Test strips for coolant

[hookliftpete]

Is there a particular brand or type of test strip that is recommended? I need to do this soon, as I believe the coolant in this isc is original from factory. It's orange coolant, I'm guessing I can flush and upgrade to red?

Thanks!

[Rawze]

I use fleetguard test strips.

you can get them at a fleetpride, a stealers$it, or sometimes at truck stops.

They do expire, so look at the expiration date on it before purchase!. - I went to buy some from a local pete dealersh$it a few weeks ago, asked to see the expiration date on them before buying them,.. and they looked at me like I was an idiot ... gave me a hard time ... that is, until they brought 4 or 5 of them out and they were all expired... I said to the guy ... who's the idiot now? -- as the moron put them back on the shelf to sell to the next victim.

What I want to know is whatever happened to some goddamn self pride in what you do for a living ?? -- it is clear those people couldn't give 2 cents towards selling expired garbage to the next guy who walks in and does not know any better.

[Chamberpains]

Check your owners manual for what kind of coolant needs to be in the engine. Orange is often GM Dex-Cool designed stuff. That stuff is slightly different than Extended Life Coolant. Just be sure your using what the OE recommends as safe. They may have something in the coolant system that doesn't play well with certain additives in certain coolants.

[Rawze]

Biggest determining factor is if it is a wet-liner engine or not. Orange (and also green) is not a very good coolant for wet liner engines. Red ELC however works with everything. I even use it in my smaller vehicles.

this related info may help as well.
http://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?t...2#pid21642

[hookliftpete]

It is a wet liner engine, so I suppose red coolant, based on that thread should be good. Use Fleetguard strips for any particular reason?

[RocketScott]

I use the Baldwin test strips

Can't say if they're better or worse than anything else

Still running green coolant in my 444xt. I test it pretty regularly and add DCA if needed. The filter has DCAs in it and maintains the levels

Because the test strips have an expiration date you might as well test it frequently. With 50 test strips in the kit and an expiration date of a few years you can test once a month and still not use them all up by the time they expire

[Rawze]

(09-04-2019 )hookliftpete Wrote:  It is a wet liner engine, so I suppose red coolant, based on that thread should be good. Use Fleetguard strips for any particular reason?

not really. Just use them as they are easy to get locally.

[tsolson]

does anyone here use any kind of coolant additive? Are they worthwhile or just snake oil? I know my N14 has a coolant filter with conditioner, but don't see them on any other engines. The ag dealership i used to work at we saw the results of acidic coolant eating away the liners, esp on the old 903 V8 cummins in some of the four wheel drive tractors.

[RocketScott]

I use the Cummins DCA-2 when adding new coolant. Also use it in my van with a 7.3L IDI engine since it doesn't have a cooling filter to maintain the charge

I got a half gallon of it at Fleet Pride years ago

As far as other additives like water wetter or whatever I've never tried any of them. Never had an issue with a properly functioning cooling system