I have a 01 psd and I am going to change the coolant this week end. I have the green coolant in it right now and really don't want to go threw the procedure of changing it over to gold coolant. I want to know what brand of green antifreeze is recommended.

THANKS

 

Plain old Zerex 5/100 is the green replacement coolant.

The coolant addative is not called FW-15/FW-16 anymore, now it's called VC-8. You'll need three bottles to bring your SCA level up to snuff.

 

Prestone makes a heavy duty antifreeze that comes precharged with the additive and meets Ford specs. Hard to find. Had local parts store order for me.

 

I just did mine and I switched it over to the gold and after many flushings I'm pleased so far but I do need to drain some out and make my mix a little stiffer but other than that I'm pleased with out come.

refuse2

 

marspec was the antifreeze still green in color.

 

Is the 50/50 pre mix prestone antifreeze ok to use?

 

Yes the Prestone Heavy Duty is green. It comes in a black bottle. It's not premixed with water.

It's a low silicates anti-freeze and I switched to it from regular Prestone because I had and 84 6.9 IDI that needed a water pump and my 95 7.3 also started to leak at around 70,000 miles. Water pumps for these engines are not cheap and getting the fan off is a chore.

Going to google and typing in antifreeze and silicates you come to more than one web site which states that silicates in solution can become abrasive to water pump seals. Some silicate is needed to reduce corrosion of aluminum parts (unless you're running Dexcool which is silicate free but that doesn't mix with the green stuff). To the best of my knowledge the Powerstroke itself has no aluminum parts but the radiator and heater core are probably aluminum.

I drain the radiator every year. Don't bother to drain block but I've never had any problem with rust or scale and radiator still looks new after ten years.

 

Marspec does the prestone heavy duty coolant already have the SCA addditives in it to prevent cavitation.

 

Yes it does. I check it about every 5,000 miles. Seldom have to add much. Get the test strips from Diesel Injection Service. $7.90 for 4 strips including postage. No sense getting more since they go bad after about a year.