I had to replace my thermostat yesterday, and in the course of doing so I lost a couple gallons of coolant. So I need to top it off.

The stock/OEM stuff is yellow/orange - NOT green. There's an Autozone near me so I dropped in there to pick up some new stuff. The guy behind the counter pulled up his computer screen for my year of truck (2003) and it didn't indicate a specific coolant type. So I left the store with the jug shown below. Is this the right stuff?

I ask because his computer wasn't very helpful. And the jug says it can be mixed with any kind of coolant. But I've always thought that green and yellow/orange stuff should NEVER be mixed.

I've never had to add additional coolant to mine in the 3+ years I've owned it so this is new to me. The manual in glove box isn't very helpful either.

 

Wow, that was a REALLY big picture. I'll reduce size next time. Sorry about that, mod's.

 

Your truck takes ford gold which you already know they switched to that in 02 I think that being said I flushed mine and put green in I'm not a fan of the gold or the crusty mess it leaves in the bottle though a big part of that. Would have too assume is lack of maintainance but I've look and a ton of trucks that all had gold from the factory and they have all been a mess. Btw fords new coolant is speciality orange which is actually pinkish red and that has replaced gold they didn't call any thing orange till this it's very similar to and compatible with dex cool. If you've never flushed your cooling system this sounds like a good time to start fresh. All that being said I would have to assume that coolant you bought is green and I don't care if it says its compatible with all coolant types of not I wouldn't mix it. I think zerex makes a gold coolant it's g-05 if you just want top it off.

 

You want the Motorcraft Premium Gold or the Zerex G-05 coolant. I wouldn't add any of the universal stuff in, who knows what it is.(coolant isn't one size fits all these days) A gallon of Motorcraft Gold concentrate was $20 at the Ford dealer last time I bought it. Napa usually carries the Zerex.

 

I agree, this is a great time to perform a flush and start with completely new coolant. However, daytime temps here have been below 20 for a few days with nights dipping into single digits. The thought of doing the flush right now is not very appealing. I'm just trying to buy myself some time until temps come up a bit when performing a flush isn't quite so uncomfortable.

Mike, I'm intrigued by what you said about changing over to regular green coolant. This is definitely something I'd be interested in doing. Besides a complete flush, anything else I need to be aware of? Any parts that need to be changed in preparation for green? Exactly what coolant did you go with?

 

You are taking a step backward going to the green coolant. The motorcaft Gold lasts considerably longer and is not as susceptible to dropout. These days prices are close enough to the same for both coolants. You can do what you want but going to green over the Gold really makes little sense.

 

When you say "dropout", are you referring to precipitation of the solids within the coolant?

 

Yeah, primarily the silicates. The Gold coolant is a hybrid oat formula which has much less silicate content than the green stuff so you can get more life out it. Ford switch to an OAT coolant several years ago to try and extend coolant life even longer.(the pink looking stuff)

 

It maybe a step backwards and have less silicate but all the crap I've seen left in degas bottles from gold coolant I don't care I'm not using it again. Like I said before was it from lack of maintaince some maybe but not according to ford as most of them were still between 10-40k miles shy of the 100k service interval there's a lot of trucks out there with nasty cooling systems that came with gold coolant and I've seen a bunch of them. The pink stuff dfk is talking about is the specialty orange coolant that I also referenced in my post that's compatible with dex cool I don't know why the call it orange when it's pink they either need to change the name of the color haha and is not compatable in or trucks. The coolant I used was just the advanced auto brand they say it's rated for 100k I'm I going to leave it in there that long heck no I'll change it at 30k. I did a bunch of tap water flushes then 6 or so distilled water flushes before I added new coolant. The only parts I changed were the degas bottle since it was ruined by the gold coolant and thermostat because it was weak and FYI don't drop a 192° or 195° thermostat in your v10 unless you want it to run 200°-205° empty you need a Motorcraft 185° I've got a part # if you need it. Since its so cold I'd just get the g-05 and top it off till it warms up too then do a flush. The only other coolant I would use would be the cat rated Ec-1 red elc like the 6.0 guys are using its silicate free and compatable according to the fleetrite bottle I was reading a while back. But that maybe overkill for us. And for the record I'm not trying to start a which coolant is better fight I'm just not using gold but everyone can choose for them selves what they want to use.

 

I've serviced many running the Gold coolant, even above the 5 year interval and there was nothing in degas bottle or sediment when flushed. A couple had some scale in the degas bottle which was the result of running the coolant well over 5 years but it was able to be flushed out. The service interval is 5 year or 100k mile whichever comes first. The 6.0l roasted Gold coolant regularly because of their crap EGR system and all the heat it put in it, it was always hard on coolant regardless of type.

 

Crap, I put a 195' thermostat in it cuz that's what I was told was OEM. So maybe I'll be installing a 185' instead here in a few weeks. For now, I think I'll stay with the 195' one. I watch my engine coolant temps regularly with Torque app. And after the thermostat install, I'm running around 192' on average. Granted, I don't know where exactly the temperature sensor is located in relation to the entire cooling system. But, for now, it's blowing good warm air when idling and outside temps are in single digits. So I'm happy for now. A complete coolant flush is coming later in the spring when weather improves, and perhaps I'll go to 185' thermostat at that time.

 

Yea with it being that cold the 195° is probably helping you it only got in the 50°s here (and luckily it does let get to the single digits here but once in a blue moon here) when I had 2 stant 195° and a motorcraft 192° in mine same results with both stants and the motorcraft 200°-202° Empty no ac or anything on the scangauge. Was the thermostat you took out a motorcraft just wondering all the part stores have 195° as stock in there computer for the v10 the 5.4 does come with a 192° though. But now it's right where it should be with the 185° which is what it left the factory with it runs 190°-193° 90% of the time.

 

I didn't save the old one, it went straight into the garbage can. The parts store did tell me they had a 185' thermostat so I'll likely be picking one of those up.

 

My 04' still has the original Tstat in it as I didn't change it, just changed the coolant. I got a new one from Rock Auto which I'll put in this spring. On my Scangauge the coolant temps spike to 196-197 degrees and then drops and settles to 186-190 degrees depending on time of year. The replacement I got from Rock Auto is a 185 degree Motorcraft. I'll have to see what my truck came with from factory, I always figured it was a 195. I've replaced Motorcraft Tstats in modulars that were marked 192 deg before.

 

From what I've been able to figure out all the other modulars in trucks have the 192° except the V10