Don't use Motorcraft Gold coolant.. Use International ELC coolant.. The Gold coolant is what was recommended but there has been some proof that it clogs the oil cooler.. I did notice my local Ford garage is now reccomending the ELC for the 6.0..
Does any place like AutoZone, Wal-Mart, O'Riley's, or NAPA carry the coolant that is ELC recommended for the 6.0? I live in a small town and have these stores close by. Again thanks for all the help guys.
The 6.0 is known to blow head gaskets. This is why it happens. The Ford Gold coolant contains silicates. The silicates are not able to handle high EGT's generated by a good load or relatively high boost when run through the EGR cooler. They break down into a jell like sludge and fall out of suspension. This crud gets caught up in the tiny coolant passageways of the oil cooler. As the cooler clogs up it restricts coolant flow to the egr cooler. Now the egr cooler doesn't have enough coolant to carry off the heat generated by high EGT's. The limited amount of coolant in the egr cooler flash boils causing high pressure in the cooling system and the truck pukes coolant from the degas bottle due to the pressure. (it has to go somewhere)
Your uninformed Powerstroke owner is not monitoring his coolant temps and oil temps so he doesn't know whats going on and he keeps driving it this way. The problem get worse, the pressure causes the egr cooler to rupture. Now the egr cooler is leaking coolant into the intake manifold which then runs into the cylinders. Again the high combustion temps cause the coolant to vaporize. This causes unacceptably high cylinder pressure, the TTY head bolts stretch due to the additional pressure and there go your head gaskets.
Ok now you know the problem. Here's the cure. Get a good engine monitoring solution like the Edge Insight so that you can monitor your ECT and EOT. If those temps get more than 15* apart at normal cruising when at normal operating temperature your oil cooler is clogging up. Rebuild it now to prevent all that down stream damage from occurring. Flush that Ford Gold coolant cxxp out of your engine with a couple bottles of Restore. This is made specifically to clean out that silicate residue. Now refill it with a silicate free Cat EC-1 rated ELC coolant. This removes the silicates that clog the oil cooler from the equation. If you live in an area where you don't have smog inspections delete the egr system. If you can't delete it replace the egr cooler with the cooler manufactured by Bulletproof Diesel. This is vastly superior to the Ford oem egr cooler and it will not fail on you. If you find that you need to replace head gaskets replace the TTY head bolts with ARP studs and use black onyx (Victor Reinz) head gaskets. If you have to replace the egr cooler always replace the oil cooler. That is the source of the problem.
Here is the fix
ELC is the coolant recommended and used by International for this engine. .
Coolant Flush for changing to ELC
Drain coolant by removing lower radiator hose. Drain block from plug on drivers side of the block. Remove the thermostat. Replace plug in block and put lower hose back on. Put thermostat housing back on without thermostat. Fill with distilled water. run for 5 minutes then drain as above..Fill and run 5 more minutes drain. Put in 3/4 to 1 gallon of Restore an top with distilled water. Drive it for an 60-90 minutes then drain. Flush 2 times with distilled water or whatever it takes to come clear. Put 2 qts of VC-9 or 3/4 to 1 gallon of Restore+ cost less and fill with distilled water. Drive it for about 60-90 minutes. Drain and flush after. Flush 3 more times with distilled water untill it come out clean. Replace thermostat or put in a new one. Put hose back, make sure block plug is tight. Add 3.5 gallons of ELC concentrate and top off with distilled water. Make sure to run engine for 5 minutes between flushes to circulate the water good. Have heater on set to hi while doing this to flush the heater core too. new t/stat from Ford it should all come together (housing-t/stat-o-ring) in a box. The part number is RT-1169
If you like pictures have a look here. Replaced oil cooler still difference in temps - Page 21 - Ford Powerstroke Diesel Forum
2 stroker
except that Ford head gaskets are now recommended over the Black Onyx, this is all still good advice. F-108N Fumoto Valves will fit in the block drains, keep you from filling your starter with water and making the job overall much more pleasant
So it's the silicates that are killing oil coolers.
