I recently changed my coolant with 50/50 Zerox from Autozone. I asked about adding FW-15 and they said it is not necessary. However, the dealer says it is. Who is right and what is the purpose of the additive

 

what kind of truck do you have?

 

lol fw-15, its fw-16 and its not even that anymore, i think its vc-8, but if you run green coolant in a 7.3 then you need it, if you run gold then you dont

 

And further more if your truck has always run green, dont change over to the gold, stick with the green and additive.

 

Why ???????

 

I added napacool to mine yesterday and it was red.

 

I think there are a couple of reasons that come to mind. The extended life is more expensive than regular green, plus green can be found almost anywhere if you are in a bind. I dont think the extended life coolant was recommended for the 97 7.3 and I dont know why. I may be wrong on this.

 

Fords additive is blue.

 

green and gold are intermixable in a bind, nothing bad comes from it

 

That is good to know. I was under the impression that the two did not mix.

 

orange does not mix with anything, it will gel if mixed with green or gold within minutes if not flushed, you have to replace EVERYTHING

 

Nice tip to keep in the "vault". No orange.

 

orange was only used by ford in......mercury cougars and i think t-birds....cant remember but it was only 1 or 2 cars and only for a short time

 

get a set of fleetgaurd test strips to test the coolant additive, if you dont have any charge just buy some additive and throw it in, I've been using baldwin additive, dont know if its right or wrong but thats for preventing cavitation.

I dont know anything about Zerox antifreeze but thier is green anti-freeze on the market that is already pre-charged with the additive (diesil anti-freeze). The guy might be right for not having to add the additive but overtime from my expearence I've had to add a little to keep the charge up.

I also avoid at all cost in mixing antifreezes, if its green, add green. Thats my opionion.

Also, long time ago I read the way to go is use CAT extended service antifreeze, dont know if that still holds true though.