Originally posted by Keith Strong:
<STRONG>Cool, thanks guys. Any tips for maintenence? I feel like I am learning about cars all over again <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"></STRONG>
I reccomend doing an oil analysis on every oil change. In the fleet I ran we changed oil every 3000 miles, and the fule filter at the same time. The oil sample was drawn, with hot oil, and sent to the lab. You would be surprised what goes on in the engine.
If you do oil samples, remember you are looking for trends. Generally one oil sample won't tell you very much unless the engine has some serious problems. I do not know how much they are in your area, the comany I work for charges the public $10 a sample, if you buy in quantity, the price gets less. Most independant oil labs like to get a sample of unused oil that you are putting in your engine so they have something to go by.
As for the coolant, be sure to use a diesel additive and keep it up to date. You can get some serious damage due to cavitation. cavitatiojn in diesels happens due to compression firing, you can't stop it from happening. When the fuel/air mix fires, the cylinder walls vibrate, causing air bubbles. The bubbles implode and the coolant hits the cylinder walls at supersonic speeds. This causes minute pits in a cooling system that does not have the proper additives. The additives in diesel coolant are self sacrficing. They form a layer in the system that protects the cylinders walls. When the bubbles implode, the coolant hits this layer and does not damage the outside ctlinder wall. This layer is constantly being renewed until the additive package is depleted.
Make sure you do not have any stray voltage going thru the coolant. Anything above .3 volts can kill the additive package in as little as 8 hours of use.
If you got any other questions, let me know.
PS, I was an ASE certified Master Heavy Truck Tech ( I let it lapse because I now do database design), and I have worked, and still do, for the Caterpillar dealer here for the last 7 years in the service department. I schedule the PM's for customer's, read the oil analysis reports, and let the customers know what is going on with thier machinery.
