@MrMarty51 YES. Remember not the diesel water wetter, the regular kind- 2 bottles for this amount of REGULAR coolant, ot long life.
Do you play around with different transmission mounts and transmission filters? No, why because the solution for long life is already in place. We know what water pump works with this engine now. We know dual stat with restriction or single stat with block off. The radiator itself after decades of running looses performance and a replacement is required in time. Doing an upgrade there never hurts -
@FellowTraveler is on point with sealing up air flow to maximize capability- ask any of the hummer owners that do body lifts- the little gap of airflow makes all the difference in the world to that overtaxed nightmare of airflow design.
I am not on board with his move to Evans. The slower transition of heat from metal to coolant to radiator means harder to get auickly added heat like towing up a steep grade out of the two rear cylinders quick enough and the ring gap difference should tell yall there is a risk there. WAY more concerning to me is the fact that the evans going through the heater core- and what happens if that ruptures. I already know 2 people personally and met a third that have lifetime damages from evans coolant burns. Not talking hot fluid on skin- that can happen with either. I am talking fire- burn ward, skin graphs, fingers burned off in flames, cant be outside in summertime anymore - burns.
You all know I said many times I ran ny fuel pressure gauge tapped at the ip to a mechanical gauge at my dash. Now i dont say anyone to do that. I am pushing electric gauge for that. Why? Because it was f-ing stupid of me to push a flammable liquid into the cabin. Learn from others misery and not mine of worse my families. Hummer a/c is JUNK. Imagine the 1993 chevy a/c except make the evaporator and condenser get less airflow. Then worse ducting in the dash. So I was going to run propane because it cools so much better. That is completely abandoned- why? Because it is STUPID to risk that bad of injury over a little more comfort. Until I saw a couple people I knew going through the lifetime of pain and misery- I was like a teenager “it probably is rare, probably not that bad, and won’t happen to me”.
Nope! I learned, and thank God I learned from others and not my wife or kids or me. There is other solutions that eliminate the requirement of risking burning up in flames someone you care about. What was the line that convinced me? “Will, look how bad I am and I was wearing a race approved fire retardant suit. They got me out and sprayed fire extinguishers on me within few minutes of the fire starting. How long before someone sprays the extinguisher on your wife or sons? Will they be in a full race suit driving to the store? Will they have an ambulance standing by just in case and your family in the ambulance within 15 minutes?”
He was wearing a full fire retarding suit. Enough fluid- about 1 quart estimated- soaked to the suit that the liquid butned but the cloth didn’t. He panicked and ripped off one glove. No thumb or fingers on that hand anymore. The other hand lost tips of 3.
Face neck, and something most people never think of- lungs get burned. Not like ya stop breathing because you are on fire.
With helmet fully engulfed he took of the helmet, face shield was up and liquid soaked the balaclava. Everywhere the liquid got on him it soaked in quickly while on fire. Ever get oil on a shirt? How fast does it soak in- evans is an oil.
If anyone chooses to run evans- fine we are all adults here, make your own choice. But for the love of whatever you love- dont run that shit in your heater core or mechanical ect gauge that brings it inside the cabin. We have knowledge to not need flammable oil as coolant medium-imo use a different option.
As to cummins running enclosed impeller- maybe it will work out long term, maybe it will be like the one of the other forced redesigns that is regrettable later. Lets see long term cavitation inspections to find out. If designed from the beginning for it, we now know how to add aeration extraction chambers, did they do that I wonder?
On the nitrate free- YEAH! Like water wetter- nitrate free for gas engine not diesel which the water wetter is made for high nitrates. I been saying for years no nitrates in the 6.5. We have wrong cylinder design for it. We have aluminum in our system. Same problem with the long life coolants. Completely wrong for our system. The GM engineers learned from fleets like mine that big rigs run heavy nitrates. They asked me about it in our shop. One had never seen a coolant “filter” ever! As soon as you add any non ferrous metal into the coolant system the nitrates have chemo-electric reaction. Its lab 101 stuff. Salts and of center ph plus moving coolant (static electricity) equals electrolysis. Now add extreme heat swings- ambient temperature to boiling temperature change in minutes and back again- time after time- day after day. NO LONG LIFE COOLANT IN A 6.5! Run old school antifreeze with as few minerals in water (distilled water) mixture. The tiny amount of money on coolant and time spent to replace your coolant also has you flushing out the old stuff at 50,000 mile intervals right? Think about it- flushing everything else out is good or bad for the system?! WASTING $50 every 50,000 miles. Also wasting 4 hours to diy it. 400,000 miles. Do the math. Maybe an extra $400, minus the more expensive fluid now is like $250 extra and half the time spent wrenching. Are you doing other stuff at some of those intervals like 100,000 mile hose replacement? Diff fluid changes? Trans service? Or wasting 100% of the time watching fluid drain snd nothing else? Even if nothing else- is it worth the longer radiator life, crossover life, if aluminum radiator- radiator life?
I am good, damn good, at long term cost analysis on fleet maintenance. Remember i am the guy that inly changed engine oil on my 2001 LS suburban every 30,000 miles to not waste the time and money knowing what would be the outcome and knowing I was selling it shortly after 200,000 miles. And I am telling ya- the added cost of old school anti freeze and water wetter is worth it on a 6.5. Neither in my Toyotas. Not in my LS suburban or escalade.
Back to the flow cooler- i just don’t get people on this forum risking an unknown waterpump on anything but a beater 6.5 as experimentation only, knowing the long and checkered history of issues of this engine. Someone that just bought a 6.5 and it’s running warm so they don’t know what to try- ok I get it. An LS or cummins or om603- they can allbe overheated and handle it several times without major damage- so try a new pump all willy-nilly- so what? But a 6.5 you don’t want to have to replace???
