Re: Coolent in locomotives
Author: Dave Buccolo
Date: 10-18-2007 - 20:27
With the new head seals and gasket materials now available on the market from suppliers like DOROX you can now use anti-freeze in a 567 or 645 locomotive. You must be sure and do a good job of sampling the oil to be sure there are no leaks. If the engine is an old 567B block it is still very hard to get good seals on the heads and water jumpers. 567B/C and 567C and 645 engines seal up and do not leak with the new seals.
With the cost of fuel and the problems with leaving both 645 and 567 engines ideling and the engine "souping" due to the engine running cool and the oil by-passing the rings on the pistons the extra cost of adding anti-freeze to locomotive engines is cheaper than the fuel used to let the engine run or the oil use and cleanup from a "souping engine. You need to be sure you have good batteries so when you shut down the engine in colder weather it will start again when you want to use it. All the new GENSET engines use anti-freeze and the New GE and EMD engines can use Treated water or a coolent/antifreeze mixture.