Hedgehog
Fairhaven, Massachusetts
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Last year I flushed the cooling system on my 2006 Monaco Knight. I used a universal gold antifreeze that met Cummins specs. After some research, I decided to change it this year to Rotella ELC. So, last week, I flushed the system again 3 times and then filled with a 60/40 mixture of ELC & distilled water. After taking it for a ride, the temp according to my Aladin system is running a degree or so hotter than before. I then purchased a cheap hydrometer to test the antifreeze and only one out of five balls are floating. Does anyone know how much water is still in the system from the engine to the front heater core that might have been trapped in the system dilluting my mixture. Does anyone know if these hydrometers work with red antifreeze or only green? Any input would be appreciated.
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Bikeboy57
Huntington West Virginia
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No one could accurately predict how much water was left in your system. Fretting over 1 degree difference is a wee bit OCD.
Both types of antifreeze are based on Ethylene Glycol, just with different additive packages, so the floating hydrometer should work.
As a sanity check, mix a known 50/50 mixture and test it with your hydrometer.
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Twomed
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You should be fine. When I do a change I generally do 50/50 plus one gallon of straight ELC to make up for the water remaining from flush, so 60/40 is about the same assuming about eight gallons. 
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fcooper
Richmond Hill, Georgia
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There is a significant amount of water that stays in the system. I've saved a write-up done by Brett Wolfe that I'll be using this month when I change my coolant. I've quoted a small portion below:
Brett Wolfe wrote:Last Rinse is with distilled water. At $.62/gal at Walmart, it is silly to skip this step and leave your system full of high-mineral content water (there will be several gallons of residual water that you can not easily remove). Run engine for 10 minutes after getting to operating temperature. Cool and drain. Also drain and flush your coolant overflow container and refill with new coolant/distilled water.
Add the proper amount of Coolant CONCENTRATE (NOT PRE-DILUTE) to make 50% of cooling system capacity. My cooling system is 18 gallons, so I added 9 gallons of Caterpillar ELC CONCENTRATE (119-5150) (plus one for overflow container). Top off with distilled water to achieve your 50/50 mixture.
I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect that you do have a very weak antifreeze solution.
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Hedgehog
Fairhaven, Massachusetts
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I checked the hydrometer with some 50/50 ELC out of the jug and all five balls floated. Since it hasnt been cold since I did this, I will drain a gallonout of the system on my days off and add a gallon of concentrate.
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wolfe10
Texas
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Did you use ELC Concentrate or Pre-dilute???
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lanerd
Newport, OR
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Brett beat me to it. It sounds like you used pre-diluted antifreeze instead of concentrate... so you might need more than a gallon of concentrate to get to the 50/50.
Good luck
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Hedgehog
Fairhaven, Massachusetts
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I used the concentrate. I put in a little over 4 gallons of antifreeze and around 3 and a half gallons of distilled water.
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wolfe10
Texas
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Hedgehog wrote:I used the concentrate. I put in a little over 4 gallons of antifreeze and around 3 and a half gallons of distilled water.
Assuming the last flush was with distilled water, you really don't care how much distilled water you add AFTER you add 50% of coolant system capacity in concentrate. Because you will have quite a lot of distilled water in the hoses, dash heater core, etc.
Said another way, if your total system capacity (engine, radiator, hoses, dash heater core, etc) is 8 gallons and you added 4 gallons of concentrate, you are fine.
But, if your system is, say 10 gallons, then you will need to drain some of the coolant and add more concentrate. 50% is correct.
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Hedgehog
Fairhaven, Massachusetts
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Does anyone know were I can buy more Shell Rotella ELC concentrate. I went to the place that I bought it from before and they will onl sell it by the case. I only need a gallon.
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