Running 2000 Mazda B2500 2.5L. in Texas heat and the truck is @58000 miles but has been sitting for over a year. With all the changes in Coolants/ Antifreeze I am wondering whether or not to use a flush and then replace the coolant.
Originally the fluid was green, should I replace it with the same? Haven't seen green antifreeze around and what brand should I use? I 've been looking for a how to for either 99Ford Ranger or 2000 B2500 with no luck. Never done this before and don't have $ to pay anyone. Thanks for any info, links, and instruction.

 

Well there was a link in Technical Notes regarding this topic but it leads to blank page.
Guessing since this truck has an aluminum radiator I simply have to stay away from any antifreeze with silicate and sodium. Safest thing probably is go with the old green coolant.
Was thinking of using the OAT but not feeling too confident about it at this time since I don't know the difference in content by brand.

Inorganic Acid Technology ethylene glycol or propylene glycol, with service life of 30000 miles or 2 years. Wonder what other B2500 and 2000 Ford Ranger runners are using for sometime with no water pump, radiator, or engine problems?

Definately staying away from the "One For All" Antifreeze... Don't make sense the one size fits all given the different cooling systems out there.

 

This link may help unconfuse the coolant type to use question.
Universal Coolant: The Ultimate Antifreeze?

I've been using Prestone universal recipe in my 94 Taurus 3.8L & 99 Ranger 4.0L for about 7 years now, so far without problems.

I did a good system back flush through the heater hose with tap water & a flushing "T" & the engine at idle, to get all of the old silicate based green Prestone out, then back flushed the tap water out through the heater core hose with distilled water I saved from my home AC condensate, to remove as much of the tap water and the dissolved lime it has in it as I could, then drained the radiator & block as well as I could & added the new Prestone at full strength, so that when the system was topped off/filled with more distilled water, the mix of antifreeze to water would be at the specified 50/50 ratio.

I ran these two vehicles the 5 years that Prestone says that its coolant was good for, but I kept a check on its condition, as I too was sorta in doubt about being able to do that, but when drained for another change, both systems innards looked fine, as well as the coolants condition.

On the 94 Taurus, when I changed its water pump because of a seal weep & its second OEM radiator, because its hot side plastic tank had cracked at a molded in knit line about 4 inches below the top radiator hose connection point, & when I changed its thermostat & radiator cap when replacing the water pump & replacing all of the radiator & heater hoses as part of its preventive maintenance schedule, No iron/steel part rust, no aluminum corrosion, no sediment or sludge, no hose liner cracking, internal radiator fin corrosion or tube blockage, or water pump impeller erosion problems noted. So I now feel more at ease using the Prestone recipe, as the Taurus has aluminim heads & radiator, with steel water pump impeller & iron block, lots of dis-simmilar metals.

If you don't feel comfortable using the new all purpose recipe antifreeze, I believe Ford/Motorcraft still still sell the old green recipe coolant thats to be changed sooner.

Some coolant thoughts for considertion, let us know how it goes.

 

Originally I had read the following article and became confused:
Choosing The Right Coolant - Popular Mechanics

Thanks Pawpaw for sharing your experience & the link. I feel more confident about using the 100% Prestone Universal Antifreeze product and mix my own. Manual say capacity is 7.2 qts. with AC

Anything to add to these videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlNJ...eature=related

Will let you know how it goes.
Instead of using a hose I will use cheap bottle gallons of water because Tap Water in Texas is very hard, loaded with calcium and magnesium if you boil it in an aluminum pot a white scaling immediately forms. 4 gal. of water should be enough for a flush + 1 gal. for 50/50 mix.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5pNZ4JHsoY

 

My local WalMart sells a 2.5 gallon container of distilled water thats more reasonably priced than the gallon size & I've used that when I didn't have my home AC condensate distilled water available. Saved those 2.5 gal containers to store my summer made AC condensate in, so now I have my own home made distilled water any time of year I need it!!!!

Its good for lots of other around the house things too, like the wifes steam iron, water plants, rinse the truck off with it in my garden sprayer when washing, as it won't leave spots when it dries, polish out those frosted up plastic head lights, buy a gallon of anti-freeze & mix 50/50 with my home made distilled water to make 2 gallons of my own 50/50 antifreeze at about 1/2 the cost of the 50/50 premixed that the srores sell, use it in my batteries, ect, ect.

