Engine coolant?

[Deafautotech]

I am curious which do you use coolant for cummins? I will need complete flush the coolant since I don't know if previous owner had changed the coolant fluid?? I has some of green coolant as ford's that I had extra... But I want see what is choices to go for??

[mopartechnician]

Yours should be plain ol green fluid

[Wild and Free]

I know of a farmer who drains all the factory coolant and fills everything he owns with good ol Missouri river water because in his mind it is better than coolant because the river doesn't start to freeze over until long stretches of zero to sub zero temps set in, Long honest to gawd story, I worked on some of his farm equipment and a brand new Case IH tractor "at the time 15+ years ago" with a B cummins in it which I changed the water pump out on 3 times in just over a week until he told me what he does when I asked him why there was dirt and sand coming out and no coolant what so ever every time I pulled the pump off and drained the "Muddy water", talked to the boss and as you would expect..................70K for new tractor + stupidity = no more warranty on a new tractor.

[dripley]

I know of a farmer who drains all the factory coolant and fills everything he owns with good ol Missouri river water because in his mind it is better than coolant because the river doesn't start to freeze over until long stretches of zero to sub zero temps set in, Long honest to gawd story, I worked on some of his farm equipment and a brand new Case IH tractor "at the time 15+ years ago" with a B cummins in it which I changed the water pump out on 3 times in just over a week until he told me what he does when I asked him why there was dirt and sand coming out and no coolant what so ever every time I pulled the pump off and drained the "Muddy water", talked to the boss and as you would expect..................70K for new tractor + stupidity = no more warranty on a new tractor.

Now thats a choice story.

[diesel4life]

There are 2 choices, either a standard ethylene glycol (green stuff) and do flushes every two yrs, or a thorough flush and switch to Chrysler approved HOAT, and double the intervals. When considering the maintenance intervals, the time it takes to do the flushes, having to dispose of the antifreeze, going to the HOAT seems like a win win situation. The only way I could see it not paying off is if you put more than 100k miles on your truck in a 2 year period.JR

[Deafautotech]

I am prefer to stay same as what cummins said for green coolant. I has no problem to do flush as I can do it at my work that has flush machine and can do it without make messy at my garage.

[diesel4life]

Chrysler spec HOAT is compatible with all Cummins engines. It is no different than everybody running ATF +4 in a 47re trans that was originally specd' with ATF+3 or that CJ4 spec oil you are most likely running in your engine that was originally designed to run off of cl4+. Fluids progress along with technology and most of the time it is for the good. This is a little off topic but I just had a discussion with a Chrysler transmission engineer on another forum last week. I asked him why the service intervals are so much longer on the new 68rfe trans (60k miles IIRC) compared to the 30k intervals of the 47re. You would think with literally double the torque output of the early 47re equipped trucks that the service intervals would not be that much different. He confirmed that it really boils down to the superior fluid of the ATF+4 which is a synthetic, compared to the 3 that the 47 was designed with. One thing that we did not discuss but I suspect has an effect is that the 68rfe also has better filtration capabilities. The engineer conceded that although he would not be comfortable with running a 47re to 60k mile intervals, it would be safe to push it further than the 30k intervals that was originally recommended with the ATF+3 fluid.In the end you need to be comfortable with the fluids you are putting in your truck but there is no harm in running the newer HOAT antifreeze. There is lots of info out there if you care to look into it further. I have myself, and have seen where Cummins themselves have confirmed the compatibility of HOAT in older systems. In the long run it will lower maintenance costs and be easier on the environment. JR

[j.barrett]

run the good ol green stuff, mix youre ratio around 65% coolant and 35% distilled water. typical ratio is 50/50 but 65/35 will raise the boiling point and lower the freezing point. another thing mix the coolant before you fill your system.

[Mopar1973Man]

Creek water and green or yellow anti-freeze. (Less the sand and mud). 11 years and 222k miles no issues.

[Wild and Free]

Disclaimer for Mikes pics.................They were taken 9 years and 200K miles ago.

Seriously though the damage occurs where you will never see it and that is in the block and around the cylinders themselves, the way to prevent this is to check the antifreeze the exact same as you do by sampling engine oil, every oil sample lab should be able to sample your coolant as well. They check PH which one can do on his own with ph strips as well as the strength of the additives in the antifreeze.

