Alpine coolant service

[Wayne R]

I have been researching coolant info for my Alpine and find most of the info is confusing. I went to the Cummins Filtration website and found some good info that helped clear up the subject for me.

http://www.cumminsfiltration.c...t_amer.shtml#cooling

http://www.cumminsfiltration.c...hures/LT32599_09.pdf

Since the coolant in my system is green it is probably Heavy Duty Coolant EG or FleetCool (which I believe use to be Fleetguard Complete). The owners manual says to replace coolant at 70,000 or 2 years with Fleetguard Complete. It has been 16,000 miles and 2 ½ years since the radiator was replaced. DCA Levels are low at 1.2. The service interval for FleetCool is 30,000 miles or 700 hours. So I am not sure what they put in it when the factory changed the radiator.

Just to be safe I plan to flush my cooling system with Restore and replace the antifreeze with FleetCool.

Interesting quote from Cummins Filtration Tech bulletin “Although we recommend the use of fully formulated heavy duty coolants, Supplemental Coolant Additives (SCA) can be used to upgrade light duty antifreeze for heavy duty use and can be used in water-only cooling systems like marine and railroad
applications. The chemistry contained in our SCA is necessary to prevent liner pitting, corrosion and scale build-up on your cooling system components.”

[Ted III]

Wayne, I probably leave myself open to much criticism but I believe we are to use good old Prestone or equivalent cut 50% with water. More than likely that is what Fleetcool is.If this is incorrect would all of the gurus please explain the proper product(s).

[bigfish]

At 30K miles I changed over to FLEETGUARD ES COMPLEAT, ETHYLENE GLYCOL, 50/50 PREMIX, 1 gal #CC2825.
BTF
05 40FDQS

[Trehcub]

You cannot use regular preston or auto antifreeze due to the high silca amount. you must use low silca antifreeze. I normally buy the unmixed antifreeze, distilled water and the bottle of dca and fill the radiator with a small pump.

I pour the antifreeze and water in a bucket that way I can keep track of my mix ratio. I can add one gallon of antifreeze and one gallon of distilled water at a time. The pump I use is called a waterbed pump( small pump ran by a drill) They are availbe at Lowes or HomeDepot for about $5.00.

[EngineerMike]

Ted- the key to coolant formulation req'mt is the Cummins quote above. If not formulated for diesel use, you will get pitting on the inside of cylinder jackets and excessive corrosion (has to do w/the concussion of diesel combustion vs. the much lesser stress on cylinder walls of gasoline burn thru the compression stroke). You can see a tutorial here.

[takepride]

eMike:

Great tutorial. Thanks!

[Ted III]

Thanks Mike & Trehcub, I have certainly learned something that is most informative as well as beneficial.

[Wayne R]

Did WRV ever switch to OAT coolants? It appears Cummins removed the coolant filters in 05 because OAT coolant does not need the slow release DCA additive provided by the filter.

To those that run a recovery jug, I picked up a recovery tank at WalMart $7 and mounted it on the enclousre next to the left side of the engine slightly above the surge tank.

[Algoma]

According to the specs. the only requirement is that the antifreeze meets ASTM D4985. Prestone Heavy Duty meets this standard and probably many others. I don't think you need to get hung up on using only Cummins products.

[two sailors]

It seems to me if you need a recovery tank, you
are over filling the radiator. I keep a jug tucked under the over flow just to make sure I don't have to much in the tank.

[Wayne R]

The recovery tank is doing the same thing as the jug just a cleaner instalation IMO.