coolant standards???

[namesray]

after reading a little on here about engine oils, i noticed there is quite a few people here with vast knowlege on these fluid subjects. quick question. does anybody know what the sae and astm standards mean for coolants? i found a site on the internet that had a tiny bit of info and it pointed to that the different standards are ment for different engines and cooling systems. (i know, sounds straight forward, but it didn't explain the exact standards i am looking at, so i ask,) more specifically, the sae j1034, j814c, and also astm d3306, d6210, d4340. the little info the web site has hinted that these standards are adopted at intervals and certain ones are out dated and replaced by other ones. i am not sure this is exactly correct, but it is what the site lead me to believe. this sort of reminds me of the standards on the engine oils like the sm and cf standards and that "s" is for gas engines and "c" is for diesels and the 2nd letter replaces all previous letters , such as oil classification sm, replaces all previous oils sa-sL. and cj replaces all diesel oils ca-ci. (ok so maybe those exact classifications don't exist, but you get my point. any way, enough babbling on my part. any info on these coolants would be greatly appreciated. ps. i don't remember the web site as i just happened to come across it.

 

[Johnp33]

I did engines all my life, Licenced in 1973, cooling systems have evolved a lot in that time, DCA4 was the choice of everyone for years, it is terible crap, Properly maintained it eats the aluminum and corrodes steel.
Ford uses a product called gold, it plugs the oil coolers, I was involved with a customer that brought Nal-cool, he was at a truck expo, It was put in a 3406B cat, we had a fleet of trucks that hauled chips, 22 hours a day 5 days a week over two mountain ranges, hauling 144,000 lbs. I took it apart to repair it for a burn valve, at about 500,000 miles, and found the liners low. That was a very common problem, to do the repair you have to pull the liners, almost always the back liners, we would replace the water pump cover, as they would be corroded.
I had anouther sister truck apart, that used DCA, It's liners looked like Swiss cheese, and the water pump cover was corroded away, the one with the Nalcool, the liners were near perfect, the water pump cover showed no signs of corrosion.
I got some of the Nalcool and added it to all my personal vehicles, the wife still has he 93 Caprice with the original radiator,
I use Power-cool, a Nal-cool, product in all my personal diesel equipment, and Dex cool in my personal Gas vehicles.
Power-cool Plus is a Noat coolant also very good but a little harder to find if needed in an emergency.
These are the only two I recommend, and you can not mix coolants and expect long life results.

 

[WilliamTO-35]

I don't know what the standards for coolants are. So, I'll substitute some related stories instead . A few years ago, there was a big flap over the Dexcool extended drain interval antifreezes installed in some GM vehicles. Many owners reported that the antifreeze would turn into a brown goo after a year or so. I also found this to be true in three of my own vehicles, and I found that I had to replace the Dexcool with traditional antifreezes. The Dexcool was different, in that it was formulated with non-metallic corrosion inhibitors , but something may have gone askew . I believe that problem has been fixed. I've never had any trouble using Prestone antifreeze, which claims to mix with " any color antifreeze" ( a somewhat silly statement, since all glycol based antifreezes will mix). I don't know, however, if Prestone is using non-metallic corrosion inhibitors in it's conventional antifreezes not labeled as being Dexcool approved. I did once, however, buy some genuinely nasty antifreeze. It was on sale at a Western Auto store, and was an off brand . It was brown colored, and smelled odd. Even so, like a dummy, I poured it into my son's car radiator. It wasn't long before that antifreeze actually ate the thermostat out of his cooling system. I flushed the system, and installed Prestone antifreeze. I've never known what was in that Western Auto antifreeze, but I suspect there was a giant mixup at some plant ! Moral- if it doesn't look or smell like antifreeze , maybe it's not !

 

[namesray]

thanks for the replys and story guys. i am still trying to figure out this coolant stuff between gas and diesel engines and if the different numbers/standard codes ment any thing towards determining what coolant for what application. also if the different numbers,etc ment anything for the sca additive for diesel engines to prevent so called cavitation. i am having a hard time finding any sca additives in my area or any coolant with them in it other then fleet coolant. i have aslways used the prestone any make, any color, yellow, universal coolant in both my vehicles and diesel equipment. however, i get conflicting info on this subject with my diesel equipment and i am triyn to get to the bottom of it for myself. i would like to get the prestone heavy duty coolant with the sca additive in it, but can't find it anywhere in my area. not at wal mart, auto zone, or such. in fact tractor supply is the only place with any sca stuff and that is the fleet coolant, but i would rather go with prestone hd. i also wanted to check with the number standards i am talking about to see if they would match exactly what my diesel equipment calls for. the numbers don't match, so i was wondering if they were out dated and replaced by different numbers. just trying to figure it all out. probably i am over thinking again, but... i think this sca/cavitation thing requires more looking into.

 

[Turbys_1700]

The last coolant change I performed in my Power Stroke utilized lifetime coolant per SCA additives...
To be on the safe side I will do my second change this spring...
I so far have done coolant flushes at 5 year intervals in my Powerstroke and so far so good...
The main thing is the SCA additives and to keep them up to specs...