coolant and oil suggestion ?

[Wheel]

I'm looking at flushing the cooling system in a late 80's Bolens/Iseki tractor with a Mitsubishi K3A diesel in the springtime and changing the oil. I'm pretty sure it has just plain old green antifreeze in her now. Would I be better served with something like the Rotella ELC coolant in it ?

As far as oil, I'm likely to get only 1 change a year in, would Chevron Delo 400XLE in 10w30 or Rotella T5 10w30 work well ? The manual calls for 10w30 for 32 up to 85 degrees, Above that it calls for SAE30 and below freezing SAE10. Would a 5w40 be a better idea ?

I'm in upstate NY, I see temps from 0 to 90 with a couple trips outside that range a year. I do mow and blow snow with this tractor. I'll likely be plowing and discing a garden as well.

 

[dnewton3]

Traditional EG (ethylene glycol) coolant does a fine job; just change it every few years to keep the system fresh. To truly know if something were "better", you'd have to run tests and establish a baseline, and then run comparative samples. That's a lot of work/time/money for something that's really not all that critical. Just flush and refill every 3 years or so, depending upon use.

As for the oil, all those little Japanese diesels are pretty darn robust, and they really are not going to have any preference of brand of lube. 10w-30 HDEO will work great year round; either of those will do a fine job. Now, as to the question of 5w-40 being "better", you'll need to more clearly define what you think that word "better" means. If you are asking if the 5w-40 will protect against wear more so than the 30 grade lubes you mentioned, I'd have to say there's no evidence whatsoever to that being true. Will the 5w-40 have a slightly different response at really cold temps? Perhaps a teeny tiny bit, but so little that you'll never know the difference. If it gets so darn cold that the 5w is going to be of note over the 10w, then you should really be using either a block or pan heater as a starting aid. Your average low in Jan is 3 degF and your average high in August is 78 degF. You will occasionally go past those numbers, but not frequently.

Honestly a 10w-30 HDEO year round will be just fine. I use dino 10w-30 HDEO (not even semi-syn) in my Dmax and Kubota, and I've never had a starting issue, even when it got down to -17F a few years ago. All my UOAs have shown that a 10w-30 HDEO is a great all around choice. My avg low is 18F, and high around 87F. If the 10w-30 can do well here, it can certainly do well where you're at.

Don't overthink this; pick a 10w-30 and find something else to worry about.

 

[Wheel]

Thanks, I've never owned a diesel before. I'll stick with my 10w30 then.

 

[CDX825]

I would recommend either Final charge or the Zerex HD ELC. Both have the cummins 14603 rating which means they are compatible with older seal material.

You could also run fleet charge which is basically conventional green coolant with sca in it.

I would stick with a diesel rated coolant simply because the possibility of cavitation/ cylinder liner erosion.