It's time to change the green factory installed antifreeze in my '01 V-10 F-250. What is recommended? If I buy the Motorcraft antifreeze I have to dilute it with distilled water to get the 50/50 mix needed, and it is allot more expensive. I noticed Wal Mart has the green Prestone 50/50 mix on sale now. Is this stuff ok in the V-10? It says it is good for all systems and metals. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

 

I don't know for sure about the '01, but I've been running the O'Rielley green stuff with 68 cent a gallon distilled water from Walmart in my '00. Stays clean and green for 36,000 miles at a time...

 

I don't see why any gold-colored antifreeze wouldn't work. Hell I wouldn't even worry about using distilled water. 50/50 mix of Prestone and a garden hose for me...

 

If you can do a real good flush and neutralize then I think you can run just about any of the brands out there...

BUT there is a thought that some of them are NOT cross compatable and can interact with each other causing excellerated corrosion or errosion on some of the aluminum surfaces....

I personally stick with the Motorcraft stuff and argue loudly with my dealer for a BETTER price per gallon of the premixed stuff...I always win.... sorry it has been so long ago now that I can't remember the price I finally got...but it was within penneys of what O'reily or Auto Zone were asking

 

6 years seems like a long time between antifreeze change/flush to me.

 

I agree Iswartz, but the truck only has 52,000 miles on it. Per my owners manual I am just a little overdue.

 

Paul there are some of us that think mileage is only half the answer...

With these aluminum motors we think 100K for a plug change is insane

And for most other services we do a mental judgment in terms of months or years as well as the specified mielage...

anti freeze is probably OK for 5 years but a lot of us think that is pushing it... I prefer new stuff every 36 months

Don't sweat it but I think you are right in changing now

I have often wondered why we don't have a filer system on the stuff

Oh well just thinking out loud

 

I've been changing all my vehicles over to propylene glycol based antifreeze (instead of ethylene glycol) for the past 15 years or so... never an issue with freezing, corrosion nor cooling power.

I use a brand called "Unigard" from the marine industry. The stuff in my V10 now has been there almost 4 years, and it's just starting to look "less green" than it did out of the bottle. It's time - I already have the antifreeze

It's not poisonous, can be dumped on the ground without fear of killing dogs or plants, and a few other things. It's probably still illegal to just dump it on the ground, because of the contaminants from the engine.

It's used as hand sanitizer, a food preservative, and even a sweetener.

But for "regular" antifreeze, any major brand name is good. And always completely flush the system with fresh water. The tap water here on Long Island is so soft that I use it instead of distilled. Again, never an issue...

 

I'd say if your home water heater will last 10 or more years on tap water you can use it in your radiator. My water heater starts popping after a couple of years and is so scaled up after 5 years it has to be replaced. So I use distilled water in my radiator. (Costs about the same as the bottled water at the store.) If you have to use a water softener, I wouldn't use "softened" water either. In that process the "hard" calcium ions are replaced with sodium ions. It has the same scaling tendancies, but the sodium scale is softer, hence the name. If you run a deionizer (DI) or reverse-osmosis (RO) "softener", that water could be used without fear in a cooling system.

 

Short answer: YES, the green Prestone 50/50 mix will work on your '01 V10.


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