I ran into an engineer at OSH that works for Cummins I think.
He did not have a card on him but hopefully he will join
up as I gave him my card.

He told me the life limiting factor on a diesel engine is the cooling
system. When the antifreeze gets old it turns acidic.
When that happens black low cost automotive hose becomes part of a battery
because of the conductive carbon in it. You can actually measure
the voltage with a digital voltmeter by putting one probe
on the hose and the other on the hose barb. The black hose
loses carbon to the mixture. This causes a reduction in strength
of the hose. The answer is silicone rubber hose and changing your
coolant once a year. This could be a factor in the two crashes
we have had due to cooling hose joint failures. In both cases the
people had been flying their rotary powered airplanes for several years.


Paul Lamar

--Dirck Hecking wrote:

Paul ,  Now there is one solid gold heads-up if I ever saw one..... Perhaps
that is what happened between me and my X.... She just got too acidic. :^ 

 
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