Spike45

yes, you are correct. Do not worry if you spill some coolant on the ground. Just flush it with plenty of water so that it is diluted.

Zerex is the trade name for Valvoline coolant products. Yes, it is the same and just as good. Only less expensive. You may have to search to find this product at auto parts stores. As for flushing any cooling system, simple flushing with tap water is sufficient. After draining the old coolant you will have some holdback volume of the old coolant. The tap water flush will dilute that considerably leaving some water in the system. Flushing can be done without the pressure cap being installed. Auto parts stores should carry the Prestone flushing kit. It is designed to let you use the garden hose connected through your heater plumbing circuit to flush the system with water leaving almost no trace of old coolant. Some say to use only distilled water to flush with. Absolutely not necessary. For the small amount of hold back coolant the mineral content, if any, is negligible. When done flushing. add one half of the total system capacity using concentrate coolant product of your choice. Fill the remaining volume with your distilled water or water from reverse osmosis treatment. And, really, you can just use tap water. Personally, I use Fleetguard ES Compleat in my cooling systems. I use concentrate and add Tennessee tap water. Decent coolant products like the Zerex G-05, Motorcraft Premium Gold and several others use robust anti-scaling agents that isolate scale forming carbonates preventing the formation of deposits. As far as long coolant life goes, it is not the formulation of inhibitors that determines real coolant life. Aggressive marketing by several coolant manufacturers have driven the idea that it is the inhibitors that determine how long a coolant can be used. In reality, the inhibitor package determines service intervals. Coolant life is governed by chemical and physical changes that may occur. For instance, if an engine has an oil cooler that fails and releases oil into the cooling system, there is nothing you can do to keep that coolant for continued operation. In you case, this could be the transmission oil cooler within your radiator. For diesel engines, that would be the separate oil cooler within the engine. Coolant can become unusable if subjected to severe and repeated overheating conditions. Glycols degrade due to heat exposure. Eventually, a normal operating system will degrade the coolant by formation of degradation products. This is why there are recommendations on coolant life. I expect that your motorhome use will not really be a lot of miles per year. Thus, you are likely to still have a suitable coolant even after 3, 4, or five years.

Cetane improvers work to help the fuel ignite easier especially in cold weather. Period. When I worked at Fleetguard (Cummins Filtration, now) Cummins took Fleetguard marketing people to task over claims they were making on improved fuel mileage. It is not going to do that. Even though you have some who claim their pet additive brand improved their mileage. The problem with those claims is they are not backed by really solid field test data.

Instead of the Motorcraft, check with an autoparts store for Valvoline G-05. Valvoline made the Premium Gold for Ford Motorcraft. I would very much agree that mixing Ford's Specialty Orange is not good. It is actually Dexcool. Dexcool is a very skimpy formulation as coolants go but especially so when compared to G-05/Premium Gold. Yes, the volume sounds about right for a V10 and a rather large radiator. Originally Ford specified that factory fill of the Premium Gold would have an operating life of 5 years BUT when changed out, the operating life was reduced to 3 years. The G-05 / PG formula is suitable for the Ford PowerStroke diesel. But as a gasoline engine, the additive package will not degrade as it would with a diesel. Should be no problem running it for the 5 years. Use only the Premium Gold or G-05 to refill low coolant levels. In your gas engine there will be no need to test or re-inhibit this coolant.

At that time, Ford factory fill coolant was Motorcraft Premium Gold. It was (is) a hybrid organic coolant. The color was close to that of ginger ale. Ford's original service recommendation was to go five years. But I think that Brett's advice in this matter is just change it out. Since it is not a diesel engine, most any light duty automobile antifreeze coolant will work very well. You may elect to use a HD product intended for diesel engines. You will never need to add any chemical additive to those coolants due to your engine being non-diesel. I would recommend that you do not use Dexcool.

