General Boards > Technical Support

Contaminated Coolant

<< < (2/2)

Joel Ashley:
Keith-

I have to agree with Gerald that the improvised overflow tank is a likely culprit.  CAT indicates that their ELC (extended life coolant) is compatible with most other types unless they constitute more than 10% of the total.  If the previous owner used Rotella ELC rather than plain old Rotella antifreeze, then the carboxylate percentage is likely maintained okay.

One thing you should do is have a CAT facility take a sample of your coolant for Level 2 SOS anaylysis.  Then you'd know if you needed to flush and refill your system due to contamination.  Further information can be gleaned here:  http://www.cat.com/cda/files/87058/7/elcfaq.pdf.

-Joel

Edward Buker:
Kieth,

This is a guess....The Rotella bottle would not be the anti freeze overflow contaner of choice if one had the time to choose what should be done to replace an existing overflow tank. That would lead one to believe that the overflow tank probably failed while on the road and an expediant repair was made by dumping out what would quickly drain out of the on board Rotella container to complete an emergency road repair.

You could check with the engine manufacturer and see if the coolant flush that they sell contains a reasonable amount of surfactant in it. These products are aimed at removing rust and antifreeze residues so they may not be effective for removing much oil. It would seem like Dawn detergent (good enough for pelicans) and water run through multiple flushes would probably be a good choice if the anti freeze analysis came back unacceptable. I changed my coach over to extended life coolant this spring and did 5 flushes to remove the old coolant. The procedure was to drain, fill, and run at high idle until the temp reached about 120 degrees then drain and repeat. Once the antifreeze is cleared, if you used Dawn, then you would have to repeatedly flush again until most all surfactant has cleared.

I used distilled water for my last flush to start with a base of mostly demineralized water residual to add antifreeze to. I used two gallons of Cat ELC non dilute to compensate for what water would not drain and the remaining was 50/50 ELC premix.

In the old days we had actually flushed motor cooling systems with Spic and Span and we never saw any ill effects. Seems like Dawn would be an acceptable surfactant for a temporary cleaner with less residue than Spic and Span. This is not being proposed as a tried and proven technique so you will have to use your own judgement and perhaps some expert advice might be available from Cat or Cummins tech support on how they would handle this problem.

Regards Ed

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page