Hello, I'm running a 1991 E-150 4.9L that's the V6. Guessing it has ether 370,000 or 470,000 on it. I do just enough to keep her running. A few months ago the water pump went out on her and I replaced it. Draining, doing a basic flush of the coolant, and putting all new coolant in. Noticing then three problems with the cooling system. 1) A pitted thermostat housing tends to leak. 2) A leak on the bottom of the radiator were the hose connects. and 3) some red in the fluid.
Yesterday the leak in the radiator final gave way and started to spew a good 4 litters of fluid in a sort time. Thing morning I used quick steal on the crack seeing if i could get her running just to the auto part store and back. But when I drained the fluid to fix the crack the red is worse then ever. So i decided to defiantly get a new radiator and thermostat housing. I found the housing of O'Reilly's for like 20$, i can swing that. The radiator is 155$ new from the store, 95$ used from a junk yard 90 miles away. But I can find a new radiator for 5.0L e150 on ebay for 80$ with free shipping. Can i not just mount the 5.0L radiator slightly different or is that just stupid? Plus I've have put on used auto parts but mainly ones I can tell if there working properly. If the answer is no on the 5.0L radiator should i just buy the new radiator or risk the used? Also not sure if the red is transmission fluid or rust, guessing rust with all the leaks in the thing. So i was going to flush any suggestion on what to flush with? I heard special fluid and i heard just plain water.
Thank you for your time. Any advice besides stop being stupid and cheap, i get that from my father, is greatly appreciated.

 

First off.......the 4.9 is a in-line 6, not a V6.

Second, I would never get a used radiator from a junk yard. There is a reason the vehicle is in the JUNK yard..........Plus at this age, that radiator is more than likely corroded and not much better shape that what your dealing with.

The "red fluid" you write about, could be transmission fluid.
Does this van have an automatic transmission??
There is a cooling loop inside the radiator for cooling the transmission fluid, and this could have ruptured, causing the discoloring.
You really wouldn't find any rust in the radiator, as the OEM is a copper core.

The problem with using the 5.0 radiator is the bottom outlet, it's on the opposite side of the radiator, and that could cause some problems with running the lower hose to the water pump.

If you can wait to order on ebay, have you check out Rockauto.com, or even Amazon auto parts???
I order a lot of parts from Rock, and I've gotten parts over night, or with in a couple of days at the most, depending where there sent from.

Flushing the cooling system should not be needed after you install a new radiator, but, with the problem of the tranny fluid mixed in, it might not be a bad idea, and just some cooling system flush fluid is much better than just water.

Also, with the age of this van, I would replace all the cooling hoses and heater hoses, and install a new thermostat.

 

okay, thanks for the advice and help.

So the 5.0 radiator is out of the question. A quick ebay and google search showed prices not much different then my local advance. I'll have to try rockauto.com in the morning.

After the quick steal dried I did reconnect everything and ran straight water through the system and drained it back out. I drained some into a cleaned clear bottle i had on hand. The red seemed to sink and thicken on the bottom of the bottle. While the top was clear water. Would transmission fluid float on water? I have some tranny fluid I will mix with water to see what it does tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice about the hoses. Wish some one told me that when i replaced the water pump only to find the hoses were gushing fluid. So on a second trip to the store those were done with a thermostat.

You seem to know a good bit more than me. I've read to start using the yellow prestone fluid instead of the generic green. Is there really a difference in the two?

 

I don't know that answer to the tranny fluid floating on top, never looked into that.

I know that oil will float on top of water.

The last coolant flush I did in December I used the Prestone yellow, ran it for a couple of days, and then drained, and flushed with a garden hose, sure clean out the heater core on Cherokee, that had no heat, worked fine after the flush.

I don't know if I know that much..........just been around a long time.........

 

Oil is less dense than water so yes, it floats on top. ATF is oil, thus less dense than water, so yes, it floats on top. Red in coolant is likely ATF. Not much else red in there besides rust and that would stain the water with sediment, not appear as liquid. Can pour some drained coolant (stirred up to keep things in suspension) through a paint stainer or coffee filter to get a better look at sediment content. Bet it's ATF though.

Used radiator is a gamble. Big risk. Antifreeze is what, $12/gal? That cheap radiator ain't gonna be very cheap if you waste much of that, even worse if you end up replacing a head gasket, on the hook of a tow truck or catching a cab, etc.

A good radiator shop can desolder, repair, and reassemble a copper/brass radiator reasonably. Trans coolers can be replaced separately. I recently had the leaking upper neck of mine taken out, cleaned, and resoldered then the whole thing flushed for under $25.

An aftermarket aluminum radiator with plastic tanks is good for 5 years on average.

4.9L takes a unique radiator in this body style. 460 has it's hoses top right, bottom left, as does the 302 and thus the 351. 7.3 and 6.9 are also top right, bottom left but 300 (4.9) is top right, bottom right.