Here is a portion of the Cummins Technical Bulletin on engine oil and analysis. Table 3: Oil Contamination Guidelines Property Guideline Viscosity change at 100° C (ASTM-D445) ±1 SAE viscosity grade or 5cSt from the new oil Fuel Dilution 5 percent Total base number (TBN) (ASTM D-4739) 2.5 number minimum or half new oil value or equal to total acid number (TAN) Water content ASTM (D-95) 0.5 percent maximum Potential Contaminants: Silicone (Sl) 15 ppm increase over new oil Sodium (Na) 20 ppm increase over new oil Boron ( 25 ppm increase over new oil Potassium (K) 20 ppm increase over new oil Soot Midrange B and C All Other Engines CES-20078 and CES- 20081 3.0 percent 7.5 percent CES-20076 3.0 percent 6.3 percent CES-20072 3.0 percent 5.0 percent CES-20075 1.5 percent 1.5 percent The contamination guidelines presented above are guidelines only. This does not mean values that fail on the acceptable side of these guidelines can be interpreted as indicating the oil is suitable for further service. Take note that the above particle contaminant levels are based on an initial NEW oil analysis. If you do not have that analysis, then the silicon level of 25 PPM or greater could be an indicator of dusting. If there had been a prior engine repair where silicon rubber gasket sealers were used, you may get a peak in Si as that has been proven to be a source of silicon but a benign one.

The product was designed by the Cummins Filtration (Fleetguard) Chemical Products group. Before retiring from CF as a field engineer, I worked with the Chem Products group in getting some field testing started. The explanation that there is deposits is accurate. The issue was most notable in High Pressure Common Rail fuel systems that had frequent and repeating injector failures due to the build up of gum deposits that are removed from the fuel system especially since the advent of ultra low sulfur diesel fuel. That fuel is easily capable of removing old gum deposits from every surface it comes in contact with. This would include the pipelines, tank farms, vehicle fuel tank and fuel lines. The importance of the initial treat rate is to provide an intense cleaning of the surfaces within the system. Removal of those deposits has been known to cause filter plugging. It would be a good idea to carry spare fuel filters when doing the initial cleaning. Spike45 Gary Spires Retired Cummins (Fleetguard) Field Service Engineer

Buzz, The ISL standard oil pan holds 7.3 gallons or 27.63 liters. Engine idle oil pressure is 15 psi. Warm engine at highway speeds carries 40 - 55 PSI oil pressure.

That air filter is the Farr Ecolite (now owned by Racor). Disposable housing unit. For longest engine life due to less dust ingestion, avoid use of the K&N and similar products. Your system should have a restriction gauge connected to a pressure tap on the outlet of the filter. The filter should be changed no later than 25" water restriction if it is the "Filter Minder" type. Servicing before 20" restriction is throwing away a good filter before it has been used up. Restriction build up in an on-highway application as in a MH can take several years. Changing too frequently will result in more dust entry into the air inlet as all air cleaners except K&N & similar get more efficient as they collect dust. Changing too frequently results in more dust entry with the new filter.

I would agree with Brett that it is odd that an ISB6.7 is on the same list as the Maxxforce 10. Those two engines are not in the same league. The ISB6.7L for 2010 and later will require the use of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) which is a urea water solution that is required to meet the emissions requirements set by the EPA for MY 2010 and later engines. The Maxxforce engine does not use DEF systems but has a more complex system in that it uses twin turbochargers, a low pressure stage feeding a high pressure stage. Any issues with turbos could mean the replacement of two turbos not one as in the case of the Cummins engine. International chose not to use SCR (selective catalyst reduction) as a means to clean the exhaust. The SCR process uses a fine mist of DEF sprayed into the exhaust ahead of the catalyst to reduce the oxides of nitrogen. Maxxforce is trying to accomplish the same by forcing more air into the engine to reduce emissions. The forerunner to the Maxxforce engines that used the same technology was the Caterpillar ACERT engines with twin turbos. They had plenty of problems with those when they were issues. Even when there were no issues, the twin turbos and associated air plumbing make for more engine complexity and higher repair bills. While I am biased for the Cummins (I do work for a Cummins company, Fleetguard) it is still true that the Maxxforce engine has more complexity than the Cummins models which all run a single turbo with a DEF injection system.

