Coolant filter

ja_cain · Jan 27, 2016

Changed my coolant the other day to elc and was thinking about the merits of a coolant filter after flushing the system. What is the general concensus? I was just going to diy it for half the cost with a wix base, a few fittings and some heater hose.

Btw, I was without my truck during the storm due to a bolt breaking off inside the water pump when I decided to do it the weekend before. Man was i stressed npt having a truck. Had to drill and insert a helicoil for the thermostat housing. Finally got around to finishing it yesterday. Talk about wet and cold job. Lol!

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Powerstroke Man 6.4 · Jan 27, 2016

psduser1 · Jan 27, 2016

Dam son, you're tough, lol.

I run coolant filters on two of my trucks. Probably the same setup as what you are looking at. Change the filters once a year.
I usually cut them open, and there is always dirt/rust/junk in them.
While you are at it use the test strip for ph, etc.
Mine usually requires some sca/dca, maintenance. This is with regular green "extended life" antifreeze.
Going on five years in one truck, and the fluid is still bright green.
Just my completely informal, unscientific testing.

needen$77 · Jan 27, 2016

I would like to see a diy setup

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ja_cain · Jan 27, 2016

psduser1 said:
Dam son, you're tough, lol.

I run coolant filters on two of my trucks. Probably the same setup as what you are looking at. Change the filters once a year.
I usually cut them open, and there is always dirt/rust/junk in them.
While you are at it use the test strip for ph, etc.
Mine usually requires some sca/dca, maintenance. This is with regular green "extended life" antifreeze.
Going on five years in one truck, and the fluid is still bright green.
Just my completely informal, unscientific testing.

Working in conditions like means I will appreciate a nice shop that much more when I have one.

I went ahead and ordered the stuff to do it. Should be interesting to see how much crap it captures. I hope I don't have to fool with the coolant for a long while (fingers crossed). Then again, the water pump or oil cooler my go out way before the coolant needs to be changed. Lol!

I had a slight issue with the new thermostat due to removing the new style o-ring and putting it on upside down. I needed to use it for the flush, as I destroyed the old one removing it. It's thinner on the bottom and if you flip it over the housing will hit the little brass bypass keeping it from sealing completely. After doing a partial drain and removing it I had a eureka moment while messing around with it. I drove it to work today and so far no leaks.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'll post up my setup once I get it installed.

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ToMang07 · Jan 27, 2016

I'm running one on mine with ELC....so not really needed but cheap insurance. I also put a new Ford Waterpump on @135k miles this spring while the engine was out....just because. Better safe than sorry, IMO.

psduser1 · Jan 27, 2016

ja_cain said:
Working in conditions like means I will appreciate a nice shop that much more when I have one.

I went ahead and ordered the stuff to do it. Should be interesting to see how much crap it captures. I hope I don't have to fool with the coolant for a long while (fingers crossed). Then again, the water pump or oil cooler my go out way before the coolant needs to be changed. Lol!

I had a slight issue with the new thermostat due to removing the new style o-ring and putting it on upside down. I needed to use it for the flush, as I destroyed the old one removing it. It's thinner on the bottom and if you flip it over the housing will hit the little brass bypass keeping it from sealing completely. After doing a partial drain and removing it I had a eureka moment while messing around with it. I drove it to work today and so far no leaks.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'll post up my setup once I get it installed.

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Yes you will.
Didn't you reseal the oil cooler while you had the coolant drained?
Fwiw, you'll only loose about two gallons of coolant doing a pump change.

at the eureka moment

int:

ja_cain · Jan 27, 2016

psduser1 said:
Yes you will.
Didn't you reseal the oil cooler while you had the coolant drained?
Fwiw, you'll only loose about two gallons of coolant doing a pump change.
at the eureka momentint:

I never really thought about it. I was in a hurry to get it back together too. How hard is it to remove and do the seals on the cooler? I may try to do it this spring if I can just reuse the coolant (though it wasn't that expensive).

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psduser1 · Jan 27, 2016

First time, maybe two hours. Bit of a pita, but not terrible. A vise is handy to get the caps of.
Ratchetstrap and a deadblow hammer to reassemble.
You'll drain most of your coolant when you take the cooler off the block, though.

