Well i may have shot myself in the foot this fall, in September my water pump spun its last revolution and spewed all over the driveway. so i decided now would be the ideal time to change the antifreeze, and in the process of flushing the block, i forgot to put a block heater in. well i put one in last week and now i ran into another problem, is Prestone a good antifreeze to use, since i have already put it in, or do i need the semi truck coolant? any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. i am open to criticisms also

 

As long as its the true green ethylene glycol stuff you're fine. You can't use the light green stuff that says for all makes and models though. You can't use the red semi truck stuff in obs trucks either. Don't know why you can use it is super duty 7.3 but you aren't supposed to in obs trucks. Also don't forget about the SCA additive. I think its still called VC-8 you can get it at a ford dealer. Just ask for diesel coolant additive. You will need a few bottles of it

 

Ah, crap, i think it is the all makes. let me check. Thanks for mentioning, I forgot the additive. I hear that there is maintenance procedures to keep up on the additive, is that extensive or just a yearly thing?

 

I could be wrong but I thought the all makes stuff propolyene glycol so it mixed with dex cool but I've been wrong before lol. The additive should be part of regular maintence you can buy the test strips and I tested at every oil change

 

Hmmm, well it is the all makes coolant, so my options are either add the SCA additive, or go buy new fluid.

 

Either way you will have to put the sca in I just don't know that I would trust a coolant compatible with everything in our trucks. Hopefully someone who knows details will chime in but there has to be something in it making it compatible that isn't recommended for use trucks. You don't want to be pulling the motor due to cavitation to replace the front cover. There's a thread in the sd section just for that. Im curious now too if you can use it

 

I've never heard that about the red Fleetguard coolant?

 

Well im sure you can use it but you may run into problems down the road.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...c-coolant.html

 

Good link. You got me wound up this morning as I'm running red coolant but not ELC coolant. At least it doeasn't say ELC on the bottle.


This is what I'm using....

Fleet Charge® Heavy Duty Antifreeze & Coolant, 1 gal. - 8000177 | Tractor Supply Company


I think I'm ok? I haven't had any problems...

 

Since all these trucks came with green, I'd recommend staying with green. Get the premixed prestone. The 50-50 stuff. DO NOT use tap water or especially well water in it. Mine got a lot of well water in it before I got it and it cost me big replacing the entire cooling system. It will scale everything up in a hurry and you can't flush it out.

You need to get the fleetguard test strips to get the dca additive right. With most brands of that stuff it takes about 3 bottles to get the level right. Since your truck is getting up there in years I'd also recommend a coolant filter. You can get one at Napa that is a universal filter and works great. I don't like how some people plumb them in though. Plumb the line from your head to the in port and the out port going to the heater. When your heater stops working, then your filter is plugged. The way people put them on a bypass just doesn't make sense to me at all.

The crap in your cooling system is what makes water pumps go bad. Not the kind of coolant you use. The kind of coolant you use can have a not so nice effect on your injector cups and head gaskets though. The guy who invented dexcool needs to be tared and feathered. I have never replaced so many cooling system components on cars and trucks than in my years at the chevy dealer. The stuff is junk. If you even think it looks like dexcool then get rid of it. Did you know that GM puts stop leak pellets in their engines at the factory because of that stuff. And also when we do a radiator flush a pack of stop leak pellets comes in the kit we use. I just hate that stuff.

 

The fleet charge seems to be ok as it's not an ELC coolant. At least, thats what I read on Steve Baz's page.

The Pre-99's are in the same boat as us as Ford does not recommend using ELC coolants, but there seems to be a lot of engines running on it without any issues.

I've ran it for 2+ years without any problems.

 

this is a great discussion cuz i am running the prestone coolant and was in a deep thought if i screwed something up, so placing the additive and keeping the balance in check with every oil change will be a lot safer and cheaper than putting new coolant.

 

Is there any hard data/facts out there saying you can't use the red non-extended life coolant? I know our trucks came from the factory with green coolant. I used to run G-05 in it before, but I had a hard time finding it so I switched to fleetcharge.

I have only seen one thread with a guy that had issues (which is posted above). The pre 99 guys seem to be running it without any issues... I guess I don't see the justification not to.

I agree about the coolant filter. I need to get it done.

 

Robin (PaysonPSD) put some in his truck, and shortly after got the pleasure of replacing the injector cups. Apparently the sealant used on the cups on the older engines isn't compatible with the ELC and can cause problems. But there are others (like yourself) who haven't had any problems so who knows...
I'll stick to green with SCA myself.

 

Are all red colored coolants ELC? I'm looking at the jug of fleetcharge and it says nothing about being an ELC.