Mobil Heavy Duty Coolant for 94 Merc Sable

[John With Beastly 302]

I have worked at a diesel repair shop for close to 5 years now. A couple of years ago I was doing a service to my sable with the 3.0 and we had ran out of standard green coolant at the shop. We did have some predilluted Mobil Heavy Duty SCA added not extended life coolant, so I choose to fill the 3.0 with it. Today I was working on a 96 BMW 740IL and came across a tsb on Alldata that said to only use ethlyene glycol coolant without any nitrite added because the nitrite will corrode the aluminum in the cooling system. I know that the Mobil Heavy Duty says it "contains Nitrite for wet cylinder sleeve protection". Now am I doing any damage to the aluminum in the 3.0 V-6 engine by running this coolant?
http://www.mobil.com/USA-English/Lubes/PDS/NAXXENCVLMOMobil_Heavy_Duty_SCA_Precharged_50-50.asp

 

[Eddie]

Nitrite is used to reduce cavitation (pitting) on cylinder liners in diesel engines. I would NOT run this in your engine, I would do a through flush and install a proper coolant.

 

[eljefino]

Yeah get it out of there.

 

[Dan55]

I have read that BMW does not like nitrites in their coolant, now I know why.

 

[eljefino]

In over my head but there is some pH that prevents corrosion on iron and an opposite one, or something it activates, that protects aluminum.

In an all iron truck engine they don't care about aluminum so they buffer it "real good" to protect the iron.

 

[mechanicx]

G-05 contains nitrite but is used in aluminum engines by Ford and Chrysler. The HD coolant probably contains much more nitrite. I think the silicates will protect the aluminum. Borate, which Japanese recommended against, is also said to attack aluminum and is in Green and G-05 too. it doesn't seem to be a real problem. I think the coolant would be good for its normal service life a year or 2, but I can understand if you want to change it.

 

[George7941]

Europeans avoid nitrites baecause of toxicity concerns. If nitrites attack aluminium, will it not attack aluminium rads, which have almost entirely replaced copper/brass rads? The HD trucks all come with aluminium rads.

 

[George7941]

Some have been expounding on nitrites and aluminium. Now they can't/won't defend their theory?

 

[John With Beastly 302]

Now does it hurt anything running the Mobil Heavy Duty coolant in a 1945 Ford 2N tractor?

 

[Chris142]

Most of the new trucks have Aluminum radiators and such and run nitrates.

 

[Bgallagher]

Flush it with Peak Global and call it a day.

 

[Stephen_G]

The 3.0L V6 is a cast iron V6, as i have a 2003 with the same engine.

Just flush it with cheap coolant and you should be fine.

 

[boxcartommie22]

thats why i use final charge in my fords. no nitrites

 

[SuperDave456]

Wild.
I find the diversity of opinion here very interesting.

Perhaps we should research and find documentation on this?
I wouldn't know where to start.

However, aluminum radiators on trucks make sense to me. I can't see those huge trucks having their rads made out of some kind of unobtanium that resists corrosion better than one thing or another.

I do know that nitrates have been banned in many detergents, laundry detergents and dish washer detergents in, due to pollution concerns. It causes HUGE algae blooms when it gets into the water supply system. As a matter of fact this is why most dish washer detergents do not work as well today as they did 5 years ago.
Nitrates in Laundry Detergents were banned in the late 80's or early 90's. They have only been recently removed from dish washer detergents.

This could be a reason that "eco-friendly" car companies are turning people away from nitrates.

Or, perhaps industrial radiators really are made of unobtanium.