My Coolant Filter.

[George7941]

It is a Baldwin filter head and a Baldwin Filter, from Grainger (Acklands-Gringer in Canada). Installed it a month ago. Truck has 117k km/75k mi. I did a distilled water rinse + Dexcool fill once so far.

I put in an access point to the cooling system with a inline valve. You can see the valve under the black curved bracket. It is a place to check cooling system pressure and pressure developed by the water pump. I can also pump out a lot of the coolant through that valve by running the engine. The radiator does not have drain plug. GM wants you to disconnect the lower rad hose at the rad to drain coolant. I hate to disturb a nice leak free hose joint.

The red hose brings the hot coolant from the top of the intake manifold and the black hose takes the coolant to the heater core. I put in an inline valve and plan on keeping it 75% closed during the summer months to minimise any erosion damage to the heater core from high coolant flow.

 

[Donald]

What prompted the install of a coolant filter? I would be interested in seeing the filter cut open after a good long run.

 

[BISCUT]

Originally Posted By: Donald
What prompted the install of a coolant filter? I would be interested in seeing the filter cut open after a good long run.


+1 very interested. Looks awesome but what are you expecting to catch?

 

[George7941]

Some believe that any casting sand left over from the manufacture of the engine and any aluminium oxide particles formed during normal operation of the engine is a cause of erosion of the internals of the cooling system. I am curious also as to what the filter element looks like after use though I don't plan on replacing it for many years. Watch my posts in maybe 2016.

My previous Ford F250 300CID ate heater cores. I replaced the core three times during the ten years I had the truck. Never did figure out the cause, whether it was electrolysis/excessive flow/abrasive particles. The other item I replaced frequently (every two years) on that truck was the rear parking brake cables. They would seize up in spite of being used multiple times daily. I had a manual transmission in that truck.

 

[SHOZ]

I got a set up for a cooling filter and never installed it. Switched cars. No room in the one I have now.

 

[bigjl]

The use of OAT coolant is getting more common in the UK.

And is considered to have an extremely long life.

Is this coolant (pink in colour) available in the US?

I do like the way folks on this board re-engineer parts of their vehicles to promote longevity

 

[2oldtommy]

Neat setup IMO. Do you have to get a Baldwin filter element that is for coolant only. Or, can you use any oil filter element?

Oldtommy

 

[George7941]

The pink OAT coolant in my truck is Dexcool. Since GM switched all their vehicles over to Dexcool around 1995, a considerable proportion of the cars on the road in USA/Canada use this OAT coolant. Ford has switched over recently to a Dexcool-like OAT coolant. Read SteveSRT's posts about the tremendous longevity his fleet of trucks get out of Dexcool

The Baldwin filter element is for coolant only. It is not expensive and I plan on replacing it maybe once every few years, so there is no need for me to experiment with oil filters. There is no assurance that an oil filter element will withstand the volume of coolant flow and being soaked in water all the time. Fram, Purolator, Wix etc will all have equivalents of this Baldwin element.

This element is known as a blank element, meaning it does not have Supplementary Coolant Additives.

 

[BISCUT]

Originally Posted By: George7941
Some believe that any casting sand left over from the manufacture of the engine and any aluminium oxide particles formed during normal operation of the engine is a cause of erosion of the internals of the cooling system. I am curious also as to what the filter element looks like after use though I don't plan on replacing it for many years. Watch my posts in maybe 2016.

My previous Ford F250 300CID ate heater cores. I replaced the core three times during the ten years I had the truck. Never did figure out the cause, whether it was electrolysis/excessive flow/abrasive particles. The other item I replaced frequently (every two years) on that truck was the rear parking brake cables. They would seize up in spite of being used multiple times daily. I had a manual transmission in that truck.


Good answer! That mighta made me want to do it as well!

 

[JZiggy]

Neato! This is similar to the setup I have in my 4Runner. The couple times I've changed the filter I've been surprised at the grit that does show up in it.

Make sure the lube the gasket with oil and not water/coolant. My filter got stuck so hard I had to take the filter head off and stick it in the vise.

Not strictly necessary but still a fun over-engineering project

 

[George7941]

Oh, no! I don't remember lubing the gasket. I will back the filter off and lube the gasket with oil.

 

[Olas]

I recently posted a question about coolant filters, and the responses were that such a filter is absolutely unnecessary on any reasonably well maintained cooling system.

I have a couple questions;

You mentioned hoping to catch sand left over from the casting process - fair enough but shouldn't the guy who does the casting, or the guy who bolts it all together, clean their castings before assembly?

If they don't (which it seems like is the case with this car) couldn't you drain the system and flush it through with a hose to get rid of all the junk? Potentially save some money and some weight by not having more hose, more fluid and another filter to buy & carry around?

Re the 2x heater matrix that failed, if electrolysis was the problem wouldn't it affect all of the system equally rather than just one localised area? Would excessive flow even be a problem? Excessive pressure, maybe. But flow?

I'm not trying to be rude, I just want to increase my knowledge and have a better understanding of the costs/benefits of such a filter

Looking forward to your responses

 

[George7941]

In a perfect world there would not be any sand left over. A flush might not remove all particles. The only definitive test, in my case, will be when I remove the filter in a few years and see if it trapped particles. JZiggy found grit when he took off his filter, two posts above.

Excessive flow can be a problem because it can set up cavitation and cavitation erodes metal. Some manufacturers end up installing restrictors in the heater flow circuit to cut down on flow.

Electrolysis can affect just one component because of localised current flow. There might not be current flow through the entire system but perhaps just through the heater core, depending on grouding/ not grounding/ combination of metals etc.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: George7941
Excessive flow can be a problem because it can set up cavitation and cavitation erodes metal. Some manufacturers end up installing restrictors in the heater flow circuit to cut down on flow.


Note that cavitation also occurs when flow is restricted. Actually even more likely.

Cavitation forms at the pump rotor, I believe you may be speaking of aeration forming in the heads or block...

 

[George7941]

Cavitation can form immediately downstream of the restriction (meaning the first one or two inches) and has to be watched out for. I do remember some manufacturers installing restrictors (I think GM was one) in the heater supply line because they were having problems with excessive coolant flow through the heater core eroding the core.

 

[George7941]

I did some searching and found the following

https://www.4s.com/Upload/Four%20Seasons...REPLACEMENT.PDF

An excerpt from the above bulletin
"Erosion of the metal, due to the action of the flow of the coolant through the heater cores. This is usually
present in aluminum heater cores. The faster the coolant flows through the core, the greater the effects of
erosion. The use of an “inlet restrictor” (required on several OEM applications) may be used to slow the speed
of the coolant, as it passes through the heater core."

 

[SHOZ]

But on current motors with the t-stat on the lower radiator hose the heater core is an active part of the cooling system usually carrying the majority of the flow from the head to the t-stat.

 

[George7941]

Ok. The engineers must have ensured that the heater cores are designed such that they can handle the full flow. Some previous generation heater cores simply could not handle high flow.