You do realize that even your precious Cat ELC needs its coolant package extended at 3K hours, 3 years or 300k miles, BASED ON CAPACITY.
The correct amount of Cat Extender to add is also dependent on system capacity. The addition of Cat Extender is based on ELC additive depletion data in the same manner that standard coolant SCA additions were determined. Due to the extremely slow depletion rate of ELC’s additives, Extender is only required once at the ½ life of the coolant, (300K miles, 3K hours or three years, whichever comes first) and routine testing for inhibitor levels is not required. Best maintenance practices would include an annual Level 2 SOS analysis.
Your capacity is what compared to the CAT engine it was designed to go in? Half? A Third?
So Cat calls them a life extender. And Ford calls it system additive. One has carboxylates. One has 225-250 ppm silicates.
Silicates form in places where coolant doesn't flow. So trucks that don't see alot of heater core use tend to build up deposits.
For people that have repeat oil cooler failures. You know you are supposed to pull the thermostat a run about 2 gallons of the Purple Simple Green through the motor. NOT PURPLE POWER. Purple simple green is aluminum safe. PurplePower is not. This takes some time. Most people don't do it correctly. And they get to do it over again.
Then you get the people that don't check the EGR cooler flow. So they get to do it over and over again.
Better put that distilled water in there.
Both use nitrite and molybdate in them. So you have traded one for another. And the ELC stuff was designed to run in a system with a coolant filter. So if you have a filter on it, how are you going to say one is crap and the other is sooo much better.
So it's the silicates that are killing oil coolers.
You do realize that even your precious Cat ELC needs its coolant package extended at 3K hours, 3 years or 300k miles, BASED ON CAPACITY.
Your capacity is what compared to the CAT engine it was designed to go in? Half? A Third?
So Cat calls them a life extender. And Ford calls it system additive. One has carboxylates. One has 225-250 ppm silicates.
Silicates form in places where coolant doesn't flow. So trucks that don't see alot of heater core use tend to build up deposits.
For people that have repeat oil cooler failures. You know you are supposed to pull the thermostat a run about 2 gallons of the Purple Simple Green through the motor. NOT PURPLE POWER. Purple simple green is aluminum safe. PurplePower is not. This takes some time. Most people don't do it correctly. And they get to do it over again.
Then you get the people that don't check the EGR cooler flow. So they get to do it over and over again.
Better put that distilled water in there.
Both use nitrite and molybdate in them. So you have traded one for another. And the ELC stuff was designed to run in a system with a coolant filter. So if you have a filter on it, how are you going to say one is crap and the other is sooo much better.
There's a number of Cat EC-1 spec'd ELC coolants, Fleetrite, Cat, Shell Rotella, several more I don't recall the names to. Any good diesel shop should be able to get it or order it for you. I got my Shell Rotella from the local International dealer, but my understanding is that they no longer carry the concentrate, only the 50/50 mix.
Once you do a good flush with distilled water, you'll need about 3.5-4 gallons of ELC coolant, topping off with distilled water, to get the proper 50/50 mix. You can't get all the distilled water out when you do a flush, hence the need for the concentrate.
I use the Cat ELC with no issues, I did however have problems with Ford Gold with the gunky silicates. It may not be the definitive answer, but IMO better than the Gold.
That's what we put in a friend's 6.0 about a year or so ago. The local International dealer had it instead of the CAT-1 ELC, said that's all they're selling now. 600k vs. 300k IRC.
Ok I put in the egr delete and I know I messed up by not doing the oil cooler at the same time but I'm waiting for it to get here, so can I for now just flush out the system and add the cat ec1 coolant or should I use the restore and restore plus with distilled water then when I get my new oil cooler install it. What do you think.
And also I had my wife go to caterpillar to get me some coolant, the one she got me says cat ec1 elc coolant but then it says premixed is that the wrong one or do they not have a concentrated or can I use that for a while till I can go get the right stuff.
I use Rotella ELC. It's CAT rated. It comes in a concentrate and also pre-mixed. Use the concentrate when changing over to ELC so you have the proper ratio and then use the pre-mixed stuff to top off level after you're changed over.
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