So I need some advice on what to do and how urgent this is. A little background:

2010 F350 6.4l 112,000 miles

This is my first diesel. I actually never owned a vehicle I gave a damn about so I just did the required maintenance and didn't think much of it. I love this truck so I started reading up on it to see what I can do with it and how to properly maintain it. I got the truck the past October completely stock with 111,000 miles on it and in November I took it to Jiffy Lube for an oil change and a coolant flush (which was just a drain and fill). For about a week after the oil change I was blowing out massive amounts of white smoke (but that's off topic).

Then I started reading more and more. I got a 4" turbo back straight pipe, did an EGR delete, H&S mini maxx, sinister diesel coolant filtration, and a K&N cold air intake.

I did all the work on it from December 26-29. I ended up buying some regular 50/50 coolant at autozone. After the EGR delete I replaced all the coolant that ended up spilling in the driveway and all over me with the autozone coolant. I thought nothing of it.

2 days ago I noticed a small coolant leak from the bottom of my upper radiator hose. After more and more reading on this site I realized (today) that I have the old style single o-ring upper radiator hose. It's a very minor leak. It disappeared completely yesterday. It came back today after I opened her up on the highway.

I did more reading about this subject and came across many threads that talked about the type of coolant to use and the dangers of mixing different types. At this point I am worried that I made a huge mistake. One of them is letting Jiffy Lube touch my truck and another one is this coolant issue.

Now here is my dilemma. I am going to wake up to -2 degrees F tomorrow. It's supposed to be frigid temperatures here in New England for quite a few days. I have no garage to work in. I know, without a doubt, I need to do a proper coolant flush asap. I also know that I need to change that upper radiator hose to the double o-ring style. I am so burnt out from reading over forums and searching that I am hoping some of you can point me in the right direction, or at least put my mind at ease.

The advice I need is exactly how urgent is this? Do I need to brave the cold weather tomorrow and get this done? Can it wait? How long can it wait for? While I am waiting I will obviously have to top off the coolant - do I continue to use what I have been or use something different (a 3rd type)?

Thanks in advance, Joe

 

How much do you need to drive the truck?

If you can drive something else then do that until you can get the truck to a proper shop to do a thorough flush and fill with the correct coolant.

If you have to drive it, then top it with whatever you put in it and go but watch it closely for any catastrophic failure.

Wrong/mixed coolant won't make it instantly self destruct, just won't protect the cooling system properly.

 

Moved to the 6.4 forum.


You need to do more than coolant.


You need to get in there and replace the oil filter too. I guareentee they used a knock off which does not fit right. You are slowly starving the motor of oil.


If you had them do fuel filters then the same time. Are you sure they used CJ4 diesel Motor oil?


change the upper hose, while that is happening dump the coolant and fill with distilled and run it for a couple of hours and dump it again. More distilled and run it again till clear.


Then fill with the proper stuff. Napa sells the equivalent with the ford spec on the bottle.