Bruce Amacker Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 Plus the stupid "fits all" coolants sold at every parts store and Kmart. I have to fight this battle in every class, too. Usually the techs are on board with using the correct stuff but upper fleet mgt specs one tank. Several of them have lived to regret it, multiple failures and back to OE they went. The hardest part with techs is getting them to believe that Dexcool red, Ford red, Toyota red, etc are not the same coolants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 I think too there are more issues with mixing coolant types and incorrect concentrations than the actual coolant types. Like Buddy said the International versions of the past ford diesel engines use red ELC. Whether they experience more or less failures remains to be seen but I don't see any harm in running a red ELC a diesel engine which it wasn't originally equipped with. I keep some jugs of Rotella ELC here at the shop just for a few of my customers that do happen to run red. I have not seen any 6.7s run on red but if the system is flushed properly and mixed properly with distilled water then I couldn't imagine any failures directly related to coolant type. Ford's choice of coolant makes me scratch my head though. Both Gold and Orange seem to leave the cooling system internals coated with a crusty residue. edit - also when I say "red" I mean CAT EC-1 spec coolant which Rotella ELC is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 The most glaring part of this whole thread is simply the confusion that is created by deviating from using what is specified for the truck. Forget about the suitability of any particular coolant mentioned here. At some point in time you WILL be faced with a truck using a type of coolant that you have no clue what it actually is and since mixing different coolants is bad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Absolutely. I would never recommend any of my customers run anything other than what is specified by the manufuacturer. Doing so one would assume I know more than Ford, which is not the case here. Some of these customers make their own decisions though, and I am okay with that in this instance if it is done properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy57 Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Ford has not created the best situation to put huge faith in their cooling system decisions over the last 10+ years. Gold that precipitates sand crystals that clogs coolers and two generations of Super Duties that have far too high of a radiator failure rate are why I say this. This leaves a lot of room for thinking you might do better than what they suggest. Absolutely NO to mixing or not doing proper flushing if you choose to use CAT ELC or another quality diesel formulated coolant. Just sayin' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Amacker Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Sooooooo, how do you tell if a 6.7 has ELC, Dexcool, or Toyota Red in it? They're all red in color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy57 Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 I cut the label face off the jug and make a tag that gets obviously placed on coolant tank if I ever get a customer wanting it changed to something else. otherwise I put in the factory stuff. If the coolant has odd color and I am unsure I ask questions and with wrong or unsure answers then I suggest flush and fill with the right stuff after a little coolant education for the customer. The lack of coloring being a consistently applied marker is criminal and there is no good answer for topping up a truck that comes in and has no history at your store and shows some signs of having been serviced at other than a dealer. The other issue is that even a conscientious customer can easily find himself in a situation where his truck is low and a Ford dealer is not nearby or open. Using some unique coolant is a very bad choice by the manufacturer given that this can happen. That you make the truck with crap water pump and radiator issues feeds this problem. Alas, we don't live in a world with all one kind of green coolant............. If they didn't break there wouldn't be service departments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8WA Sman Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Since I have never experienced what I would call a radiator or water pump problem in a PSD.When these problems occur what's the water quality,coolant quality,t-stat opperation, coolant tank cap, and are the outside of the coolers/heat exchanger free of debris/blockage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanG Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 One thing I did not see mentioned is water quality with which the coolant is being mixed with. I was told in school that we should always be using distilled or bottled water especially with motorcraft orange and not tap due to the amount of sediment in which caused the scale build up clogging passages. Instructor said that was a huge part of the problem with gm dexcool eating radiators and intake gaskets all through the 90s and early 2000s. I remember doing gm 3100 and 3400 intake gaskets constantly for the leaking gaskets when I was in the aftermarket for repeat leaks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Amacker Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Agreed on water testing, see TSB 10-12-1 which uses a litmus strip for testing water to be put in a rad. Euro cars are much more sensitive to wrong coolants damaging parts, lots of Euro techs I know use bottled distilled water in cooling systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 I use nothing but distilled here at the shop when mixing my own coolant. If the truck is getting an extensive chemical flush I have no choice but to use tap water though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmorris Posted April 4, 2016 Author Share Posted April 4, 2016 Ford does state you can use tap water to flush as long as you perform the final flush with distilled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Amacker Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Ford does state you can use tap water to flush as long as you perform the final flush with distilled. I've never seen that. Do you happen to know where that is stated? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanG Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Its in the 6.7 coolant flush procedure, it says to flush with "fresh water supply" and use hot water if you can, then fill with de-ionized water or distilled water to do the final flush, then drain again and fill with coolant and distilled or de-ionized water. We stock distilled water to fill with coolant also but I don't do the final distilled flush. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmorris Posted April 5, 2016 Author Share Posted April 5, 2016 Its in the 6.7 coolant flush procedure, it says to flush with "fresh water supply" and use hot water if you can, then fill with de-ionized water or distilled water to do the final flush, then drain again and fill with coolant and distilled or de-ionized water. We stock distilled water to fill with coolant also but I don't do the final distilled flush. Also the 6L Flush TSB, in a round-a-bout way, says the same thing, only they word the final flush as using "CLEAN" water. Hotline told me about the final distilled water flush way before the 6.7L even came out. I asked them what was meant by fresh water and clean water. What I like to do is drain as much out as possible, fill it full of distilled, let it idle for a few minutes, then while it's still running, remove the drain cock on the rad and keep pouring in another couple of jugs into the degas. Shut down the engine, an do a final drain and fill. Starting with the correct amount of coolant first then topping off with water(there is always a few litres of water left in the block that you can't get out.) The first time I pre-mixed the coolant and ended up with mixture of 40 coolant/60 water...Had to start over... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exmod110 Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 We have only used premixed coolants for 3 years now. At one of our training sessions a mfg rep told us that one type of coolant ( extended life, not fully formulated) could only be flushed with coolant.. no water nada... was a scare tactic that was later challenged and booted.. with so much misinformation from different sources its a real pain to KNOW FOR SURE that you have the right coolant for the job and that it is being maintained correctly at the same time. Color has almost nothing to do with the type of coolant any more. Extended life was patented in red way back when but is no longer... So we were told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 We run 40/60 down here in the South in the summer time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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