Coolant additive for cylinder cavitation pitting, Deere

jeepwm69 · Sep 19, 2023

I have a 77ish Deere 2640, mainly used for Bush Hogging around the farm.

My local radiator shop guy is getting up there in years, and will likely retire soon, so this year I took the radiator off and had him boil it out and get it good and clean.

Put it back on, filled with reg green Prestone and distilled water 50/50. I've mowed a couple of times with it and everything is working great, engine is staying nice and cool.

Then a guy on another forum mentioned that I needed to put in some coolant additive to prevent cavitation and cylinder wall erosion. I looked it up and it does appear to be a thing. That said, in talking to several local farmers, the guys at NAPA, and even diesel pickup owners, nobody around here has ever heard of this.

I did find a bottle of Napa 4058 on the shelf, which a couple of forums said to use, but the guys at NAPA (who are usually pretty good around here since it's a small farming town) knew nothing about it.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/FIL4058

So, my question is, should I be concerned about this on a late 70's low HP tractor like this, or can I just run my 50/50 mix of Prestone and distilled water? I don't know what was in the tractor when I drained and removed the radiator. It was whatever was in there when I bought it 10-12 years ago.

Mike M · Sep 19, 2023

Yes you do want to run the additive for wet sleeved engines. That stuff in the link sounds like it will
be correct ? Though it did not mention about the SCA or DCA levels or much else. There are also test
strips to test for these levels.

BarnyardEngineering · Sep 19, 2023

Horsepower isn't the issue. It's the design of the engine, wet sleeves.

There is no mention of SCA in the coolant additive linked above. It's not even diesel-specific.

This is what you need:
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NAFHD1GAL

wore out · Sep 19, 2023

Go to the DEERE dealer and buy a jug or two of premixed Cool-GardII, drain what's in there and flush and put the correct stuff in and be done with it.

For the small amount of coolant your little tractor takes it won't be a huge amount of money and you will know your given the tractor the best liner pitting protection you can.

NAPA and truck parts dealers will have good DIESEL antifreeze with the SCA ''built in'' available, as well.

jeepwm69 · Sep 19, 2023

(quoted from post at 12:27:01 09/19/23)

Go to the DEERE dealer and buy a jug or two of premixed Cool-GardII, drain what's in there and flush and put the correct stuff in and be done with it.

For the small amount of coolant your little tractor takes it won't be a huge amount of money and you will know your given the tractor the best liner pitting protection you can.

NAPA and truck parts dealers will have good DIESEL antifreeze with the SCA ''built in'' available, as well.

Click to expand...

Well, that probably is the easiest way to NOT mess this thing up.

Thanks for the input guys! I was just flabbergasted that nobody around here seemed to know ANYTHING about this, given that ag is pretty much the only industry left here, so our NAPA is pretty much a farm supply place.

onefarmer · Sep 19, 2023

John Deere has an additive for such a thing ty26603. Your dealer may not have it in stock since they push their Coolguard. But they can order
it.

caterpillar guy · Sep 19, 2023

Yes you want to run it in the coolant for the protection of the sleeves against a couple things pitting from air bubble causing the pits to go through the sleeves and cavitation of the block around the bottom of the sleeve. Baldwin has a product for this as well as Wix does. And it does matter which one you use for the green or red antifreeze as well as the test strips. Even Baldwin says there is a difference when you ask them about it. With the number of tractors and the few hours each runs I tes them all once per year when we do our annual antifreeze check and add that at that time if they are going to be run before freezing time is at hand. The product will freeze if left not mixed into the coolant after it is poured in the reason for running the machine after adding it. I like to test things like the combine and tractors being run that fall during harvest and adjustments made then. The dry sleeve engines we still check them with the strips as well may not need to but cheap compared to blocks and engine work. I have a bottle of strips I got from Wix I got them for a lot cheaper than the Baldwin strips are about 2.00 per strip and if you are testing a dozen or more engines that adds up pretty fast. Yes it is cheap compared to engines and cheaper strips is even better. There are different strips for green antifreeze then for the red coolant. Look it up on line and read about it it is a pretty interesting read for you. And explained better than I can do it. As well as the reasoning behind it. Has to do with the organo phosphates in the coolant for green and not for the red stuff. Or vise versa.

Butch(OH) · Sep 19, 2023

Yes you should be concerned and no you
don't have to dump your new coolant. Since
you have new coolant you can use the mix
ratio listed on the product. What you are
concerned about is nitrites, or is it
nitrates? and the diesel products have
the corrective chemicals. After the
initial charge then test strips are used
to add IF needed on an annual basis.

OR if seems complicated dump your new
coolant as has been suggested and use any
Manufactures HD or diesel coolant and dump
it again every other year, flush and add
new to keep your chemicals in line.

sotxbill · Sep 19, 2023

https://www.tractorpartsasap.com/baldwin-bta-plus-formula-liquid-additive-pint-159836.html

fastfarmall · Sep 19, 2023

Yes use it, have you ever seen sleeves with electroylsis,it eats threw those thick sleeves in less than a 1,000 hours,The guys with the 4630 JD, and the 504 Case engine, and another bad one was the 301 Allis Chalmers. But the 4630 was turning around a 190 horse power, they even warned the farmer's not to open the pump,at Farming Frontiers,[John Deere day] goes to prove there no free lunch !!!!!

