What About Fuels and Coolants?

By BRETT WINBERG - LubeTrak

The winter months can be the worst time on your equipment because of the cold weather and of course, extended idling times that equipment sees during warm up and operational time periods.

When it comes to preventive maintenance and a more proactive approach to maintenance, we test our lubricating oils… why not test our fuels and coolants? 

The answer to that question is a resounding yes; you should test fuels and coolants as well… especially in colder weather. It is very important to test oils, fuels and coolants to assure extended equipment life and reduced maintenance budgets in the future.

Here are some of the testing procedures that can be performed on Glycol based Coolants:

Glycol Testing:
Test Code AF-3
Spectrochemical (Iron, Lead, Copper, Aluminum, Silicon, Boron, Sodium, Phosphorus, Molybdenum)
Silicate
Nitrite/Nitrate, Conductivity, TDS
TDS
PH
Freeze Point
Nitrate
Appearance
Percent of glycol
Reserve Alkalinity
These tests are very important to determine the quality of the coolant and the life of the coolant. Coolants are like the white blood cells of our body; they need to be healthy and clean to assure equipment hygiene. One recommendation from our technical support team… never mix Extended Life Synthetic Antifreeze with the good old regular green Antifreeze. This could cause some internal damage to the cooling system as well as the oil coolers.

Here are some of the testing procedures that can be performed on Diesel Fuels:

Flash Point, PMCC, ASTM D93
Carbon Residue, 10% Bottoms, ASTM D189
Viscosity@ 40 C cST, ASTM D445
Sulfur, Mass% ASTM D4294
Cetane Index, Calculated Cetane, includes distillation and API gravity ASTM D4736
Water and Sediment Volume % ASTM D2709
Distillation 90% recovery ASTM D86
Distillation
BS&W
Gravity
Sulfur
Diesel fuels come in many grade qualities from 1 to 8 depending on the application.

Having seen many dirty fuels in the mining industry, it’s a very good idea to run a pre-filter assembly to help remove the large particles and keep your fuel clean and clear of debris.

You would never want to run a number 6, 7 or 8 grade fuel in an over the road truck or piece of construction equipment because these fuels are considered heavy fuel oils and have very high sulfur content and hydrocarbon output. These fuels are made for the shipping industry and used in different specialty applications around the world.

Diesel fuels can also contain algae and bacteria, so assure you have clean storage and know where your fuels are being processed. The simple test above will determine the quality of fuel you are using.

Your maintenance personnel should set guidelines for testing all equipments fluids to extend equipment life, reduce equipment downtime and move your maintenance program to a truly proactive level.

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