Red VS Green Coolant again!!!

Maybe the quality of the water that's being used is suspect sometimes ?

I know from the last 25yrs in the pump industry ... water ain't water !

When I changed over my top radiator hose in the TD5 recently, I took the spigot off the head ... the water gallery I could view with a touch inside the head was spotless. The inside of the spigot and the hose was spotless. I drained, refilled, and drained after running up to temp 5x times, and caught all the drained liquid in a clean tub ... not 1 peice of foreign anything came out.

I more accustomed to doing this on green coolant vehicles and seeing plenty of junk in the drained water.

So far, so good, so I'll be sticking with the Nulon Red OAT.

Kev..

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Originally Posted by Fluids

Maybe the quality of the water that's being used is suspect sometimes ?

I know from the last 25yrs in the pump industry ... water ain't water !

When I changed over my top radiator hose in the TD5 recently, I took the spigot off the head ... the water gallery I could view with a touch inside the head was spotless. The inside of the spigot and the hose was spotless. I drained, refilled, and drained after running up to temp 5x times, and caught all the drained liquid in a clean tub ... not 1 peice of foreign anything came out.

I more accustomed to doing this on green coolant vehicles and seeing plenty of junk in the drained water.

So far, so good, so I'll be sticking with the Nulon Red OAT.

Kev..

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Kev, do you use distilled water? Thats what I use. Think i'm going to do a rebuild on the cooling system at 100 000km.
Regards
Robbo

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Originally Posted by Fluids

I drained, refilled, and drained after running up to temp 5x times

Kev..

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you must be a patient man Kev - was any coloured material coming out after the second time?

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Originally Posted by Fluids

Robbo ... I run my Nanocom in instrument mode on the dash.

Don't have an engine saver yet ... still tossing up between that or an EMS1

I do like the extra guages the Nanocom provides whilst driving ... and the 100deg RED flashing water temp' light for the better half :)

Idiot lights & alarms seem to work better than guages when wives are involved ... she's already cooked 2 engines ... no oil, oil light on, but I was only 5km from home so I thought I could make it .... sigh ...

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That RED light annoys me no end.Fair chance the radiator is shot,I have a brand new one in the shed.My temps only went thru the roof since the flashable ecu and fueling upgrade were done.
Andrew

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Originally Posted by robbotd5

Kev, do you use distilled water? Thats what I use. Think i'm going to do a rebuild on the cooling system at 100 000km.
Regards
Robbo

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No Robbo ... just boring old tap water. Our water here seems to be pretty good ... so far. It's pretty close to pH neutral last time I checked it (years ago).

I think frequent changes go along way to preventing issues.

Kev..

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Originally Posted by feraldisco

you must be a patient man Kev - was any coloured material coming out after the second time?

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Yes, very patient :)

I think about the 4th drain/refill it had cleared up, and I did one more for good measure.

I didn't know what red coolant was in it, and was doing a 120k service (we'd not long bought the D2), and was going to the red nulon oat, so rather than mix nulon with coolant of unknown origin, I decided the best way was to completley flush the old stuff out. Next time will probably just be 2 drains/fills as I'll be using the same Nulon OAT.

Kev..

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Originally Posted by LandyAndy

That RED light annoys me no end.Fair chance the radiator is shot,I have a brand new one in the shed.My temps only went thru the roof since the flashable ecu and fueling upgrade were done.
Andrew

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Andrew ... If it's that annoying, just adjust the RED temp warning LED light to go off at a higher temp .... say, 110deg+ C .... :p

;)

Kev..

Oh, and just for the record, I seem to be noticing that since winding up my wastegate, Nanocom shows water temps of approx' 0.5 to 1deg C higher than usual ... until I'm highway cruising, then it's back to 88.3 to 88.5 deg C.

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Originally Posted by Fluids

No Robbo ... just boring old tap water. Our water here seems to be pretty good ... so far. It's pretty close to pH neutral last time I checked it (years ago).

I think frequent changes go along way to preventing issues.

Kev..

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No offence mate but how many times have you read that you should never fill your rad with tap water?.It doesn't matter that it's pH neutral,it's the suspended minerals that choke up the system. Pat

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Originally Posted by Kandy

Unbelievable!!!!

Sometime ago when I began having Kandy(Disco 2003 Td5) serviced at MR Redcliffe they used a green coolant-- when I rang them (thinking all OAT coolants were red) they said no, theres is fine and they would know. The latest servive done last week and a full coolant flush and change it was RED!. They now use Zerex Dex-Cool, a valvoline product and it meets all the OAT etc. stuff so I guess its not the colour but the specs. that matter as does the Penrite, a hybrid of OAt and other inhibitors.

Steve

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Interesting as mine came back with the green stuff in june,wonder why they changed?2yrs ago it came back with the green stuff,& i quieried them,they said it was fine.Also a Valvoline product.
Probably Dex-cool has better specs.Interestingly,JC,on this site uses green coolant in TD5's as well.
Now my TD5 is out of extended warranty,i will be doing it myself,so i gotta sort out what to use.

Interesting also ,over the last 20yrs of running a fleet of jap work vans,never ever rodded a radiator,or had a cooling system problem.Coolant was always flushed at 40k,and with distilled water.Always used the genuine coolant,which cost similar to any aftermarket stuff.
Vans were changed over at 6 yrs ,approx 250k

OK
From replys recieved.The OAT coolant isnt "special" as such,its used by manufacturers to increase the service period of the coolant thus a lowering of service costs????
The older Green coolants are actually OK in the TD5 as long as the service interval is kept up????
I realise they are NOT to be mixed,its one or the other.
Comments please,got both a red and green TD5 at the moment.Happy to go either way as long as both vehicles match.
Bear in mind the D2 is about to recieve a new radiator/thermostat/waterpump.
Thanks People.
Andrew