Flushing an oil contaminated cooling system is best accomplished with use of specific cleaners designed to remove oil contamination in an aqueous coolant system (coolant composed of water and antifreeze). Oil in the coolant interferes with the function of the SCA additive that protects the liners or parent bore, coolant side against cavitation pitting. At least one HD cooling system cleaner is available, Fleetguard Restore Cooling System Cleaner. For simplicity, it is the fastest at removal of lube oil from cooling systems with minimum flush cycles. Caterpillar also has a cooling system cleaner. I have no experience with it as to ability to remove more than just scale, rust, and corrosion. If it removes oil as well, that will be a plus. Some have recommended here and other forums to flush the cooling system using liquid dish detergents. While they work to some degree, they do create some other issues. The main problem with any liquid detergent is that it creates a lot of foam. While flushing an engine you need to get the cooling system hot. Hot engines do not need foamy coolant especially in the cylinder head area. Proper flushing requires the engine to get up to operating temperature such that the thermostat will open and allow free circulation of the flush coolant to clean the radiator as well as the engine. Since most draining of these systems is a slow process, the water/detergent method usually redeposits oil onto the cylinder walls and other surfaces during the very slow draining process. This method requires many flushes to remove the oil completely, if you can ever get it completely out. If you must use a detergent cleaning process do the following: Drain the contaminated coolant from the engine. Fill the system with plain water and run until the engine gets hot and has radiator circulation. Drain the flush water from the engine as quickly as possible (see note below on draining) Using dish washer detergent powder (non-sudsing) mix 1/2 large box of powder into the system filled with water. Leave the radiator cap OFF. This will speed the draining processes later. Run the engine at a fast idle and may need to cover the radiator to achieve an operating temperature of about 200F Run for an hour at temp and speed. Shut the engine down. Drain flushing agent quickly. Repeat again with the second half box of powdered cleaner. Note about fast draining: Even with this much more robust powdered cleaner, fast removal of the flushing fluid is necessary as even some oil can separate and adhere to the internal engine surfaces. If you are brave enough, remove the lower radiator hose clamps and remove the bottom radiator hose. This will drain the engine quickly. Loosen the hose form the connecting pipes after the first draining of the oily coolant before starting the cleaning process. Only tighten those hose clamps sufficiently to avoid major leakage. Use a 5/16" nut driver or 1/4" drive ratchet and 5/16" socket and extension for loosening the worm drive hose clamp. After cleaning, re-tighten the bottom radiator hose clamps. I should add that if the coolant hose on your MH is NOT silicon rubber coolant hose, replace that hose and the others as they are likely made of EPDM rubber as it will be damaged by lube oil in the coolant. Most EPDM coolant hose has a black liner. Silicon rubber hose has a burnt orange hose liner color. Silicon rubber will not be phased by oily coolant. Instead, it has its own problems when you use it with CAT ELC and other similar OAT coolants! Refill the cooling system with new coolant meeting at least the ASTM D6210 specifications. If you are refilling a Caterpillar engine and desire to use CAT ELC, it is best not to use silicon rubber hose as it will have its liner degraded causing it to become heavily "checkered" with surface cracks. To aid in removing air from your engine while refilling the coolant, pour it no faster than three gallons per minute. Venting of air from the engine can be facilitated by loosening or removing a temperature sensor in the thermostat area (if equipped). When air quits bubbling out of the sensor port, the engine is purged of air. Run the engine at a fast idle for a half hour should remove the remaining air from the engine and coach plumbing circuits. If you have an engine equipped with EGR, special circumstances may need to be followed to be certain the EGR cooler is purged of air. Failure to correctly purge air from an EGR cooler WILL result in cracks and coolant getting into the engine oil plus the megabucks to replace that cracked EGR cooler. If you have doubts about this process take it to a repair shop.

