Truck has never been flushed. Would you try and back flush through oil cooler or just do a regular flush according to the procedure in the tech folder?

 

most who attempt to back flush don't accomplish anything but a lot of wasted time. As with any flush, you risk clogging the oil cooler... but if you need to flush. Use only distilled water for the last 3-5 flushes as you can't remove all the coolant, only about 2/3 each time you flush. Eventually you will have replaced all the garden hose water with distilled and then the last one, pull the radiator plug and drain the right side block. Fill with 3 gallons of EC-1 rated coolant and be done.

Pull the block drain on drivers side, pull the lower radiator hose and the upper to remove the thermostat. Then leave the t-stat out while flushing, that way you don't have to wait getting the t-stat to open. Just start the truck, idle it 5 minutes, flush it, repeat. You can watch a few videos of even leaving the hose in the degas and revving the truck to blow the water out during the flush.

Good luck... remember, you may clog the oil cooler. If your close to having to replace it.... then use chemicals to flush, then change the oil cooler.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

1. Drain coolant
2. Add 2 cans of VC-9 and top off with distilled water.
3. Drive 20 to 30 miles, preferably at highway speeds.
4. Drain radiator at petcock first, then pull lower hose. Then remove block plug on driver side. Not necesary to do passenger side.
5. Remove t-stat. To do this, remove air cleaner. Then 2 nuts on t-stat housing. Pry press. sensor bracket off of studs. Tight fit but it will move. Remove 2 more nuts and pull t-stat and housing from studs.
6. Remove t-stat and put housing back on. Re-assemble everything and fill with distilled water.
7. Run at 1200 rpm's for 3 to 5 minutes and drain as described in step 4.
8. Repeat 4 to 5 times or until water coming at is as clear as water going in.
9. Install t-stat using new O ring. I used vaseline to hold the O ring in place.
10. After everything is re-assembled fill with a 50/50 mix of Ford premium gold or Zerex GO-5.
11. Start engine and check for leaks. This is a lot easier and quicker than it sounds. If you don't remove t-stat then you have to run truck between each flush till t-stat fully opens and then let cool down to work on it.

Highly recommend installing coolant filter kit while cooling system is empty.

If ECT/EOT differentials were good do not use the chemicals. Only do a fresh water flush as described above

 

Can you use this procedure for a Gold-ELC flush/replacement?

 

why not... just don't mix Gold with ELC.

This isn't that hard... get all the bad coolant out. Rinse until its clean. Leave only distilled water as it doesn't cause rust to form like regular water does and replace with a good coolant. Ford Gold if you prefer or EC-1 rated Extended Life Coolant.

Use a new o-ring on the t-stat fitting and give the truck a new t-stat since its in your hands anyway.

Everybody makes this out to be a hard thing. Just don't use the VC-9 chemical if your not changing the oil cooler and just be ready.... you may cause the oil cooler to clog or your temperature spread to increase even just doing water flushes, normally not an issue. Trucks with high temp spreads or cooling issues, this isn't going to save you.

Here's what should be said... USE EC-1 rated coolant and the Mishimoto t-stat at 200* and you temp spread should be closer together and you'll possibly get better mileage to boot. They claim better heat transfer with EC-1 rated coolant and a lot of guys here have seen that after switching to it.

 

That is my plan, switch to ELC, replace the radiator with an aluminum one, hoses, add Fumoto valves, replace the belt and replace the water pump as a preventive service. I am going to keep the IPR oil cooler and filter on it so any garbage left in the system hits the filter before the cooler. Once I am satisfied with everything I will put an OEM cooler back in so I can run the OEM oil filter again.