Coolant filter/flush

[pcris]

So I've read quite a bit of controversy about flushing the coolant without replacing oil cooler and whether it clogs it or not. Here's my situation, bought the truck a few months ago, the oil cooler was replaced roughly 8k miles ago along with a coolant flush and what was thought to be a elc swap, but after I called the tech that did the work, I found he used the low-silicate fleetcharge from oreillys.

Here's my question, I am getting a coolant filter to put on and am wondering if I should put it on first, then flush and swap to elc; filter installed after flush/swap to elc; or filter and no flush to avoid any risk of clogging?

I just dont wanna risk clogging the new cooler, but I want the right stuff in there. Could I flush with just water using no restore and be ok or should I just put the filter on and keep running it?

I think I would rather run the coolant in now to prolong the oil cooler life rather than clog it now and have to change but I'm not sure. How many of you have flushed without cooler replacements?

[mantis118]

If you have an egr delete three coolant should be fine.

[southend]

Drain, pull thermostat, flush with tap, flush with at least 24 gal. distilled, install new thermostat. Install coolant filter, replace with cat ec-1 elc concentrate. Do not let the water sit for extended period of time. Give yourself the better part of the day to get it done.

Sent from my phone that somebody didn't help me get.

[L&B]

Originally Posted by southend

Drain, pull thermostat, flush with tap, flush with at least 24 gal. distilled, install new thermostat. Install coolant filter, replace with cat ec-1 elc concentrate. Do not let the water sit for extended period of time. Give yourself the better part of the day to get it done.

This, in essence, worked well for me. Delta still good, if anything it dropped a degree or two.

I also collected some material from my coolant filter, dried it, and have been studying it carefully. Today it was subjected to EDS (energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy) which shows a lot of carbon and oxygen, with smaller amounts of iron and aluminum, trace amounts of silicon and other things like calcium and sodium in such small quantities that they may or may not really be there, but are on the order of 1% at most. I'm not done with it, but it clearly is not silicate as many have claimed. Nor does it contain appreciable amounts of boron, as I had expected. While it does appear to contain iron oxide, it is in relatively small quantities.

It is completely unaffected by concentrated hydroxide, and by phosphoric/citric acid (the active ingredients in Restore and Restore +, respectively). I cooked it at 115C for three hours, using a higher concentration than the commercial products have in the jug. Took photos and left it on the hot plate over the weekend, got another photo today. It does not dissolve at all, but in the concentrated phosphoric acid the brown color is converted to gray. I attribute this to the conversion of iron oxide to iron phosphate (exactly as occurs with Naval Jelly) but this does not affect the solubility or the cohesiveness of the material. It is unaffected by most common organic solvents.

I have not tested authentic Fleetguard products because I don't have any and don't feel like spending money on them. While they may contain some highly effective mystery material which is non-hazardous (and therefore not listed on the MSDS) it would be a surprise. Generally, things which are perfectly safe are also perfectly useless. I'd love to see someone repeat this with commercial products (or anything else) if so inclined, and am surprised that it appears no one has yet.

I'm not interested in changing the color of the sludge, and what I've seen indicates that the commercial flushing products will be largely ineffective in removing the material that I have isolated; while this may not actually be the case, at this point that claim will require extraordinary evidence. Notice that the manufacturers claim that their products remove silicates, rust etc. but make no mention of this persistent uncharacterized sludge from the 6.0 cooling systems. It appears that the most effective methods will be physical: drain, flush, filter.

For these reasons, my suggestion is to put the filter on immediately. I have not -- and still would not -- flush with chemicals unless there was a compelling reason, and you haven't given any. I also don't see a reason not to switch to an ELC. Southend's advice seems quite sound to me; I would also really encourage the use of the Fumoto valves in the block drains and to use them for every drain. It seems to me that this stuff settles out in the low points; the bottom of the oil cooler, bottom of the jackets around the cylinder bores...

[southend]

Interesting, was this an elc sample, after you switched over?

Sent from my phone that somebody didn't help me get.

[Galaxie]

I flushed mine a few years ago with chemicals, thu a filter and elc in. Has been good! Did a few others like that and one without chemicals and just went back to gold.

No issues on any of them. As you can see I did some with chem and some without. Never an issue.

Good luck on any route you chose!

[pcris]

Originally Posted by southend

Drain, pull thermostat, flush with tap, flush with at least 24 gal. distilled, install new thermostat. Install coolant filter, replace with cat ec-1 elc concentrate. Do not let the water sit for extended period of time. Give yourself the better part of the day to get it done.

Sent from my phone that somebody didn't help me get.

Exactly what I want to do, thanks for the help in making the decision. Already done a flush on pop's truck so it should go a bit smoother on mine.

[L&B]

Originally Posted by southend

Interesting, was this an elc sample, after you switched over?

Yes, I switched to Delo ELC in mid-April and deleted the egr cooler; it got new coolers under warranty from the dealership when I bought it in March (they supposedly flushed it also). Got a lot of dark stuff out of the block drains, and suspect that the mystery mud I'm playing with now is mainly the last bits from the bottoms of the cylinder jackets finally getting stirred up.

[pcris]

Originally Posted by L&B

Yes, I switched to Delo ELC in mid-April and deleted the egr cooler; it got new coolers under warranty from the dealership when I bought it in March (they supposedly flushed it also). Got a lot of dark stuff out of the block drains, and suspect that the mystery mud I'm playing with now is mainly the last bits from the bottoms of the cylinder jackets finally getting stirred up.

Yeah mine got flushed at the dealer when the previous owner had the cooler replaced, but after I talked to the tech, he didn't really know all the detail about the elc ratings and ended up putting the fleetcharge in I believe.

I've got Delo to put in mine also

[L&B]

I have no idea how (or if) mine was flushed by the dealer. They put Gold back in it, for what that's worth. I didn't run a coolant filter prior to a few weeks ago because I was waiting for IPR to release theirs.

I'd love to say that Compound X will dissolve this stuff, and have some idea what that may be, but am fairly certain that it'll also attack everything else in the system.