Caterpillar's preferred coolant is their CAT ELC, an extended life OAT (organic acid technology) coolant. Caterpillar has published a fluids guide (available from their dealers) that also shows any coolant meeting ASTM D6210 is acceptable for use in Caterpillar engines. Their preferred coolant plus Fleet Charge, Fleetguard ES Compleat EG or PG antifreeze, as well as several products from Shell are all compliant with the ASTM designation. The CAT ELC coolant is available from Caterpillar dealers and most HD truck dealerships carry that as well. The Old World Fleet Charge and ES Compleat are also available form HD truck dealers and some truck stops. I take it that the MH only has the 10K+ miles on the original coolant. If your chassis manufacturer used any coolant meeting the ASTM or CAT designations, there is no need to consider changing coolant for another 300,000 miles. Be sure to refill low coolant levels with an approved coolant, one that meets the ASTM D6210 designation. If the coolant jug states that it only meets ASTM D3306, it is LD auto coolant. If it is DEXCOOL, it is LD auto coolant. If it states that it meets ASTM D4985, it is an HD coolant BUT needs to have the required chemical precharge added.....avoid this coolant as well.

Per Caterpillar Fluids Recommendations Guide in the Coolant Section, Caterpillar prefers their ELC product for their engines. They do list as acceptable for use any coolant that meets ASTM D6210. Coolants that meet the ASTM designation must have an SCA, supplemental coolant additive, precharge in the coolant. If the MH dealer put in Prestone coolant but of unknown type, you can test your coolant using coolant test strips available from Baldwin, Donaldson, Fleetguard. Due to some issues with the foil wrapping process used for Fleetguard CC2602A or CC2602B test strips, I would avoid buying those unless they have an expiry date of AFTER August 2011. Before that we had some issues that lead to unreliable readings. You can get your coolant tested at a Cummins distributor. They can test with their bottled CC2602 test strips. I do not recommend purchasing a bottle of any of these test strips as the cost does not justify the two or so test strips you will use in two years before they expire. Some Kenworth dealers will do the same test as Cummins but at a lesser cost, MAYBE. If the coolant in your MH is not CAT ELC, strawberry red color, but is some other color it will still need to have an SCA precharge of at least 2.0 units per gallon as measured on the test kits from Baldwin, Donaldson, Fleetguard. With sufficient precharge using liquid SCA products like Baldwin BTA, Donaldson equivalent to DCA4, or Fleetguard DCA4, Pencool 2000 or 3000, even Caterpillar Cooling System conditioner ( I think they use a different name now for that). There are plenty of liquid SCA products you can use to precharge or put a new precharge in if your coolant SCA level is below 1.2 units per gallon or as measured on a Penray test strip, less than 1200 PPM nitrite. Generally, one pint of any of these liquid SCA products will treat 3 gallons of coolant capacity. Plus, if your CAT engine does not have a coolant filter, add an additional pint for up to 12 gallons capacity as a SERVICE dose. SCA additives like the similar additives found in Cat ELC are sacrificial chemicals and will deplete. Caterpillar does not require the use of ELC in their engines. They prefer it. They do REQUIRE that any coolant used meets ASTM D6210 which their ELC does meet. Are you sufficiently confused now?

More accurately, if the amount of coolant refill (top off) is just a few quarts that you know of, then the CAT ELC chemistry is not compromised. While CAT says there is no need to test the coolant it does contain nitrite and molybdate, two coolant SCA additives that can be easily tested for. These two additives do deplete in this coolant and are replaced when you add a bottle of Caterpilar ELC extender liquid. You could certainly do that but do not go to the extremes of changing coolant for a small amount of mixing with another coolant.

ISC 350? The specified minimum idling warm oil pressure is 15 PSI. Per the base engine data sheet for this engine, maximum cold start up oil pressure (spike pressure, no pun intended) is 150 PSI. Normal warm engine oil pressure is 45 - 50 PSI. This is about standard for all Cummins engines in the midrange class; B5.9L, 6B5.9, ISB, C8.3, ISC, ISL9.