John M · Sep 20, 2023

I would research the spec for the coolant when it was NEW and add what Deere recommened then. When I had diesels, I ran Rotella ELC and forgot about it, no
testing, no adding SCA, just fill (50/50) and done.

Russ from MN · Sep 20, 2023

Yes, you need to add something, we had that happen to our 350 crawler.

504 · Sep 20, 2023

Any truck dealership will have it in the parts department

BarnyardEngineering · Sep 20, 2023

(quoted from post at 13:29:27 09/19/23) I was just flabbergasted that nobody around here seemed to know ANYTHING about this, given that ag is pretty much the only industry left here, so our NAPA is pretty much a farm supply place.

It's not something widely known, unless you've experienced it personally, or are a diesel mechanic. Most people just go through life blissfully ignorant, and USUALLY they can get away without the additive, because the electrolysis and cavitation don't ALWAYS happen.

4play · Sep 20, 2023

Extended life coolants have been around for about 30 years, I really don't know why there is a need for the traditional green, or why people still use it when ELC coolants are far superior in all aspects. ELC's do not need SCA or other additives. ELC offers better protection, additives and will last a very long time. Universal Coolant, extended life coolant or anything with OAT or HOAT on the label will not need SCA's. An easier reference if you don't want to read the label is buy coolant with a picture of a semi truck on it.

You probably found what you are looking for, but last time I needed it, I got a bottle from Oreillys, it was WIX 24056. Since you just filled it, assuming no amount of SCA in the system, it should be fairly easy to figure out how much you need. Keep in mind too much is bad too. They have test strips you dip into the coolant and compare color to a chart.

Check Break · Sep 21, 2023

(quoted from post at 11:19:25 09/19/23) I have a 77ish Deere 2640, mainly used for Bush Hogging around the farm.

My local radiator shop guy is getting up there in years, and will likely retire soon, so this year I took the radiator off and had him boil it out and get it good and clean.

Put it back on, filled with reg green Prestone and distilled water 50/50. I've mowed a couple of times with it and everything is working great, engine is staying nice and cool.

Then a guy on another forum mentioned that I needed to put in some coolant additive to prevent cavitation and cylinder wall erosion. I looked it up and it does appear to be a thing. That said, in talking to several local farmers, the guys at NAPA, and even diesel pickup owners, nobody around here has ever heard of this.

I did find a bottle of Napa 4058 on the shelf, which a couple of forums said to use, but the guys at NAPA (who are usually pretty good around here since it's a small farming town) knew nothing about it.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/FIL4058

So, my question is, should I be concerned about this on a late 70's low HP tractor like this, or can I just run my 50/50 mix of Prestone and distilled water? I don't know what was in the tractor when I drained and removed the radiator. It was whatever was in there when I bought it 10-12 years ago.

The coolant additive used to be called Nalcool which changed to Pencool after an ownership change.

https://penray.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/300016300064-1664-OZ-Pencool-3000.pdf

Problem is there's been changes to coolant technology so nothing is simple anymore. You'll have to determine if an additive like Pencool 3000 is compatible with your Prestone formula. Best advice as suggested above is to use Deere coolant. I just changed out the coolant in a JD450C we picked up. $25/gal. I bought four gallons and there might be coolant left over.

BarnyardEngineering · Sep 21, 2023

They don't push the "extended life" stuff. You go into the store there's 3 shelves of green stuff, with a couple bottles of "extended life" stuffed into the corner with the Dexcool.

The green stuff is cheap, familiar, and proven.

WilBury · Sep 21, 2023

I realize that you're looking for an additive for your new coolant but this is what I used in my relined diesel.

https://www.tenaquip.com/product/pr...ted-antifreeze-coolant-378-l-jug-74055-flt542

It's a NOAT as opposed to OAT. Others here may have more expertise as to the choice but it's what I finally decided upon.

WilBury · Sep 21, 2023

Here's a compatability chart.

https://nalube.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/HD-Comparison-Sheet-2019.pdf

jeepwm69 · Sep 21, 2023

(quoted from post at 19:45:58 09/20/23) Extended life coolants have been around for about 30 years, I really don't know why there is a need for the traditional green, or why people still use it when ELC coolants are far superior in all aspects. ELC's do not need SCA or other additives. ELC offers better protection, additives and will last a very long time. Universal Coolant, extended life coolant or anything with OAT or HOAT on the label will not need SCA's. An easier reference if you don't want to read the label is buy coolant with a picture of a semi truck on it.

You probably found what you are looking for, but last time I needed it, I got a bottle from Oreillys, it was WIX 24056. Since you just filled it, assuming no amount of SCA in the system, it should be fairly easy to figure out how much you need. Keep in mind too much is bad too. They have test strips you dip into the coolant and compare color to a chart.

I have a rather large fleet of vehicles and ATV's that maintain, so I used what I already had on hand. Only after I'd filled the cooling system did someone on another forum mention that I should use an additive.

I think I might just drain the system and add new coolant from NAPA. I got the stuff I put in there cheap (had a rebate on it) and test strips are expensive, so I'd be money ahead just putting already treated coolant in it.

Thanks for all of the responses. Makes me wonder how many tractors, trucks, and pickups around here are rolling around with regular coolant in them.......

Coolant additive for cylinder cavitation pitting, Deere

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