Hi Chris-
I'm no expert either. As you said, my Ford owners manual
suggests to add some DCA on a scheduled basis. I learned
over at
http://www.ford-diesel.com that an even better way
to handle this is to pick up some DCA test strips from Ford,
International or other vendor (I buy mine at
http://www.dieselpage.com ). This allows you to test the
level of DCA in the coolant and update as needed instead
of just crossing your fingers and dumping in some more
additive. It's an extremely easy thing to do and only
needs to be done once every blue moon.
As I understand it, cavitation is a problem where the
cylinder wall will flex or "ring" a little as a result of the
powerful combustion event in the combustion chamber.
This ringing will cause a tiny little pocket of air to form
in the low pressure area left by the ringing cylinder wall.
When this little pocket of air forms and then collapses,
it takes an itty bitty teeny weenie piece of the cylinder
wall along with it. Multiply this tiny amount by millions
of combustion events and you can eventually end up
with pin holes in your cylinder wall.
The DCA prevents this from occuring, but I do not know
what exactly it does. Ford says add it. I add it. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
DCA is recommended by many diesel engine manufacturers.
My latest tractor is a CASE. I guess I might contact them
to see what they say. But I thought that I'd throw it out
to see what you guys were doing, if anything...
Best,
Mark
