Gold Coolant or CAT ELC?

[Deiboe]

I'm taking my truck in for bullet proofing and my mechanic shied away from the idea of CAT ELC. He said his buddy who works for CAT told him the coolant system needs to be sterile of all debris or the CAT ELC's longevity will significantly decrease. Standard flushing procedures aren't good enough to reach the full benefit.

Should I say I still want the CAT ELC or go with the idea of the gold coolant and just flush it more often and go with a coolant filter?

[Lilpooh]

He is correct about flushing to get debris and contaminates out, this is why you would use Restore to get the silicate residue out and VC-9 to remove iron scale before switching to ELC.

Flushing and Cleaning the 6.0

I will tell you this, if your ECT/EOT delta is good, then for now just keep using the Ford Gold and keep up with the coolant maintenance schedule. If your oil cooler is good and decide to flush with Restore and VC-9, you take a chance of clogging up a good oil cooler.


If your ECT/EOT delta s telling you that your oil cooler s clogged already, then I would recommend doing the Restore and VC-9 flush and then replace your clogged oil cooler and then switch to the ELC.

[Deiboe]

I'll be putting a brand new oil cooler in. I'm not sure on how my temps are running, I'm putting a monitoring device in when the truck is bullet proofed.

[ajbkid]

E L C

Iv spent hours and hours reading on, and working on the 6.0l the gold coolant is the cause of all the oil cooler and egr cooler problems and other issues.
Gold coolant is the root of the problem imho.

[ajbkid]

in my barn right now is half of an oil cooler that had gold coolant run in it. You can see the gold crust in it.

[PGreenSVT]

Originally Posted by Lilpooh

He is correct about flushing to get debris and contaminates out, this is why you would use Restore to get the silicate residue out and VC-9 to remove iron scale before switching to ELC.

Flushing and Cleaning the 6.0

I will tell you this, if your ECT/EOT delta is good, then for now just keep using the Ford Gold and keep up with the coolant maintenance schedule. If your oil cooler is good and decide to flush with Restore and VC-9, you take a chance of clogging up a good oil cooler.


If your ECT/EOT delta s telling you that your oil cooler s clogged already, then I would recommend doing the Restore and VC-9 flush and then replace your clogged oil cooler and then switch to the ELC.

I agree with this to a point. where we differ on opinion is on leaving the Gold coolant in if you can't or don't want to flush it with chemicals to provide the proper environment for the new ELC. I still believe just a thorough flushing with tap water then distilled water and installin ELC is preferable to continuing with the Gold. Yes it will compromise the ELC so I suggest you change it again in 2 years. ELC is good for 5 years or 300k miles IF the system is prepared properly. So you change it again in two. If you continue with the Gold you need to do regular checks for nitrite level as it is often inadequate right out of the bottle. I would rather have ELC that I need to change again in a couple of years.

If you insist on running Gold do yourself a favor and plan to do annual flushes and put fresh coolant in. If it is a working truck that really puts the miles on figure on 25k to 30k miles. Better safe than sorry.

[L&B]

Originally Posted by Deiboe

I'm taking my truck in for bullet proofing and my mechanic shied away from the idea of CAT ELC. He said his buddy who works for CAT told him the coolant system needs to be sterile of all debris

I'm not sure that this state can be achieved, and certainly not maintained. Sand coming out of the casting is one factor, mould release agents on the interior of the hoses, plasticizers leaching -- lots of others. Of course it's best to run the ELC in a new system, but not everyone wants to buy a new truck to run improved coolant in.

Originally Posted by Deiboe

or the CAT ELC's longevity will significantly decrease.

From 750,000 miles/12,000 hours/8 years to what? 500,000 miles/8,000hours/5 years? That would be a "significant" reduction to many people. Is the service life reduced below 50,000 miles/800 hours/1-2 years where the Gold is? I would be astonished.

Originally Posted by Deiboe

Standard flushing procedures aren't good enough to reach the full benefit.

