cooling system maintenence

[WillWagner]

Well, started the day by deciding to replace the radiator hoses on the deuce, since the hoses from the water manifolds were hard and leaking. Drain the coolant, the draincock screwed in, but no coolant..hmm. Tighten it up, find out the draincock has dirt packed in it. No biggie, used a scribe to clean it out. Try it again, nothing. poke gently at it again, WOOSH a giant stream of coolant comes out...all over me, and 3 feet out from the truck, completely missing the 1/3 of a 55 gallon barrel of a drain pan! The draincock faces straight out the front, well, i'll fix that, when I go back together, i'll put a 90* fitting in it. Pull the hoses off, all of them hard as a rock. Go to take the water manifolds off, figured the capscrews would be difficult, so I tapped on them and gave them a generous dousing of penetrant. Used the tighten a tad then loosen trick, all came out but 1 of them, at # 4 cylinder. Broke it off 1/4 inch above the head. Spent 2 and a half hours driving around looking for a 5/16 X 2 1/4 inch bolt, got 'em at work, but nobody around here has them!. Guess they’re made of unobtainium. And looking for a stud remover, again, I have a set of sweet German made close quarter stud removers at work…don’t do me any good there! Well, decide to just wait ‘till tomorrow and get the broken bolt out and I’ll get new capscrews too. Procede to put the hoses on, boy, the pipe and hoses for the oil cooler return are a bi-ach! Had to remove the bolts for the upper radiator support to tilt the radiator forward to slide the upper hose on. Button that all up, and move to the bottom hose. The clamp was installed with the screw for the clamp next to the block, facing toward the rear of the engine??!! How does that happen? Took an hour to get it out. Got the hose, the NAPA one is a flat 90* elbow, the one that came out has a 45 then turns straight up and is kind of dog legged to the left to clear the alt. and bracket. I’ll take it to NAPA tomorrow and see if they can match up another hose and post the number. I figure i’m done for the day, wait, the draincock! Went to the garage and dug around in the fitting box, found it! A nice ¼ pipe 90* brass street elbow. Go back out to the truck. Put a wrench on the draincock, didn’t even push on it, the whole soldered in nutsert falls out! Great, now I gotta pull the radiator. Oh well, now the inside of the radiator will be clean. Good news is the inside of the coolant passages and all the aluminum parts look perfect with no corrosion. Ahhh,, the joys of owning and maintaining a military vehicle.

 

[builder77]

What type of radiator fluid are you planning to use? I usually use the newer orange(?) fluid on all my other vehicles. I don't know if there are any compatibility issues with the MVs though.

 

[cranetruck]

Good project Will! When I first removed the lower rad hose, it had a lot of grit, core sand or whatever in it and which led me to install the coolant filter.

Ethan, FWIW, I use the glycol/distilled water/additive mix, specified in the TM's.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Bjorn, do you have a write up on the coolant filter? Any pics at least?

 

[cranetruck]

Gimpy, do I have a picture?
Sure, here you go. Also Check MVM issue #109, June 2005 for an article on the cooling system maintenance. Finally do a "search" on this forum.

 

[WillWagner]

Ya know, I was thinking about adding a filter/inhibitor, I do have a bonus filter head in a parts stash. It is a very easy thing to add. The multifuel has dry liners, correct? I'll be using Fleetguard Complete coolant.

 

[JDToumanian]

Couple things...

I ended up using Chevron's DELO coolant (only available from Chevron Lubricant dealers) - it's pre-mixed 50/50 with water and has the 'SCA' additives already in it. I don't know that it's better than mixing it up yourself but it's easier.

I was also not satisfied with the Napa replacement lower hose... It would benefit the site to find a closer replacement for the cross reference list, but Will - Antelope Valley has the exact correct replacement if you need to get one. It looked to me like the Napa hose would either rub the front motor mount or need to be stretched out to clear it... either condition will result in premature hose failure.

Regards,
Jon

 

[Scrounger]

The “newer” extended life coolant isn’t compatible with the old brass and copper systems. For an old MV it is better to stick with the old “green” stuff.

 

[houdel]

Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

What type of radiator fluid are you planning to use? I usually use the newer orange(?) fluid on all my other vehicles. I don't know if there are any compatibility issues with the MVs though.

DO NOT use the regular gasoline engine coolants sold at Wal*Mart etc. in a multifuel. You MUST use a coolant marked as suitable for use in heavy duty diesel engines. The HD Diesel coolants have "Supplemental Cooling Additives", aka SCA, to meet the HD diesel requirements. In short, the SCAs prevent cavitation, unique to HD diesel engines, which allows air pockets to build in certain spots on the cylinder walls and actually rust through the cylinder.

