John Deere liquid coolant conditioner???

[whitearrow]

Good evening fellas. I have a 5203 that is up for a coolant change. I stopped by the Deere store and picked up 2 gallons of Deere brand coolant, coolguard 2 I believe it is. I am gonna mix it 50/50 with distilled water but in my manual they recommend coolant conditioner. Do any of u fellas use the conditioner? How important is it to use over just coolant. What benefit will I see using it?
Thanks,
Whitearrow

 

[kuboman]

Good evening fellas. I have a 5203 that is up for a coolant change. I stopped by the Deere store and picked up 2 gallons of Deere brand coolant, coolguard 2 I believe it is. I am gonna mix it 50/50 with distilled water but in my manual they recommend coolant conditioner. Do any of u fellas use the conditioner? How important is it to use over just coolant. What benefit will I see using it?
Thanks,
Whitearrow

I would not use with new coolant. After a few years maybe. Using too much can throw the ph balance out of whack.

 

[jd110]

Do not use conditioner with coolgard 2. Just change it and then each year test it with the test strips available at the dealer. Then add extender if test shows it is needed.

 

[greg_g]

I think the guy could have picked a better word than "conditioner". What he most likely meant was a SCA (supplemental coolant additive). Assuming the CoolGuard doesn't already contain a SCA, the purpose of this additive is to minimize cavitation on wet-sleeved engines. I don't buy CoolGuard for my 3720, I use a 50/50 pre-mix of Fleet Charge by Peak instead.

//greg//

 

[kennyd]

I think the guy could have picked a better word than "conditioner". What he most likely meant was a SCA (supplemental coolant additive). Assuming the CoolGuard doesn't already contain a SCA, the purpose of this additive is to minimize cavitation on wet-sleeved engines. I don't buy CoolGuard for my 3720, I use a 50/50 pre-mix of Fleet Charge by Peak instead.

//greg//

100% Correct Greg. The CoolGaurd 2 includes SCA/DCA

 

[whitearrow]

so i don't need to use the coolant conditioner? why would my owner's manual say to use it? kinda confusing. is there a difference in the coolguard vs coolguard 2? my 5203 came with coolguard but i'm using coolguard 2 for the refill. my dealer said coolguard 2 is the replacement for the coolguard and that they can't even get the regular coolguard anymore. also, is it safe to leave the coolguard 2 in for 5 yrs or so? i don't put many hrs on my machine and don't wanna be wasteful if it is safe for my engine.
thanks,
whitearrow

 

[kennyd]

The original Coolguard did not have the SCA/DCA additive in it like the new stuff does.

 

[kuboman]

so i don't need to use the coolant conditioner? why would my owner's manual say to use it? kinda confusing. is there a difference in the coolguard vs coolguard 2? my 5203 came with coolguard but i'm using coolguard 2 for the refill. my dealer said coolguard 2 is the replacement for the coolguard and that they can't even get the regular coolguard anymore. also, is it safe to leave the coolguard 2 in for 5 yrs or so? i don't put many hrs on my machine and don't wanna be wasteful if it is safe for my engine.
thanks,
whitearrow

I think they say it is a five year antifreeze and you can run it longer. Depends on the hours somewhat. You can get the test stripes at your local JD dealer and check it yourself and then add the conditioner if needed.
I have had some in a few engines approaching 10 years now and it still checks ok.

 

[Tx Jim]

Good evening fellas. I have a 5203 that is up for a coolant change. I stopped by the Deere store and picked up 2 gallons of Deere brand coolant, coolguard 2 I believe it is. I am gonna mix it 50/50 with distilled water but in my manual they recommend coolant conditioner. Do any of u fellas use the conditioner? How important is it to use over just coolant. What benefit will I see using it?
Thanks,
Whitearrow

Which Cool-gard ll did you get? Concentrate or pre-mix,I'd guess concentrate if you're going to add distilled H2O?

 

[whitearrow]

Yeah I got the concentrate as it seemed like a better deal. I can add my own distilled water and have twice the mix. Thanks for all the answers. After I posted I did I lil more research and Deere says to NOT add conditioner when installing the coolgard 2.