The one person here who should be sampling his antifreeze more so than anyone is AH64ID as he has a liquid cooled turbo and the engine with those types of turbo are even more critical to watch as coolant can become burnt and that causes issues as it crystalizes and plugs up lines and passages.

If running coolant for extended periods and or in areas where you have no access to clean water a coolant filter should be added, a lot of older engines had issues with electrolysis around the cylinder liners and it would erode out the bottom counterbore in the block and in severe cases ate right through the cylinder and or liner and then you have coolant in your engine oil. The coolant filters come with different additives built in to adjust and protect your system but until you check by sampling you don't know.

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run the good ol green stuff, mix youre ratio around 65% coolant and 35% distilled water. typical ratio is 50/50 but 65/35 will raise the boiling point and lower the freezing point. another thing mix the coolant before you fill your system.

I guarantee 100% your thinking is wrong, at that mixture level you have lost a lot of the coolants ability to actually transfer heat out of the system. Too strong is actually almost worse than a bit too week. This is what we find with equipment at the mine when we get brand new stuff from CAT especially they tend to have heating issues at times and when the coolant is sampled the mix is too strong which diminishes the cooling capability of it, adjust it down and heating problems solved.

[ISX]

I know of a farmer who drains all the factory coolant and fills everything he owns with good ol Missouri river water because in his mind it is better than coolant because the river doesn't start to freeze over until long stretches of zero to sub zero temps set in, Long honest to gawd story, I worked on some of his farm equipment and a brand new Case IH tractor "at the time 15+ years ago" with a B cummins in it which I changed the water pump out on 3 times in just over a week until he told me what he does when I asked him why there was dirt and sand coming out and no coolant what so ever every time I pulled the pump off and drained the "Muddy water", talked to the boss and as you would expect..................70K for new tractor + stupidity = no more warranty on a new tractor.

I go past the missouri river at least once a week. I call it americas gutter cause there is nothing but crap in it. Trees, mud, trash. Hence the reason I told Mike long ago that the creek water thing isn't something that should be pushed. His creek water isn't the same as the creek water somewhere else. I mean there is no way to be sure of whats in it.

[Wild and Free]

I go past the missouri river at least once a week. I call it americas gutter cause there is nothing but crap in it. Trees, mud, trash.

It is very clean up here, it actually surprises people as to how clear it is for as fast as it moves. What happens after it leaves our state is any ones guess. You have to blame the southern boys for that.

[Mopar1973Man]

I go past the missouri river at least once a week. I call it americas gutter cause there is nothing but crap in it. Trees, mud, trash.

LOL. Kind of like the river running across the road from me which is the Little Salmon River we call it the Little Salmon Sewer being its nothing but cow pi$$ and cow crap from in New Meadows washing its way down the canyon. As for my creek water its clean enough I use it for drinking water in the RV on many times. I'm not worried. Either that or the well water which comes out of the ground too. Both very clean. As for my cooling system reason I'm not having issues is my change intervals. since most all fluid are called to be replace every 30k miles I change coolant at this time as well, flush the block, change the thermostat, etc. I'm just about due for another change anyways about 2k away.

[diesel4life]

A lot of a rivers "consistancy" is based on soil types in that particular region. Loose soil (peaty, sandy, and silty) tends to get washed away during a rain storm much quicker than clay or other denser types of soil. Again, depending on the region even city water can have enough minerals in it to be harmful to an engine block.

[dripley]

I have been using well water here for the past 20 years. I dont know about my other vehicles but it did keep the radiator clean on the dodge. At least the old one anyway.:lol:enjoy the second pic. I could not make it go away.

[rancherman]

It is very clean up here, it actually surprises people as to how clear it is for as fast as it moves.

What happens after it leaves our state is any ones guess. You have to blame the southern boys for that.

well, it's still fairly clear down here... but as soon as it leaves Yankton SD, it's pretty muddy. U could walk across it @Sioux City.. yuck.

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A lot of a rivers "consistancy" is based on soil types in that particular region. Loose soil (peaty, sandy, and silty) tends to get washed away during a rain storm much quicker than clay or other denser types of soil.

Again, depending on the region even city water can have enough minerals in it to be harmful to an engine block.

No Doubt! Not to mention the dissolved acids (salts) and nitrates! My well water isn't safe for children, pregnant women, pregnant pigs or pregnant cows.. gives me the Hershey squirts too...

[diesel4life]

Lol! :djr