When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
1st Gen. Ram - All TopicsDiscussion for all Dodge Rams prior to 1994. This includes engine, drivetrain and non-drivetrain discussions. Anything prior to 1994 should go in here.
Got the coolant filter installed this weekend. My truck used to be a Auto so I used those cooling lines that used to go to the transmission heat exchanger under the exhaust manifold. Install was super easy and only took 20 min or so. Will drive it this week and maybe cut the filter open next weekend and see what's inside!
Checked my coolant at lunch today which was after a 22 mile commute. Even though I had just acid dipped my radiator twice and put brand new coolant and distilled water in it it was cloudy and full of particulates. Today when I took the radiator cap off it was CLEAN water and I could see far down inside the radiaror! I run the clearish antifreeze but before the coolant filter I couldn't see but maybe a inch down.
On a different note - it's not what I did to it but what I did with it:
Coming home I met the neighbor on his tractor coming down the hill. He had just delivered a skid steer to his son who is logging the hill and asked me to go look at his Duramax which was pouring out coolant after getting it and the gooseneck loaded skid steer stuck in a rut. I couldn't do a thing because once I got there, I could see the leak but not where it was coming from. Between the back of the motor and the firewall. A steady garden hose stream but I couldn't even get my hand back there to feel where it was leaking.
To add insult to injury, while I was there his son came down off the hill with a gooseneck load of cedar pulled by his 3/4 chevy gasser and got the dovetail hung in a crossing. So I got to crawl around him and pull him out. Dodge 2, chevy 0.
interesting but imo 8 years is too long of a service interval for coolant.
Then you won't like to hear that I haven't changed it since that thread. I cannot remember the last time that I have had a failure of any cooling system part, on any of my vehicles. It is either extreme good luck or there is something to it. There is also an outfit now that is selling waterless antifreeze at 50 bucks a gallon. I should have monetized not adding water to antifreeze, seems so simple...Mark Edit: I am not saying to not change your antifreeze, although I see no reason for it, I am just saying to not put water in it.
I changed out my coolant in the spring for 100% antifreeze. I flushed the system first with chemicals. SO far everything is fine and dandy.
I'm 68 so I think I'm an adult though my wife thinks I act childishly when I fart in her general direction.
Ahhhhh! A Monty Python reference, I love it. The club is growing, we also have Oliver, on at least one of his rigs and Bruce in SoCal. It is a small but influential group of really wise people. I'm 63 and I just ran a 5k run in Hermosillo on Sunday. There was a guy, 78 years old, that did the 5k in just over 21 minutes. That was after running about 8k to get to the race. I won't even say my time, but lets say that 7 minute miles are about what I ran when I was 21...Mark Oh yeah, I almost forgot Tman.