Coolant Info

8-27-07

Confused about Chassis Coolant?

[ If you have a FCCC chassis, the engine coolant is furnished by FCCC, not CAT]

Warning: There are organic acid antifreeze/coolants (OAT) advertised as "extended life" coolants i.e. DEXCOOL®, Texaco® Extended Life Antifreeze and Caterpillar® Extended Life Antifreeze. These products' performance may be compromised if mixed with conventional coolants. Do not mix the two. Organic acid antifreeze/coolant can be recognized by its distinctive orange or red-orange color. [Quote from Penray Tech Bulletin # 01.004 dated 01/12/01].

(Editor's note - if you mix OAT and conventional coolants, the mixture will cool your engine ok, but the corrosion and cavitation inhibitors will be screwed up and engine damage could result.)

NOTE - Buy Test Strips in small quantities due to shelf life limitations

Check SCA (supplemental Coolant Additives) and freeze point every 6 months or 25,000 miles. Recharge as required by test results.

[Note - Thanks to Ted Bryan, FCOC member for the following information.]

The Wix strips (from NAPA) are three way--

checks coolant freeze point, pH and SCA level.

* NOTE: Recent experience has shown that NAPA may have changed their sales

methods and no longer offer the single packs of 4 test strips. NAPA may try and sell you the whole box of 24 packages of 4 strips for ~$27!

NOT RECOMMENDED

Fleetguard (Cummins) is a DCA-4 coolant, Ethylene Glycol and contains Molybdates and Nitrites as corrosion and cavitation inhibitors.

 

FCCC uses a  DCA-2 coolant in Alliance Brand, Fleetcharge, or Power Cool (Detroit Diesel). This coolant is Ethylene Glycol with only Nitrites as an inhibitor.

Caution - these are 3-way test strips - Freeze Point, Molybdates and Nitrites

Your FCCC supplied coolant does NOT contain any Molybdates, only Nitrites.

Ignore the Molybdate pad on the test strip and use only the FP and Nitrite pads.

 

Penray's Recommendation:

Use Penray Two-Way Heavy Duty Test Strips (TS-100 or TS-102) to evaluate nitrite containing coolants including products from Caterpillar®, FleetCharge®, FleetGuard®, Detroit Diesel®, John Deere®, Quaker State®, AES, Toxguard, etc.

Penray recommends that the user evaluate the nitrite concentration and freeze point using a Penray Two-Way Heavy Duty Test Strips. Nitrite concentration and freeze point should be maintained within the engine manufacturer's specification; typically 1,200-6,000 ppm nitrite and 50% glycol is widely considered normal. Penray recommends that the molybdate concentration be ignored when evaluating mixed coolants, as low molybdate concentrations, when using a 3-way test strip, will mislead the user into thinking that the inhibitor concentration is too low, when, in fact, it is not. Therefore the use of 3-way test strips (which test Molybdates)  is not recommended.  [Quote from Penray Tech Bulletin # 99.019 dated 03/01/09].

For further info - see Penray - Technical Bulletins

[Note - we are working with FCCC to find a good source of test strips to help eliminate any confusion caused by testing with these 3-way strips. There is a problem with interpreting the test results with the Fleetguard  3-way strips (using all three pads) that would lead you to believe your SCAs are low, when in fact your Nitrites are fine.  You can test with these 3-way strips IF you IGNORE the Molybdates pad info.  However, the test chart that comes with these test strips is laid out in a matrix format and ignoring the Molybdate reading, yields confusing data on the Nitrites.

 

If your test results have been skewed by the Molybdates, and you've added SCA additives, you may have increased your nitrites too much!  Retest with 2-way strips...FP and Nitrites only.]

For additional info, See FCOC Tech Tidbits Page

Updated 8-27-07

Posted 12-10-05