ToMang07 · Jan 27, 2016

psduser1 said:
First time, maybe two hours. Bit of a pita, but not terrible. A vise is handy to get the caps of.
Ratchetstrap and a deadblow hammer to reassemble.
You'll drain most of your coolant when you take the cooler off the block, though.

Yup.....or SURPRISE! lol

ja_cain · Jan 27, 2016

Gotcha. I think I can drain the drivers side (side where cooler is) of the block without contaminating the coolant. Passenger side would go everywhere. I'm thinking drain radiator (~5 gal) and driver side then remove and reseal cooler. Should be able to just add removed coolant back into degas bottle. What do you think? I may even go ahead and put a drain valve on that side of the block when I do it. I have a lot of swagelok stuff at work.

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ja_cain · Jan 27, 2016

Hey guys, whats the going rate for a basic flush/coolant replacement at the dealer?

bruce · Jan 27, 2016

damn it snows like that in va?

Jomax · Jan 28, 2016

ja_cain said:
Working in conditions like means I will appreciate a nice shop that much more when I have one.

I went ahead and ordered the stuff to do it. Should be interesting to see how much crap it captures. I hope I don't have to fool with the coolant for a long while (fingers crossed). Then again, the water pump or oil cooler my go out way before the coolant needs to be changed. Lol!

I had a slight issue with the new thermostat due to removing the new style o-ring and putting it on upside down. I needed to use it for the flush, as I destroyed the old one removing it. It's thinner on the bottom and if you flip it over the housing will hit the little brass bypass keeping it from sealing completely. After doing a partial drain and removing it I had a eureka moment while messing around with it. I drove it to work today and so far no leaks.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'll post up my setup once I get it installed.

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If you flushed it well. You really don't need a filter. Also, people think ELC is a fill it and forget it. It's not, you now need to buy the test kit designed for ELC coolant.

For my 7.3s I went back to ford Gold. Test it every oil change. And flush it every 36k

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ToMang07 · Jan 28, 2016

Jomax said:
If you flushed it well. You really don't need a filter. Also, people think ELC is a fill it and forget it. It's not, you now need to buy the test kit designed for ELC coolant.

For my 7.3s I went back to ford Gold. Test it every oil change. And flush it every 36k

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Yes, but there's no silicate particles like gold or green, and it has a much longer lifespan without maintenance verses the conventional coolants.

psduser1 · Jan 28, 2016

Jomax said:
If you flushed it well. You really don't need a filter. Also, people think ELC is a fill it and forget it. It's not, you now need to buy the test kit designed for ELC coolant.

For my 7.3s I went back to ford Gold. Test it every oil change. And flush it every 36k

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I think you'll still benefit from a filter, even with good elc:shrug: cheap insurance
Fwiw, my trucks all have standard auto coolant supposed to be good for 150k/5 yrs.
The heavy equipment stuff may be a different formula, don't know. Don't really care, as long as it tests good, and the solids end up in the filter.
Put well over 100k on one truck, half of that under load-not just dd-with no apparent problems. My .02.

ja_cain · Jan 28, 2016

ToMang07 said:
Yes, but there's no silicate particles like gold or green, and it has a much longer lifespan without maintenance verses the conventional coolants.

The no silicate formula is nice. It should be intersting to see what the oil cooler looks like when I service it.

ja_cain · Jan 28, 2016

psduser1 said:
I think you'll still benefit from a filter, even with good elc:shrug: cheap insurance
Fwiw, my trucks all have standard auto coolant supposed to be good for 150k/5 yrs.
The heavy equipment stuff may be a different formula, don't know. Don't really care, as long as it tests good, and the solids end up in the filter.
Put well over 100k on one truck, half of that under load-not just dd-with no apparent problems. My .02.

Thanks for the info. I flushed it 4 times (5 gallon+ each time) and it still had a slight tint/cloudiness to it. I'm interested to see what kind of crap the filter pulls out.

PSD POWER007 · Jan 28, 2016

The best way that I have found to put the oil cooler back together is to lube the orings up really well then put the caps on either end of the cooler and place the assembly on top of a floor jack. In my case, I had a truck lift. I lifted it about 3 feet off of the ground. Put the floor jack and cooler underneath and slowly jack the cooler against the bottom of the lift until the assembly pops together. It's a very simple and fast process.