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Searched around and found lots of temps from 180-200. I drove mine around the other day with torque pro on and it was running 202-203 never budged off these marks. Ambient temp was around 100.
This made me decide it was time to get off the pot and flush.
1) Trucks been sitting for the most part of 2.5 years with about 2k in mileage put on it with most of that being the last 6 months. Looking at the fluid color I'm only assuming I will have to flush it at least 5+ times. Can I use water from the hose in the flushes and once I fill for final time use the destilled water?
2) changing the thermostat out. With the Texas heat should I drop from the 195 OE recommendation down to like a 185?
3) along with checking all rubber hoses is there anything else you recommend looking at?
Disclaimer. I don't mind doing things that need to be done. However, I don't want to do $$$$ worth of work that is not needed. As I am still having an internal debate about selling.
Hey friend, I as well have a 2000 limited v10 out here in Texas. I'm in the middle of flushing and replacing hoses.
I thought I could get away with flushing with only distilled water. Bought 24gal and did several flushes. But as I started running out of water the coolant was not getting much cleaner. And I took out the t-stat and ran the truck for a while each time with heat on full blast.
My Haynes says to flush with a hose so I used that method once I only had about 6gal distilled water left. I took off the upper radiator hose where it connects to the radiator. Put the garden hose straight into the radiator (where you took the hose off) and wait for the water to make its way out the upper radiator hose that you disconnected (it's still connected at the t-stat housing though)
Now I'm still replacing my lower radiator hose. It's a huge PITA with the oil cooler lines. But once I'm done with that I will fill with about 3.5gal concentrated coolant and top off with distilled water. I only get about 3.5-3.75 gal out of each flush anyways.
Oh yeah, in addition to the t stat and hoses I got a new pcv valve to put in there as well.
Each row shows a new flush. Back row is first drain. Closest was the latest drain at that time.
Use the regular OEM thermostat.
Use two bottles of flush additive.
Use distilled water and lots of it.
I'd replace the upper and lower hoses, they are pretty cheap and easy to do.
Hey friend, I as well have a 2000 limited v10 out here in Texas. I'm in the middle of flushing and replacing hoses.
I thought I could get away with flushing with only distilled water. Bought 24gal and did several flushes. But as I started running out of water the coolant was not getting much cleaner. And I took out the t-stat and ran the truck for a while each time with heat on full blast.
My Haynes says to flush with a hose so I used that method once I only had about 6gal distilled water left. I took off the upper radiator hose where it connects to the radiator. Put the garden hose straight into the radiator (where you took the hose off) and wait for the water to make its way out the upper radiator hose that you disconnected (it's still connected at the t-stat housing though)
Now I'm still replacing my lower radiator hose. It's a huge PITA with the oil cooler lines. But once I'm done with that I will fill with about 3.5gal concentrated coolant and top off with distilled water. I only get about 3.5-3.75 gal out of each flush anyways.
Oh yeah, in addition to the t stat and hoses I got a new pcv valve to put in there as well.
Each row shows a new flush. Back row is first drain. Closest was the latest drain at that time.
Mine looks about as bad as yours started. You state you was getting only 3.5-3.75 gallons out of each flush, was you putting in the full 30 quarts (7.5 gallons), or do I have my numbers wrong.
When you pulled the top hose did you have truck running to circulate?
Why not use the hose to flush out the coolant? Then use compressed air (or a leaf blower) to blow most of the hose water out of the engine. Then use the distilled water to flush out the remaining hose water and to fill it up along with the coolant.
At each drain I just drained from the petcock and that only yeilded 3.5gal, so when I started flushing with distilled water I could only add 3.5gal each time.
No I didn't run the engine since I was following the instructions to a T. You have to be careful to get just the right flow of hose water, because it started getting all over the electronics so I had to try to contain it/control the flow. Was too busy doing that to think about running the engine.
Afterwords I which I had because I noticed there was still some old coolant left. I just did two flushes of distilled water after the garden hose. Then did my new hoses, t stat, etc.
Radiator flush done. Not happy with the clarity of the water after the last flush but after using 46 gallons of distilled water, I knew I needed to stop and fill it with coolant.
The thermostat I took out was a 185 went back in with a 195. I got 2 more gallons of distilled water and 2 gallons of concentrated coolant left I threw in the back so I can keep an eye on the level. I'm sure I got air bubbles.
Method I used
1) Radiator flush added drove about 25 miles and let cool.
2) Drained radiator, Removed thermostat, refilled with distilled water
3) Drained and refilled three times
4) This time after I let it run I opened the petcock and let it drain and refilled it while it drained ran 2 gallons through (engine running)
5) Drained again and refilled normal way 6 times
6) Dropped in new thermostat, o-ring, coolant.
7) started truck watch temp gauge (torque pro) made sure thermostat opened.
I did a newer radiator swap, coolant flush from green to gold with distilled only, next time I will use some Ford VC-1. Recommended for aluminum pumps, which our trucks have.
07-26-2017, 10:53 AM
