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Revisiting an old Topic
A friend sent me an email with a question about coolant. As has been mentioned many times in the past he referenced the green color.
When I got my first coach it was pretty simple, coolant for our engines, which were 2 stroke Detroit engines had to meet the Detroit spec and if it did it said so on the container and it was green. Today using color to determine the acceptability of coolant for our engines is WRONG. If you still insist on thinking because a coolant is green it is acceptable make absolutely certain you see the Detroit spec listed on the container.
The link below brings you to a listing of various coolants by brand name and the specs they comply with. Additionally it shows the color of the coolant. There is only one green coolant listed as meeting the Detroit spec anf that is a recycled Fleetguard product. There may be others acceptable that are green in color but they are not listed if there are any.
Why should you care? The reasons for being very careful about which coolant you use are fairly serious. First, they are formulated to inhibit corrosion. Our engines have a lot of dissimilar metals and the coolant protects them. Our coolant protects against radiator blockage. The wrong coolant can result in silicon drop out which is a term for when the tubes in the radiator become coated on the inside with a white material, eventually compromising the heat transfer in the radiator. Finally, our engines have a damaging combustion cycle. When a diesel engine fires it creates forces that can literally cause porosity in the engine cylinder liners. Our coolant chemistry protects against that erosion on the back of the cylinder liners. Without that protection made possible with proper coolant maintenance a perfectly good engine can require a rebuild in a few miles. It was reported on another forum of a Vantare with 42,000 miles that had a destroyed engine because the coolant was never changed. I think the coach was around 10 years old.
So make sure the coolant you use does meet the requirements, whether it is glycol based or OAT technology, and maintain the system according to the requirements spelled out by the coolant manufacturer.
http://http://www.eetcorp.com/antifreeze/Coolants_matrix.pdf
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