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That coolant filter canister you just spun on the engine may cause its death. That's right, if you just drained the cooling system and added a fully formulated antifreeze and placed a fully charged coolant filter on the system you may have given it a lethal dose of supplemental coolant additives (SCAs). It won't die a quick death, it will die slowly as silicate drop out and the other related failures occur.
With all the cooling system choices these days, fleets need to make certain every vehicle's cooling system has the correct formulation of coolant and SCAs -- and SCAs come in various forms in a number of different filters.
Howard Laga, vice president of Sales & Marketing for The Penray Companies, Inc., says "A lot has been going on in the coolant industry recently with the increases in extending the service life of coolants. A few years ago, Nalco Chemical introduced a fully formulated, precharged antifreeze product that is now marketed by Penray Companies, Inc. under the Fleet Charge label.
"Using this antifreeze along with our Need Release filters some fleets have been running as long as five years or 600,000 miles on the same coolant. The key to the coolant program that we offer is the combination of low solids antifreeze and our Need Release filter, which is manufactured to release supplemental coolant additives (SCAs) on an as-needed basis. The filter, which measures a standard 5 1/4 inches, has three chemical SCA-balanced tablets separated by membranes that become permeable when the coolant reaches a specific corrosive level. Only then are the SCAs exposed to the circulating coolant and released into the system to restore the protective chemical balance. The filter is to be changed every 12 months, 120,000 miles or 2,000 hours."
According to Laga, "The Need Release filter system isn't for everyone. The fleets that are going to benefit most are those that take maintenance seriously, those that keep good maintenance records so that they know when cooling systems were originally filled and when these filters need to be replaced."
The one area of biggest concern for maintaining the integrity of the coolant is what may be added to the cooling system on the road. Since fleets may have little control...