What you are experiencing is crankcase oil droplets coming from the breather tube. It is an unfortunate but common occurrence for RV engines. It is more of an issue on the smaller displacement but high horsepower diesel engines from Cummins and Caterpillar but no engine is exempt if it does not have a better means to trap the liquid oil carryover. On the Cummins ISB, ISC, ISL this can be quite pronounced. Engines before 2010 had open crank case vent tubes, now they must use closed crankcase ventilation systems that trap the oil and return it to the engine while venting the fumes into the air intake. On other forums like iRV2 in the Cummins Power Train section you can find a lot of posting on this topic. The simple homemade fix is to attach a catch bottle to the vent tube. You may need to extend the vent tube to an easily accessible location as you will need to dump the catch bottle periodically. That catch bottle must have vent holes in it to allow the blow-by gas volume to escape. Some have added 'brillo pads' and similar to act as a medium to hold the liquid oil. An early version of the Cummins ISB used just such a crankcase breather catch device. It was mounted on the front gear cover. On the Cummins ISC and ISL, the breather assembly is mounted behind the oil filter. It looks to be like a small flat box with rounded corners. It has a clear plastic tube that extends below that about 10 inches or less. With the High HP ratings of these engines, especially the ISL 400 and ISL 450, there is considerable blow by gas volume although normal. The low mount location of the breather is not good as there is considerable airborne oil droplets inside the engine at that point. Earlier C8.3 Cummins engines had the breather mounted on a valve cover with much less airborne oil droplets thus lower amount of liquid oil going overboard.

Diesel engine OEM companies like Cummins, CAT, Detroit Diesel provide application engineering specifications to the chassis builder. They will provide the maximum air flow requirements so that the chassis builder can spec an air cleaner system that will sufficiently provide that amount of air and usually more for the standard HP rating on the engine. Standard paper media air filters from companies like Baldwin, Donaldson, and Fleetguard have products that can meet the air flow requirements of the air filter housing as installed on that chassis. The maximum air flow occurs at peak HP. On a Cummins ISL 400 the peak air flow is 672 CFM at 2100 RPM while the ECM is delivering sufficient fuel rate to produce 400 HP. Attached is the ISL 400 Engine Performance Curves. Scroll down to the 'Maximum Rating Performance Data'. You can read air flow at peak torque, peak HP and maximum governed RPM.ISL 400 RV Engine Performance Curves.pdf Having a K&N or any similar product does nothing to increase this air flow. The above data was generated at the Cummins tech center engine test lab with no air cleaner. For a K&N to have any effect you would have to modify the ECM with a chip to provide fuel delivery above the map points in the ECM. More fuel requires more air to burn it efficiently. While cruising (not maximum load) you are no where near the maximum air flow requirement. The K&N and similar products provide "psychological HP"........you think it is doing better! An earlier post had links to air filter testing. The absolute best link on that post was to the one on the Duramax diesel. There is a lot to view there and for the untrained, it may be confusing. The real telling data was the maximum trapped dust capacity, the overall efficiency and the air flow of each filter. The air flow was the same for all the filters as the testing was done at the air flow requirement of the Duramax diesel with standard ECM fuel delivery map. The K&N had the least trapped dust volume compared to standard paper media air filters. In the long run, that will dust the engine. All engines will ingest dust even with the correct air filter and stellar air system maintenance. More frequent air filter changing allows more dust to get in sooner. Air filters with low efficiency (<99.7%) will allow more dust in. At Fleetguard, an air filter for a midrange or heavy duty diesel engine that tests at 99.7% overall efficiency would be considered to have failed. They should test at 99.8+% and usually come in at 99.99x%. With a given envelope of space considerations for mounting air cleaners, many RV and other applications have no room for larger air filter housings to accommodate the increased air flow demand of a diesel that has had the fuel system and turbo altered to increase HP. The K&N and AFE type filters can allow more air in the same space.....but at a cost to engine life and reliability.

