How Preventative Cooling System Maintenance Increases the Lifespan of Your Truck

Spring is in full swing. A change in season is a natural time to ensure you’re doing everything you can to keep your commercial truck running at peak performance. As the temperatures outside heat up, it’s a great time to think about heat under the hood of your truck.

Over time, heat from the engine scorches the chemicals in the coolant, creating deposits inside the radiator, coils, lines, engine, and other cooling system components. When scale and deposits build up, it leads to clogs, broken seals and a less efficient cooling system. Hotspots can form when the metal can’t dissipate heat, which can crack or melt components in the system, leading to expensive repairs and downtime for your truck.

Through preventative cooling system maintenance, you can extend your truck’s lifespan, lower the chances of encountering costly repairs and increase uptime.

Engine Coolant Systems Are Often Overlooked

While checking fluids is on every preventative maintenance checklist, evaluating the overall health of the engine coolant system can be overlooked. Not taking stock of this vital engine component would be a mistake. In fact, according to trucknews.com, some estimates project that up to 40% of total engine repair costs are related to issues that originate within the cooling system. Further, 50% of all engine failures are cooling system related.

“Today’s heavy duty engines are more sophisticated than any previous generation of equipment. While this sophistication allows the engine to address environmental issues regarding exhaust and pollutants, and to squeeze the most power out of engines that are running hotter than ever, they are also far more expensive to repair should something go wrong. To avoid unnecessary repairs, maintaining the modern-day cooling system becomes the essential link to maintaining the entire system,” the article states.

Industry standards call for draining, flushing and pressure testing the system at least once each year. Traditional cleaning and filling services only replace about 50% of the vehicle’s used coolant, while the remainder is trapped in the engine, various hoses and lines. Scale and rust deposits can build up and lead to your engine overheating and ultimately failing.

Clean Your Cooling System While You Drive

Remember that coolant only helps cool your system, not clean it. Typically, acid cleaners are used, act quickly, but can’t be left in too long because it could cause damage to metal surfaces, as well as the radiator and cooling components not being thoroughly cleaned. Still, traditional cleaning and flushing methods are better than letting the scale and deposit build up.

Now, there’s another revolutionary, powerful, effective solution that cleans your cooling system while you drive. EnviroCool’s Coolant Cleaner Filter’s alkaline cleaning solution safely and completely removes deposits in the radiator and throughout the entire system while driving. Contaminants are collected by the high performance 10-micron filter, which is landfillable.

No more draining and flushing coolant and no more down time for lengthy service appointments. EnviroCool Coolant Cleaner Filter’s specialized alkaline formula safely and thoroughly cleans the entire system to fully realize increased performance. You save time, money and increase efficiency in your heavy duty truck, keeping it where it belongs — on the road.

Other Cooling System Maintenance Tips

Don’t forget to check other components of your cooling system while performing preventative maintenance:

• Ensure you have the right amount of coolant and that the freeze protection level is adequate. If coolant freezes then it cannot run through the system to cool the hot engine, and it can damage or crack engine components and even the cast iron or aluminum block of an engine, destroying the engine.
• If you need to add coolant to your heavy-duty truck, never mix it with other types. Coolants are all formulated differently. Combining them could cause unwanted chemical reactions and increase the amount of scale formed when the chemicals get scorched and spread throughout the system, leading to hotspots and engine inefficiency.
• When mixing water, only use distilled water. Tap water has minerals that add to the scaling problem and increase wear on the engine components. It’s best to follow the OEM recommendation for the type of coolant to use for your heavy duty truck.
• Check the radiator cap for leaks and ensure the radiator fluid levels and concentration are correct. If fluid levels are low, the water pump won’t properly pump and cool the engine.
• Look for external leaks that happen in parts of the cooling system outside of the engine, such as hoses, the radiator, water pump, heater core and o-rings/seals. These are often easy to spot because coolant can drip and puddle under your truck. You can also check for leaks by pressure testing a cooling system while the engine is cold.
• Make sure the water pump is functioning properly, especially if you notice coolant loss, noisy bearings or overheating. Water pumps are an essential component in the cooling system, and without maintenance can be the cause of overheating.
• Replace the regular coolant filter with an EnviroCool Coolant Cleaner Filter to clean and protect your engine annually. Our filters keep your truck running cool all year long, no matter how hot the thermometer says it is outside.

Preventative Maintenance is crucial to the health of your heavy duty truck and safety of your drivers. Don’t let issues caused by the cooling system keep your trucks off the road or put your drivers in danger of a mechanical failure or breakdown. Taking just a few proactive steps will be well worth the effort and enhance the overall performance of your fleet saving thousands of dollars every year.

Learn more about EnviroCool’s Coolant Cleaner Filter, or contact us for more information.