Going From Green To Red

[GaryKD]

Today, I changed the generator coolant from the original green to Final Charge (red). I followed the same process Spartan does when serviceing coaches at their Charlotte facility. Everything went according to plan. Drain, fill with water and run generator for about 15 minutes. Do the same thing again. Do the same thing for a third time. Drain and refill with Final Charge coolant. The generator takes 4.2 quarts of coolant. When 4.2 quarts were added, the coolant in the reservoir was just above the mark for cold coolant. Overall, it was quite pain free.

This was practice for doing the ISC. I'll take on that project sometime in January.

[GaryKD]

Today, I changed the generator coolant from the original green to Final Charge (red). I followed the same process Spartan does when serviceing coaches at their Charlotte facility. Everything went according to plan. Drain, fill with water and run generator for about 15 minutes. Do the same thing again. Do the same thing for a third time. Drain and refill with Final Charge coolant. The generator takes 4.2 quarts of coolant. When 4.2 quarts were added, the coolant in the reservoir was just above the mark for cold coolant. Overall, it was quite pain free.

This was practice for doing the ISC. I'll take on that project sometime in January.

[Latitude]

Gary Sounds like something else I should add to the 'List'

Rick

[Lug_Nut]

Gary, I understand changing the ISC to Final Charge, given it is a wet sleeved engine, but what advantages is there to replacing the genset coolant?

Peter

[RVDude]

This color change is on my "list" too!

I think it's been said before, the advantage is to make all coolants the same and hence, to have to carry one less bottle of different stuff to use to top-off.

[Lug_Nut]

Jeff, I guess that makes sense. I just wondered as the Kabota diesel is a non-sleeved engine where the plus was.

Peter

[GaryKD]

Peter,
I did this for three reasons:

1. It was time to change the green coolant anyway. Going to Final Charge, I don't need to do this again for 6 years.

2. This was practice for me doing the ISC.

3. There will be only one coolant in both engines.

[Jay W]

Gary, I have a couple of questions.
1-Did you use Final Charge concentrate or did you use the 50% premix?
2-Where did you purchase the Final Charge ?

[RVDude]

"Final Charge Global ELC" 50/50 premix is available at many Wal-Marts. You may have to visit a couple to find a store that has it.
"Final Charge Global ELC" concentrate is quite a bit harder to come by and you'll need to call several heavy truck parts stores to find one that carries it.
Note you asked specifically about "Final Charge." There are some that will say red/orange coolant is red/orange coolant and all are the same. I do not believe this is true as this paper will explain but if you do then red ELC coolants come under many other brand names and can be found at all truck parts and Cummins stores.
Not that Final Charge is better than the rest, its just that the documentation would indicate that the coolant color groups are no longer all the same within a given color group like it used to be. Given Wal-Mart Final Charge availability, I see no need to mix brands and I prefer to keep things simple.

[Jay W]

Thanks Jeff, You hit the nail on the head. I spotted Final Charge ELC 50/50 premix at my local Wally-world.
After making sure I get all the Green flushed out. It is difficult to get 100% of the water out of the cooling system. So I would like to locate some concentrate to make sure I get back to 50/50. I also like to carry a gallon of straight and mix

[GaryKD]

Jay,
I used Final Charge pre mix. The generator requires only 4.2 quarts. I was confident I could get all the coolant out. It turns out, all the coolant did come out. When I did the refill with Final Charge, the reservoir fluid was at the mark for correctly being filled.

I purchased the pre mix at Walmart. I'm still looking for the concentrate. As soon as I get the concentrate, the ISC will be done. I want the concentrate for the same reason stated in your post.