If your coolant is in bad shape, drain & flush the system of old coolant, add the cleaner to the water, drive it some to tidy up the cooling system innards, then Thoroughly flush that out with the distilled water until it runs clear, then add the needed quantity of new full strength anti-freeze so that when you add the top off with water the cooling system will be at the 50/50 mix ratio.

That guy draining his Rangers coolant should have had a catch container for recycling, instead of letting it run out on the ground. His coolant didn't look good either, maybe been in there too long. Hope your system hasn't been neglicted.

Now would be a good time to do a cooling system rework, like replace All hoses/radiator & engine/heater, thermostat & radiator cap. I did this on the Taurus & had run its OEM hoses 10 years before changing All of them & when I did, the radiator hoses inner liner had just begun to show micro-cracking inside when squeezed, so I had pushed their use about as far as I should have.

More thoughts for consideration, let us know how it goes.

 

Thanks pawpaw, $ is supper tight right now. Just need to get vehicle in decent working order to go out looking for work.
Read Walmart's bottle water labels and all their water comes from Dallas, Housten, and Henderson Public Water Works, even Ozark Label? Ticked me off. Neighbor has an Osmosis system and said I can use her water. My Central AC has been out of order for over a year.
U should see the posted comments I left for some you tube folks draining coolant onto the ground.
Got the 100% All Makes Prestone but didn't find any of their Flush Product. My coolant is ugly because truck has been sitting for about 2 years except to go to grocery store, 58,000 miles on it. Once I'm working I will re-outfit the baby like new again. Love how u use your AC water.

 

Well drained the radiator and bottle reservoir today. Radiator drain bolt has a little spout at the bottom, so when u loosen it antifreeze just drains from there, don't have to remove nut, no splashing antifreeze.
Had to use a turkey baster to drain the darn bottle reservoir. Antifreeze was green and clean so I decided not to use the Prestone Super Flush.
2. Just filled the radiator and bottle with distilled water from my neighbor with the osmosis filter.
3. Ran the Engine with the Heater turned up high for 20 minutes.
4. Engine is cooling now.
5. Have 2 gallons of clear clean rain water i will use to mix the All Make Model Antifreeze to refill radiator and reservoir bottle. Got a lot of rain over the weekend & Rain Water is distilled and I emptied a bucket through a clean white cotton pillow case into two gallons.
Carefully Bottling the old antifreeze is a pita, then driving it to the disposal place, glad I don't have to start checking it for another 100,000 miles
Thanks everyone .... happy trails.

 

Hold on, don't premix the atifreeze yet. Divide your cooing system qt capacity in half, first pour that amount of uncut antifreeze into the radator, because we can't completely drain the block, some water remains in there, so then top off the other half of the cooling system capacity with the rain water, so you end up with the specified 50/50 mix ratio.

I agree, if the old coolant in the block looked ok, & no sludge or corrosion, just rinse & refill with new coolant.

 

Got you pawpaw, haven't mixed the antifreeze yet will do as you recommend. lol I'm going on 3rd rinse and this is without Prestone Super Flush. Only water I have left is my fresh rain water... which will get used up by a 3rd rinse. Guess i will have to use it and make a run to the store. Antifreeze is nasty stuff. Think I'll switch next time around to Wet Water & Distilled water if viable so long as I'm living in hot climate.
1st Rinse came out light green.
2nd Rinse is coming out yellow.

 

Yup, since we don't have a block drain like the mfgrs use to provide, a good bit of old coolant remains in the block & without a back flush through the heater return hose, its kinda hard to get all of the old coolant out, so it won't contaminate the new.

 

pawpaw, Help id inlet & outlet heater hose connections, in pictures I posted in Album B2500 Cooling System, please? Its confusing that although 1 hose clearly runs to the water pump which should be Heater Outlet Hose & the other runs to top of radiator which ought to be Heater Inlet Hose - they all interconnect thru plastic T type like connectors??
I would like to follow what you did:

Explain your back flush thru heater hose & back flush tap water out thru heater core hose?

