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Coolant Antifreeze & Filters Change
Coolant Antifreeze & Filters Change
On my bus the coolant/antifreeze circulates thru the following: Prevost OTR air heater core, Webasto burner and heat exchangers, the DD60s engine and radiator, dash heater core, hot water heater.
System capacity is 24 gals, but I was able to drain 18 gals. I decided not to take the bus apart to get the other 6 gals out. Instead I refilled the cooling system w/soft water, drove it with dash and Webasto heat on, then dumped. I did this 3 times to get as much of the old stuff out as possible, then finally installed 12 gals of fully precharged Prestone HD Command 100% 2 yr coolant from NAPA(
A friend w/97 Prevost Royale did this job recently and got 15 gals out. The main difference in capacity between our buses is his Aquahot vs my Webasto. The Aquahots are separate systems and aren’t tied in like Webastos.Two yrs from now I’ll send a sample of coolant off to a lab for analysis to see how its holding up.
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6 Replies
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What did you do with all that old antifreeze? Full strength and diluted.
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I talked to Pep Boys, they will take it 5 gals. at a time, but I think you may be able to squeeze in more per visit..
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Full strength?????? It came out of my bus Dick.
Local auto part stores take it.
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Don wrote: “Full strength??????”
Saying “full strength”, I meant what came out of your bus the first time. Beyond that you were diluting it more and more. I should have been more specific.
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2 yrs ago I stated:
“Two yrs from now I’ll send a sample of coolant off to a lab for analysis to see how its holding up”.
I couple of months ago I installed a Fleetguard ES System # WF2131 “need release” filter.
So, this week I sent and received the coolant analysis lab results from a sample I sent in from our bus. The coolant is conventional “2 Yr” standard life coolant ethylene glycol Prestone HD Command. Here is what the lab stated on my rreport: “NO ABNORMAL CONDITIONS INDICATED. NO CORRECTIVE ACTION NEEDED. CONTINUE TO USE THIS COOLANT AND RESAMPLE AT NORMAL INTERVAL”
Go Figure????? 2 yr coolant that isn’t dead after 2 yrs.
I’m letting it ride for now.
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I would suspect coolant manufacturers and engine manufacturers suggest coolant life (and changes) as 2 years out of an abundance of caution.
I am sure we all could push the life of all fluids to an extent with no measurable damage, but when a coolant is no longer functioning properly and its protective features are used up cavitation in the engine becomes a very serious problem and the potential to experience it ramps up significantly.
As owners we can all decide what we think is an appropriate maintenance schedule for our coaches and in fact as long as we understand all factors such as having fluids tested there is probably no harm in basing maintenance intervals on such testing.
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