This is not what I think. It is what I know per Cummins. Thermostats are used to maintain MINIMUM engine operating temperatures. Maximum engine temperatures are controlled by your foot on the pedal, the grade, the weight of the toad, head wind speed.....in short, the loading on your engine. The sensing bulb in the thermostat only responds to increases in jacket coolant temperature. When sufficient temperatures are reached (the marked temp on the stat), it begins to open. For example, a thermostat is marked "180". It begins to open (cracks) at 180F, and is fully open, if you are working the engine hard enough, at 202F. If you are not working the engine sufficiently, the temperature remains near the crack open temp. In this manner the thermostat controls minimum operating temperature. Under the right conditions, the thermostat may not open at all but still the engine does not overheat. One such instance is in arctic-like temperatures where there is sufficient fan air blowing on the engine, the thermostat may not open as the engine is being cooled by the air on the block. In that instance, the thermostat is trying to maintain the minimum operating temperature set by the OEM engine company. It is doubtful you will experience that but may come close in Winter driving. In hot weather driving with sufficient loading, the thermostat will open completely sending all coolant to the radiator vs being partially open and recirculating a portion of the coolant back to the engine for additional heating. Once the thermostat is fully open it no longer is in control of the jacket temperature (other than minimum). Your pressing on the throttle pedal causes more fuel delivery, more heat rejection to the radiator, and elevating temperatures. You may experience that while climbing mountain passes in higher gears in the transmission. While the engine certainly has the torque to keep chugging up the hill, the engine speed is slowing, the water pump slows down, the fan slows down and the heat load is going up.......you see the temp gauge go up above 200F. If you are watching the exhaust gas pyrometer, you no doubt, will see the EGT climb over 1000F.

Caterpillar provides the base fuel filtration on the engine build. If they designate a fuel water separator, it is provided. I suspect Caterpillar is like Cummins in this regard; the chassis builder orders an engine with specific options that Caterpillar makes available like fuel water separator (in addition to standard fuel filter), coolant filter head, remote lube oil filter, or accessory bypass oil filtration. The chassis manufacturer often does not order some options as the cost is higher than what they can get the feature for with an aftermarket company. One such area is the addition of the fuel water separator. It is possible to find a Racor or Fleetguard fuel water separating filter on chassis. If that FWS product is the only filtration on the engine, it must meet Caterpillars micron requirement of 2 micron particle removal. Draining FWS can be a pain, no doubt, as access may be governed by an on-engine installation vs. remote mount. You may be able to install a FWS product that has a WIF, Water In Fuel sensor. Check to see if your MH manufacturer offered that as an option. If they did, there may be a wire harness connector for the dashboard WIF light. Fleetguard offers the FS1242B fuel water separator kit, available with WIF sensor system. Fleetguard FS1242B Racor, division of Parker Hannifin also has WIF sensor fuel filtration that you can add onto the system ahead of the engine-mounted fuel lift pump. Racor FWS Adding these remote Fuel Water Separators will encourage draining if you mount them in an accessible location. It is advisable to drain the FWS after taking on fuel. Give it some run time to strip out water. Even though most truck stops and travel centers take diesel fuel deliveries more than once per day, you cannot be certain that the fuel does not have water.

Diesel engine HP ratings do not necessarily correlate to expected fuel mileage. The controlling factors on fuel mileage are drivetrain gear ratios, road speed, head wind, grade, GVW of coach and toad, and how hard you press on the throttle pedal. Actually, your pressing on the throttle pedal is in direct response to the other factors and how they are affecting the speed you wish to travel. Higher HP engines are as capable of fuel mileage as smaller engines. Chassis manufacturers get drivetrain recommendations on gearing selections form the engine OEM. Engines get their best fuel mileage when operated at the lowest point on the BSFC curve, Brake Specific Fuel Consumption. That usually is above the peak torque RPM of the engine. Higher HP engines can handle increased loads easier and still remain closer to the BSFC RPM with less effort. It is possible for a 600 HP Cummins ISX to achieve 7.5 mpg+ depending on hills, speed, head wind speed and GVW of the 18 wheel truck configuration. Engines do not produce maximum HP continuously. The above factors in your operation combine to present a total load to the engine. The engine ECM (governor) reacts by adjusting fuel delivery to achieve a response to how hard you press on the throttle pedal. Smaller engines will struggle more than larger and may actually achieve poorer fuel consumption figures against a larger engine that is being stressed less. Gary Spires Field Service Engineer Cummins Filtration