Not satisfied with my results so far. Just wasting time + good water if I don't clean radiator & heater right. Thank you

 

I disconnected the heater output hose at the firewall connection point, inserted a Prestone flushing "T" in the hose & back flushed the engine block with hot tapwater. The heater output hose is the one that goes to the middle of the engine, not the one coming from the output side of the water pump. I used hot water so that the thermostat would stay open. If you don't want to use hot tap water, remove the thermostat & radiator cap, so you get good back flow, insert the radiator cap flushing kit adapter "L", attach a section of old hose to it, the other end in your catch bucket & back flush the block & radiator using cold water.

If you don't use the cap "L" adapter, it'll take longer to back flush, as coolant will spill out the radiator cap all over the radiator & vehicle & make a mess.

I later also disconnected the Input heater hose at its firewall connection point, attached an old piece of heater hose to it, the other end in my catch bucket & back/reverse flushed the heater core seperately, without the engine running, as reversing the flow through the core is thought to loosen any debris better.

Just remember that our home water system has about 60-80 psi, so don't open the water spigot full blast & pop something in the engine cooling system, which operates at 16-20 psi.

Go slow, think through what your about to do & you'll likely get a good clean flush.

Before adding the uncut Prestone, let the radiator & block drain a well as it can, so you can get the complete amount of uncut Prestone in = to 1/2 the cooling system capacity, before topping off with your distilled water, so you end up with the specified 50/50 mix ratio.

I know I keep harping on this, but we need to completely drain the radiator & get as much out of the block as possible, in order to get the full amount of uncut antifreeze in there.

Because the heater core & hoses are the high point in the cooling system, I also leave the output heater hose loose on the refill & stop filling when it begins to dribble, so that most of the heater core air bubble is expelled before I reconnect the hose.

Then re-connect the hoses, top off the recovery tank & note or mark its coolant level line, face the vehicle with the front end uphill, the steeper the better, with the heater temp control on full hot, idle the engine until it fully warms up & for at least 5 min after the thermostat has opened, so that any trapped air bubbles can migrate to the radiator, which is now the high point in the system.

Shut the engine off & let it fully cool off, leaving the hood up will let it cool faster, then note the recovery tank fill level, if its dropped, the radiator cap is working normally & the system has burped an air bubble & topped itself off. Top off the recovery tank with 50/50 mix coolant to the proper level & enjoy the ride. If you've gotten a lot of air in the system, you might have to do the uphill idle burp cycle more than once.

Let us know how it goes.

 

pawpaw, did u see the B2500 Cooling System Album Pics? The darn 4 port heating valve offsets the position of 2 heating hoses. Is the heater output hose on RHS (passenger side) or LHS(driver side) at the firewall connection point? Sorry with all the junctions on these 2 hoses orientation is confusing and it doesn't seem the same from one truck to another.
Found clarification on the effect of 'Heating Control Valve' on Inlet / Outlet Heater Hose orientation here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...-location.html

99 Ranger 2.5 - No heat-What next??? - The Ranger Station Forums

 

Dang I couldn't tell looking at the pictures, looks like the 4banger plumbing designer was on drugs lol, but the heater input hose will come from the water pump & the heater output hose will return to the top of the engine & thats the hose you what the flushing T in.
On my 94 Taurus 3.8L & 99 4.0L the drivers side firewall hose is the heater output hose going back to the middle top of the engine.

So locate the water pump output connection & follow its hose & water manafold connections to the firewall & that'll be the heater Input hose, so you'll want the T in the other firewall hose. On my Taurus it was easier for me to disconnect the heater output hose at its connection point atop the engine. On the Ranger it was easier to disconnect it at the firewall connection.

 

Nice diagram:
Duae Manus: How To Flush Your Car's Cooling System

I'll figure it out tomorrow.
The heater control valve prevents hot coolant to run into heater core unless the heater is in 'On Position'.

4-port valve makes it so that coolant will always be flowing through the hoses up to the valve, and simply diverted straight to the return hose instead of going through the heater core first.

pawpaw,
Finally I Know which is my the correct heater hose its the Inlet hose that runs from the water pump. So I think I should remove the EGR Valve above the Heater Control Valve and put my flush T there? Is this right?
Do I have to remove my thermostat too, don't have hot water running from garden hose?