Keith Browning Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 I have long considered the addition of coolant filters unnecessary in general but I have been making some observations with 6.0L engines that has me rethinking this. Now I tend to notice a crusty layer in the degas bottles of 6.0L trucks that I don't seem to notice on trucks with other engines. The other day I was servicing a truck and drained the coolant noticing a brownish silt cloud mixing with the coolant as it stirred in my drain bucket which is always clean. I know I have seen this before more than a few times. My new service adviser has recently been forced to sell BG cooling system service kits with the bottle of cleaner and bottle of conditioner. If the cleaner is supposed to remove rust and scale what happens to loosened crap that remains after the suck and fill? After all, this is not a true flush mind you! here is always coolant left in the block that does not drain. Where does that end up? So this leads to some questions like what is this brown crud and does this have any affect on the engine... like say on the oil and EGR coolers? I have heard that adding stop leak can cause this. I have heard that the gold coolant causes this. I have read topics on public forums that guys find sand and metal debris in their coolant filters so perhaps its not such an unnecessary concept. After all, some larger trucks and diesels use them. Comments? Opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Some time ago, a customers new F150 (2007ish) suffered some sort of radiator failure (can't remember the details)....... With a new radiator over a week away, I was given a new, donor unit to steal the rad from.... The coolant from both of these trucks contained a brown "silt" that plugged off the screen in my coolant funnel. I assume that this "silt" is the stop leak that is put in at the factory. Cooling system service isn't a big consideration for many of our customers because they wont have this truck for all that long.... In three years, they'll have over 200,000 kms on the truck and in the blink of an eye, there'll be a new one in their driveway.... For my own part (and I really shouldn't admit this).... I don't buy "new" any more - I buy something one or two years old and hang on to it for probably 10 or so years. It turns from my "good" vehicle to my second vehicle. Everything (except for the cooling system) gets treated quite well. Oh, I check hoses and such, but neglect coolant changes - though I test the pH yearly - clean the cooling stack airflow path regularly - stuff like that.... and haven't had a cooling system failure in well over 20 years. Now, there is an important consideration.... my temperature extremes come at the "south" end of the thermometer. Last summer, we had a few days that entered in to the low 90Fs (and they just about were the end of me) so our cooling systems rarely see the loads that those in the south see. As long as your coolant strength is 50% or 60% and your block heater works, you're good to go.... For a long, long time, I've held that demographics plays an important role in what we see for a vehicles service life - and in what we will see for some pattern failures or when some pattern failures will happen. FWIW, I've outfitted our push truck with a 3000 watt genset, a construction heater and a shop made duct for directing the hot air from the heater under the front of a truck. The block heater, a battery charger and the construction heater are plugged in to the genset.... takes about an hour at 45 below. Like bypass oil filters, I sometimes feel that "redistributing" oil or coolant flow, there is a chance we might be setting ourselves up for some future disappointment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 For the majority of my career, I did engine work at the dealer in South Carolina. Neglected cooling systems kept me in business. I swapped 2 to 3 engines a week because of cooling system problems. Quote: cooling systems rarely see the loads that those in the south I also believe it is a demographic issue. I have lived in Vermont for 5 years now and never seen an issue. So who knows if they would help out or not. I bought an Explorer with a blown motor and I put a FQR 302 in it, at the same time I converted the cooling system to gold antifreeze. I am coming up on 30k and it's getting to be winter so I am changing the thermostat and putting fresh coolant in it. I will take a look inside and see what I can see. Keep in mind my vehicle is not a degas system and doesn't get the work out a diesel does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamageINC Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 I actually had that "silt" cause an engine failure in an '07 F-150 with about 700 miles on it. However, there was *a lot* of the shit in the system, which I later found out was actually excess casting sand left in the block. It made it's way through the cooling system and literally chewed up the MLS head gaskets, causing heavy coolant/oil cross leakage and severe contamination in the oil, which took out the bottom end of the engine pretty quickly. Right as I got the vehicle, I checked the oil level and found it was WAY overfilled. I went to drain the oil, and for a solid 10 seconds, nothing but gold coolant poured out of the oil pan. I ended up replacing the whole engine after further teardown, as well as flushing the hell out of the the heater core and radiator as well. The vehicle was then bought back about a week later after the customer decided he wanted another truck. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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