Roger Long
Senior Member
Coolant was a bit low in Tonawanda so I sent a crew member to NAPA for some anti-freeze. We had just poured it in when another crew member said he had heard of problems with the Dex Cool we just put in. Some Internet research and a call to NAPA revealed that, yes, it was a big problem. The NAPA guy said he just topped up the coolant in his truck with the stuff and ended up with balls of jelly that nearly ruined his engine.
Another call to the Perkins expert brought back the opinion that, ANYTIME, a new coolant is introduced, the engine should be flushed and you should always use the same type. Amazing the holes in your knowledge that can exist after a lifetime around boats. I never new that anti-freeze was so ticklish. Of course, most of my cruising has been with a RW cooled engine.
It turned out to be a fortuitous mistake which made my crew member feel better. Draining the engine revealed that we might have been the first owners to do so. Ugly. One of the block drains was solidly plugged. We picked and stuck in wires for a couple of hours to no avail. I went to the hardware store and made up an adapter to put street water pressure on it backwards. NADA. We left the hose inflated and the water turned off overnight. It still had full pressure in the morning but, with a bit more wire probing, the engine drained.
We then re-filled with plain vanilla anti-freeze recommended by NAPA for diesel engines.
Anyone else had problems with Dex Cool?
Another call to the Perkins expert brought back the opinion that, ANYTIME, a new coolant is introduced, the engine should be flushed and you should always use the same type. Amazing the holes in your knowledge that can exist after a lifetime around boats. I never new that anti-freeze was so ticklish. Of course, most of my cruising has been with a RW cooled engine.
It turned out to be a fortuitous mistake which made my crew member feel better. Draining the engine revealed that we might have been the first owners to do so. Ugly. One of the block drains was solidly plugged. We picked and stuck in wires for a couple of hours to no avail. I went to the hardware store and made up an adapter to put street water pressure on it backwards. NADA. We left the hose inflated and the water turned off overnight. It still had full pressure in the morning but, with a bit more wire probing, the engine drained.
We then re-filled with plain vanilla anti-freeze recommended by NAPA for diesel engines.
Anyone else had problems with Dex Cool?