Hello everyone. Im new to diesels and working on my truck and Im looking for any advice or tips and tricks. This weekend my friend and I plan on doing a coolant flush, new Mishimoto thermostat housing with high temp thermostat and install a Mishimoto coolant filter.

Truck currently has some unknown green coolant in it and Im going to replace it with Rotella ELC. I plan on doing a couple hose water flushes then follow with about 5 distilled water flushes. I've been reading about putting some Cascade in on first flush to help dissolve any silicate goo that might be in there hanging out. Anyone do this? I might give that a try. Im sure I can manage this part from all the stuff I read about doing flushes.

This is the part I would like any advice on since this looks like a little more work involved than the flush. Doing the thermostat kind of worries me because of the tight area in there to work with the fuel line and the EBP sensor being right there. The current thermostat holds temps around 175-185 under normal driving. I bought the new Mishimoto thermostat housing with the high temp thermostat installed in it when they had their pre sale going on for the housing. I decided to just go with the whole thing because of all the stuff I read about people having issues with the thermostat not fitting the older housing correctly since Im certain I have the original housing from 2004, like everything else that's still original on my truck. I plan on removing the thermostat before doing the flushes and then installing the new housing and thermostat and coolant filter before I add the ELC.

The coolant filter install looks fairly simple to do so I should be ok with that.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
And sorry if I made too long of a post.

 

Do you have the fumoto valves to drain the block? If not, it might take a long while to flush the system. Definitely take out the thermostat for the flush.

A cascade flush is fine if you just want to rid the cooling system of the wrong coolant and some of the crap in it. Just keep flushing and flushing and then finish with a number of distilled water flushes.

Make sure you boil the thermostat to cycle it for proper seating.

 

+2 on the fumoto valves! I wish I had had the time to get them before needing to do my flush. It would have saved a ton of time!

If I remember correctly, you have to unhook a fuel line to get the thermostat out cause it's in the way. Use a zip tie on the fuel line to prevent the nut from sliding down the line and disappearing. It's not fun getting it back, ask me how I know...

 

Since you are changing from the Ford gold coolant to ELC make sure that you flush it out good. I have read that the gold coolant does not play nice with other coolants. I used the procedure shown by Diesel Tech Ron on flushing out the system. I build the tool that was shown and ran the garden hose with the engine block plugs out for about good 5 minutes after the coolant was coming out clear. I bought one of those cheap pumps for a drill and then pump thru about 5 gallons of distilled water to ensure I got rid of all the tap water. I bought a vacuum coolant filling kit to fill the system and that worked really nice. After doing my flush, I wish I would of ordered the fumoto valves, it would of made this job a lot easier.

 

Hi Danner717, here is the procedure I used when flushing my system, worked great and lowered my deltas after changing to Chevron Delo ELC.

 

Thanks for the replies. Not going to have time to get the drain valves by this weekend and this is the only weekend I have to do it. So I will just have to manage without the block drains. The truck currently has green coolant in it, it doesn't have the recommended gold coolant.

 

Pull the lower hose and watch for sludge there. With the tstat out, flushing will go faster, couple hours for the whole job. Move the EBP sensor and back out of the way, I don't think the fuel line needs to move.

Use a new o-ring on the tstat, it may not come in the kit. Make sure the new coolant is EC-1 rated, not just ELC as some of those have cilica at reduced levels, you want cilica free EC-1.
Run the heater during flushes.

There is an additive used in gold that makes it green.

 

ok thanks for the info.

 

Figured id give an update on how things went. Unfortunately it didn't go as planned. Snapped the stud off at the thermostat housing. The nuts that hold the EBP sensor bracket came off easy but the ones holding the housing were on there good. I doubt they were ever taken off by the looks of them. Luckily it didn't break the seal on the housing and its still drivable without any leaking.

Got a late start but the flush went good, just took a little longer since the thermostat was still in but helped some since its stuck open. It was getting late by the end of the flushing and it was dark so I ended up not installing the filter. Ill get that done when the stud is getting fixed and the thermostat put in.

So far so good with the temps. Still hard to tell exactly what the delta is without a good thermostat but the oil and coolant temp seems to be a bit lower since the ELC is in there now and the oil seems to be running cooler than before so hopefully I didn't plug up the cooler. If it does end up clogging up that just gives me an excuse the delete the EGR and do some other goodies.

 

Another update. All done, finally got the stud fixed and thermostat and housing in along with coolant filter, blue Mishimoto radiator hoses and blue riff raff cac boots. Tepms are looking good with delta around 10* or less. The highest it got was around 15* when I was pushing it hard on the highway to see what my temps would go up to.


Thanks again to everyone who took time to reply with info and tips.

 

Ask me how I know as well.......a real PITA fishing that nut back up through the abyss.

Also a real PITA.......I got lucky and was able to work it back and forth while using liberal amounts of pent. oil. Took the straw and bent at a 90* angle to get up in the bottom side of the housing stud bore. Mine was seized on the inside stud.

What really sucked was dropping one of the nuts that holds the EBP bracket....fell down in a BAD spot and was a absolute bear to get back out. I was about to give up and use the old "it will hold fine with one nut" but that would have been too easy

Good to hear you got it done. Mine is holding mid 190's in the -5 degree temps right now. It's a nice feeling to be able to actually back off the cab heat now. And your engine will thank you.

 

Luckily I remembered seeing the zip tie trick in a video I watched. The stud had to have been cross threaded by whoever put it back in last time it was out because it wouldn't budge at all. Soaked it heavily with penetrating oil and welded 3 different nuts on it to try to get it out but they all snapped off every time. Ended up drilling it out and putting a nut and bolt back in instead of a stud.