thing & put another new set of thermo's in this being the 3rd... low & behold.. that did it. i could tell by the 1st 15 miles.. been 3 weks now. temp is where it should be. uphill, down hill, loaded, empty. e.t.c. i thought i was just wasting money. who would of thought you could get 2 sets of bad thermo's ?

[heavyhaulerss]

oh... & thanks bob h. & the others who tried to help me with this problem..