I've been working on some cooling system items over the weekend. On Friday I dumped a bottle of Prestone Radiator flush in the truck and drove it around for about 2 hours spread over Friday and Saturday.
Yesterday I picked up 4 gallons of coolant and 4 gallons of distilled water. I wanted to use a long life coolant that was intended for diesels (even though this engine doesn't have wet liners) that would be available at any parts store. I came up with Zerex G05. It is readily available in both concentrate and pre-mix at O'Reilly, Autozone, NAPA, and Advance.
I also ordered a water pump; it showed up around 7PM yesterday.
I began doing drain and fills last night, filling with tap water, running for 10 minutes or so, then draining and repeating until the water started coming out mostly clear. I know some people say to only used distilled water, but with a 6 gallon coolant capacity, I'd need to clear out a couple Walmarts to get that much distilled water.
Original color-
First drain-
Second drain-
Third drain-
Final drain-
Once I felt I had flushed enough of the old coolant out, I swapped out the water pump. This was the easiest water pump I've ever replaced. 2 easily accessible bolts and a rubber o-ring to seal it. The old pump was a Concentric. Concentric was the OE supplier, so it's possible that was the original pump. It's difficult to confirm, but I suspect it was leaking.
At the last minute I decided to change the radiator hoses as they looked a bit swollen. I got two Gates hoses from O'Reilly. The block side clamp on the lower hose was an absolute b*tch but the rest was easy.
The system capacity is supposed to be about 6 gallons. If you include the expansion tank, I got a little more than 5 gallons in it. I'll monitor the level closely for a while to see if it burps any more air out. I still need to change the thermostat and radiator cap, but I will be ordering OE for those. I've had nothing but trouble from aftermarket thermostats and radiator caps.
The small head gasket leak doesn't seem to have gotten any better or worse in changing the coolant. I did some more reading around and found that there is a product called Zerex Super Seal that is approved by Cummins for use in ISX engines to seal coolant leaks. They mostly use it for EGR cooler leaks but I can't see why it wouldn't work for this as well. I'm not ready to dump it in yet but it's an option if it comes to that point. For now I'm gonna try to live with it as-is and monitor the level closely.
Yesterday I picked up 4 gallons of coolant and 4 gallons of distilled water. I wanted to use a long life coolant that was intended for diesels (even though this engine doesn't have wet liners) that would be available at any parts store. I came up with Zerex G05. It is readily available in both concentrate and pre-mix at O'Reilly, Autozone, NAPA, and Advance.
I also ordered a water pump; it showed up around 7PM yesterday.
I began doing drain and fills last night, filling with tap water, running for 10 minutes or so, then draining and repeating until the water started coming out mostly clear. I know some people say to only used distilled water, but with a 6 gallon coolant capacity, I'd need to clear out a couple Walmarts to get that much distilled water.
Original color-
First drain-
Second drain-
Third drain-
Final drain-
Once I felt I had flushed enough of the old coolant out, I swapped out the water pump. This was the easiest water pump I've ever replaced. 2 easily accessible bolts and a rubber o-ring to seal it. The old pump was a Concentric. Concentric was the OE supplier, so it's possible that was the original pump. It's difficult to confirm, but I suspect it was leaking.
At the last minute I decided to change the radiator hoses as they looked a bit swollen. I got two Gates hoses from O'Reilly. The block side clamp on the lower hose was an absolute b*tch but the rest was easy.
The system capacity is supposed to be about 6 gallons. If you include the expansion tank, I got a little more than 5 gallons in it. I'll monitor the level closely for a while to see if it burps any more air out. I still need to change the thermostat and radiator cap, but I will be ordering OE for those. I've had nothing but trouble from aftermarket thermostats and radiator caps.
The small head gasket leak doesn't seem to have gotten any better or worse in changing the coolant. I did some more reading around and found that there is a product called Zerex Super Seal that is approved by Cummins for use in ISX engines to seal coolant leaks. They mostly use it for EGR cooler leaks but I can't see why it wouldn't work for this as well. I'm not ready to dump it in yet but it's an option if it comes to that point. For now I'm gonna try to live with it as-is and monitor the level closely.
