Which is the proper way for a diy? Was watching youtube and seen a few ways incl simply pulling petcock on bottom. Looked pretty simple but do I need to drain from block as well?
Thanks

 

Also Motorcraft Gold or Fleetrite ELC red?
thanks again

 

I would pull the block drains to get all of anything old
out of the system along with the bottom radiator hose.
If you use chemicals and do a flush you must do this
to to get as much as you can out.

I am going to use low pressure air to blow out the heater
core and the hoses.


Sean

 

Well, I'm glad I read this.

I have 30,000 miles on my 05. I bought 2 qts of VC-9 and was going to do a flush.

I also just picked up a g 6allon case of Zerex (EC-1) ELC concentrate from NAPA.

Now I guess I'll just do a simple flush and refill.....

 

I am fixing to do a radiator swap and planned on changing the t-stat and flushing system when I do this. Can yall tell me how many gallons of distilled water I'd need for flushing system?

 

I flushed mine like this video. And replaced the cooler at the same time, 2 years and 25k miles ago.


10-11* deltas towing now, no studs or coolant filter. The only thing in the old cooler was the jelly goo from the Ford gold. Truck had 150k miles and guessing it was original coolant.

 

I was thinking 10 gals

 

The cooling system holds 7 gallons, You can get about half of that out on a system drain. Flush it 3 times and you need 11 gallons. I do it 4 times and use 14 gallons.

 

Ok. Thanks

 

Bumping this up to see if there's anything I missed. I'm ordering parts and getting this thing to more a "completed" status.

 

I just picked up my supplies for the flush. Drained at radiator, stuck hose in fill bottle and refilled. Then reopened radiator drain, cracked hose to add water while draining, started truck and ran for about 45 minutes. Drained, added restore and filled with hose and ran for 2 hours. Opened radiator drain and stuck hose back in fill bottle and turned on to replace water as it drained from radiator all while truck still running. Ford parts dept sold me the VC-7-B gold coolant and recommended 2 quarts of coolant additive. Do I need the additive? Evidently the mechanic uses it when refilling with the Ford Gold coolant.


I thought I should add that I have about 127,000 miles on her and this procedure was done about 3 years ago at the dealership. Probably had about 90,000 on it then. Head gaskets were done at about 60,000 miles and coolant was replaced then I'm sure. Coolant temps were only getting to about 170 here in the winter so I thought I would replace the t-stat too. T-Stat was clean as a whistle though when I checked.

 

If the 'stat don't open and you run the RESTORE without taking it on the road for about an hour at FULL operating temp you are NOT doing a real flush. You might have cleaned the radiator tho......

 

At 170, I'd be buying a new T-stat regardless of how it looked.

 

Added to the optional list:

Mishimoto aluminum radiator
Mishimoto 200 degree thermostat
Flex-a-Lite electric fan conversion

 

Thanks guys. Temps very good now. Boy..... I couldn't believe the slim I dumped out of the old coolant filter when I changed it. Looked like a dinosaur sneezed into it.