No doubt. However, the second or third-hand claims are not quantitative and I would not give them "significant" weight. If someone said that their results supported a reduction of 20% in coolant service life on a converted system, for example, that would be more credible. If they said 50% reduction, it might raise some eyebrows and elicit more questions, but it could be a useful datum.

Originally Posted by Deiboe

Should I say I still want the CAT ELC or go with the idea of the gold coolant and just flush it more often and go with a coolant filter?

Yes. I see no advantage to running Gold, nor any reason to think that a "reduced" service life from ELC is a significant disadvantage. Delo ELC costs less for me locally than any G-05 coolant.

My opinion is that the EC-1 coolants are superior to the Gold, will last longer and cause fewer problems. Regardless of what the manufacturer might claim, I wouldn't put it in and then forget about it; nor would I necessarily follow the currently recommended flush interval for the Gold. On the initial ELC fill switching from Gold, a prudent person might do the 50k mile drain/refill once to clear the residual coatings which are replaced at the surfaces over time, and then take it from there. My experience has always been that things break or otherwise go wrong; I also have a history of mucking with things to try to make them better, and will probably break into any given system at some point whether it's a repair, upgrade, or maintenance. Personally, I've never been able to run the same coolant longer than 4-5 years or 100k miles due to these factors, and anytime it's drained would probably replace it anyway. If the repairs don't come and the upgrade bug doesn't bite, then I would base coolant maintenance intervals on chemical analysis, as many do with engine oil. IMO it would be a major miracle to make 750k miles without having had a good opportunity to replace the coolant. On the other hand, it would be foolish to not plan on replacing G-05 every 50k.

[L&B]

Originally Posted by PGreenSVT

I agree with this to a point. where we differ on opinion is on leaving the Gold coolant in if you can't or don't want to flush it with chemicals to provide the proper environment for the new ELC. I still believe just a thorough flushing with tap water then distilled water and installin ELC is preferable to continuing with the Gold. Yes it will compromise the ELC so I suggest you change it again in 2 years. ELC is good for 5 years or 300k miles IF the system is prepared properly. So you change it again in two. If you continue with the Gold you need to do regular checks for nitrite level as it is often inadequate right out of the bottle. I would rather have ELC that I need to change again in a couple of years.

If you insist on running Gold do yourself a favor and plan to do annual flushes and put fresh coolant in. If it is a working truck that really puts the miles on figure on 25k to 30k miles. Better safe than sorry.

I agree with this completely! FWIW the service intervals I quoted are from the Delo website; the 5 year / 300k above is a perfectly realistic expectation for a converted system IMO.

[Deiboe]

I'm thinking I'll just do flush the cooling system out myself then. The mechanic wasn't too thrilled with the idea of changing it to ELC.

Couple Questions:
Whats the most PSI I can run through the lines, 20psi?

I drop the truck off this tuesday, and I have no time to run to a dealer for VC-9 during operation hours. Would PepBoys/Advanced auto sell VC-9?

Since my EGR is currently KIA I don't wanna run the truck and risk warping a head. Would multiple hour long idlings be sufficient for a flush, or should I do high way driving?

[PGreenSVT]

Read my flush procedure in the links above (I didn't post the link, Lilpooh did). You need 2 qts of VC-9 and 2 qts of Restore. You can use Restore Plus instead of VC-9. VC-9 is a Motorcraft product you will need to get from Ford. Restore and Restore Plus are Fleetguard products and come fro the Cummins Parts Distribution Center. You may get lucky and find them at a big rig Cummins shop But I just order mine from the distribution Warehouse and have it shipped in. These cleaners need to be at 190* to effectively work. It is easier to maintain that temp if you drive the truck around. I recommend at least 1.5 hrs for each but no more than 3. It is not difficult, just time consuming.

Your dealer tech response is typical unfortunately. It isn't the Ford party line. You have to be your own advocate and know when to ignore their advice or push them to do what you want.

I also run Delo ELC like L&B and it is the best out there except for Rotella Ultra ELC.