This has been pretty extensively covered in previous threads. Try searching for "coolant" or "SCA" to find out more info.

 

[WillWagner]

RE: Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

Yeah, I know about the SCA thing. That's why i'm using the Cummins junk, it too has the SCAs in it. Are the Multifuels dry or wet linered? If it's dry, the sca will only benefit the aluminum parts. I took the hose back to NAPA today. The guy took it in the back and came up with a very close match. If it works, i'll post the # and a pic.

 

[devilman96]

RE: Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

Can you guys send me a pic of the lower hose problem please... Im using the same PN and have no problems with it. There is a chance your Napa is subbing another hose which was easier to get (this is common in auto parts) 95% of the time it doesn't cause an issue but something like this I can see where it would throw it off.

I would just like to confirm the problem so it can be resolved for the X over number...

Also (I've posted this before)... The PN for the coolant base Bjorn has is avaliable from Napa under PN 4019, they make additive free filters like the one pictured and they make additive induced SCA filters PN 4428 or 4429 (amongst others).

 

[OPCOM]

RE: Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

I see the coolent filter is plumbed in where the heater core is plumbed on mine. I could add a filter there eh? and a coolant heater, and and and.... !!

 

[nickd]

RE: Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

I have an article in the pipeline for MVM on this topic. Changing all of the hoses on the deuce

 

[cranetruck]

RE: Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

Patrick, you can place several loops in parallel, just like adding electrical parallel circuits, too many and the pressure (voltage) will start to drop. I have plans for adding a shut-off valve for the heater "loop" to keep the pressure high enough for the filter, likewise for the fuel tank heating loop, which isn't used that much.
The coolant heater shouldn't produce any pressure drop at all.

Will, the liners are dry in the multies. The additives are still useful in reducing foam and making the coolant more efficient in general.

 

[acetomatoco]

RE: Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

Well, since 1963 when I first started fooling with the M series stuff....all I have ever done is a quick drain and refill with 50 50 ethylene glycol...or a top off now and then... maybe out of 100 trucks I did a thermostat. The hoses last forever and the caps at 4 psi seldom go bad...heck they lasted 50 years without all this newfound stuff... to answer the question above about the hose clamp being in unobtainiumville...the answer is that the aluminum stuff was assembled before installation with hoses in place... The OH331 and the Multifuels are usually unbreakable until you start messing with them...end of rant... RAM

 

[cranetruck]

RE: Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

But, but... it's so much fun tinkering with them....

 

[WillWagner]

RE: Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

Gotta admit, nuthin like working on it for a living. It's really kind of relaxing! Brought one of the stud removers home today. Made real short work of a not so good thing. The hose was an almost perfect match, only had to trim 1 inch off the top, (w/p inlet end), clears the mount, front cover, alternator and damper. The P/N is NAPA, 7759. I'll post it in the parts x ref. section. All went so good, I tried to re-solder the draincock. That didn't go so well. Looked like it was a good job, but as soon as I put some force on it with the new fitting, out it came. Looks like i'll be taking it out after all!

 

[WillWagner]

RE: Re: RE: cooling system maintenence

Here's more

 

[wpzimmer]

Will,

I have a suggestion for the draincock on your radiator that may be helpful. Instead of using standard plumbing solder (50%Tin/50%lead) , try using the lead free solder made by Oatey and others. It is either 95% tin/ 5% silver or 95%tin/5% antimony. It has about three times the tensile strength of the plumbing solder. I recommend that you heat and wipe as much of the old solder off the radiator and cock and then use a flat file to remove as much of the rest down to bare metal if possible. They make a self tinning paste flux for this solder that makes joint preparation much easier. This solder also forms a bit bigger meniscus than the old tin-lead solder. Gives better joint strength and fills larger gaps effectively. I've had good luck with this newer solder. Any home project center or hardware store should have it. Not all that expensive either. On the order of ten bucks for a pound roll and a couple of buck for the flux. Flows at ~450F. A little higher that the old stuff but not much of a problem for most apps.

Good luck. Zim

 

[WillWagner]

Thanks Zim, I think i'm still gonna take it out and have the radiator shop do it up as well as give a quick clean out, there was a little silicate drop out giong on and the tubes in front of the inlet have a little scale on them. I figure, if it's this far down, I should do it right. Too bad this happened, I got an invite to be a "stand in" with the deuce for a movie shoot in Whittier, Friday night. Oh well, next time.