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Today I replaced coolant in the ‘99 F-250 5.4, as the absolute filth in the reservoir caught my eye last week. When I went to buy coolant, didn’t think much about which to get. I just knew I wanted a long life coolant. I’m attaching a pic of what I bought and put into the truck. It claims to be compatible with Ford, so I figured it was fine. Didn’t give it much thought. But now I see all of these threads talking about how my cooling system is gonna take a crap on me if I run orange/dex-cool coolant. There is no mention of dex-cool anywhere on the jug. The coolant that was in the truck was probably original to it. It came out brown/black, so I have no idea what it was. I drained rad and block, flushed with water, ran a chem flush for about 20 miles, replaced t-stat and filled with around 3 1/2 gallons of the new stuff. Is this going to be fine? I’d really hate to pour ~$70 into a recycling tank, but I know, I should’ve done my research.
I would say your ok.
The company has a public liability in stating it is ok for Ford use, if in fact it is not..
Best pay more attention in the future to other issues vs replacements.
It get costly if mistakes cause problems. Not like old times.
Good luck.
Everything seems to be a gimmick or a scam ripoff these days. 50/50 coolant? LOL...costs just as much as the reg shtuff. GREEN coolant is what you should have used.
^ what Clutch said.
I use in our Ford fleet multi vehicle Autozone green concentrate coolant with out problems.
I would suggest doing a full coolant flush using just distilled water.
Never use that 50/50 stuff if you flushed your system with water most of the time when you flush the system theres over 2 gallons of water left in the block and that ruins the 50/50 mixture.
Just FYI!
Well, I drained the block. I understand there are two block plugs, but everyone says the passenger side plug is near impossible to access. I’ve also heard that the drivers side block plug (the one I did pull) is the lowest point in the system, so most all coolant should drain there. I guess we’re gonna stick with what we put in and see what happens. I trust Bluegrass. Thanks guys.
Everything seems to be a gimmick or a scam ripoff these days. 50/50 coolant? LOL...costs just as much as the reg shtuff. GREEN coolant is what you should have used.
Actually it costs a lot more. I pay $12 for a gallon of straight AF and they want $10 for 50/50 which is the equivalent of paying $20 for a gallon of straight AF.
most "old type antifreeze" is green.... most "new extended life" antifreeze is yellow (2000- 2010 era "approx.").... the real new stuff is "Dexcool" and MOST of that is orange... you can NOT mix the Dexcool ORANGE with the yellow or green.... If you do a COMPLETE FLUSH then you can reinstall what ever you want, but best to stay with original stuff. ............ your 99 "might" have come with the green.. the yellow EXTENDED LIFE is a good upgrade. It lasts 5 years......... The bottle you show is very misleading.. It says OAT and it says ORANGE which makes you think it is DEXCOOL... But they didn't put the DEXCOOL label on the bottle.. SHAME ON THEM... BAD advertising say it goes it a "FORD OR GM".... what year ? what motor?.... BAD INFO on their part.
I believe the bottle is DEXCOOL... it was ORANGE and it was OAT... YOU did a complete flush, so you should be OK, but not a good idea to have DEXCOOL in a 20 year old truck... YOU know it.. nobody else knows whats in it...
YEs, I would also recommend a COMPLETE drain and FLUSH... Pick a warm day and after the flush, fill with water and drive 10 miles to make sure the thermostat is open and EVERYTHING is mixed... then flush again and add the YELLOW EXTENDED LIFE.
Alright, I drained everything out and flushed water thru with block plug removed. Lot of nasty stuff came out, but coolant itself looked alright. Then, I filled the system with just water (directions on my flush chemical said to fill with only water, drain, then add chemical + water). The coolant temp was coming up to 212, and that made me nervous. Dash gauge came up to normal temp range, cold air coming out of vents with heat on full blast. So I kinda gave up on that idea, drained everything again hoping it would pull any air out with it. Added the chemical and tried to add water, but it didn’t take much in at all. Started engine, didn’t take in any more water. Having a buddy turn heat on and off seemed to make a lot of air come out into the degas tank, but it didn’t take in any more water. Heat is still cold, been squeezing upper hose, no air coming out, not taking in water, coolant temp still climbing to 212. What do I need to do? Need to get this truck ready to go in the morning. Planning to run the flush for a few days.
Forget the chemical flush just buy 12-15 gallons of distilled water and reverse flush thru the heater core line, cap the exposed line fill her up till water starts to come out of the coolant bottle clear, once done drain the radiator completely and close the drain valve.
Fill with the concentrated coolant until it reaches the cold fill level on the coolant bottle and your done, you will have a close 50/50 mixture.
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