Yeh thats kinda what I had determined about mixing. Alright then, is there any problem with the green stuff as long as it's changed frequently so you don't allow that garbage to build up, I also want to note that I alway use distilled water when I refill.

 

I've used the green stuff in my '01 all it's life. That's what it had originally from the factory. Your '03 should be just as capable of running the green stuff as mine is.

Matter of fact, in 2003 (2 years) I changed to propylene-glycol based green-stuff. I get it from my brother-in-law's marine wholesale business. I've use the propylene in all my vehicles over the last 17 years. That's two 4.6L's, my 390FE in the highboy, my mother-in-law's 3.8L buick, etc. Everything appears to be spotless inside, still is. Recently had the wife's '97 4.6L intake off, heads' water jacket looked almost perfectly clean, with minimal rust coloring. The propylene stuff I usually use is Unigard, which is basically a middle-of-the-road Marine brand. Changed every two years, it's worked for me. The 390FE had the stuff in it for 6 years straight (sitting in the yard, hardly moving much except getting a Christmas tree each year). The radiator was still spotless inside, the block was clean, etc.

The one experience with "extended life" coolant was my mother-in-law's Buick GM 3.8L. At 3 years old, the stuff was rust colored (and not just orange!). I told her to get it changed at a jiffy-lube, never did it. At 4 years I did it myself, it had turned to sludge. Common GM thing, I know, but it kinda scared me away from leaving ANY liquid in my cooling system for more than 2 years

art k.

 

Great info. Never ceases to amaze me how much good info is available on this site.........sounds like I need to do more frequent checks on a project car in the garage.

 

Thanks for everything guys, I just checked under the hood to make sure something wasn't labeled there that I had missed, there wasn't, so I went to the owners manual which stated that either (gold or green) could be used and to add what ever your F-series came with, alot of help that was!! I changed this a while back but the stuff I changed out only reminded me of real weak anti freeze, kinda like if you were to say have a 75/25 mix water/antifreeze, it wasn't yllow or gold by any means (I take it the gold stuff is more of a gold color). It looked green but it was really pail which is what made me think maybe I should be using somthing other than the green stuff.

JFYI it doesn't look there is any problem and as long as you don't mix OAT coolant with anything you'll be fine. I looked up two tech articles that both had the same ansewer about mixing regular green with gold extended life coolat and both said that all that would happen is you would be effectivly reducing the extended life coolent to normal change interval coolant. Go figure, I get all worked up and in the end, just like my signature states, it just stuff....Relax, lol. I guess I need some of my own advice.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

I hope my Ford dealer knew what thet were doing when they sold me my coolant. It was expensive like $3/qt.

 

SLE -- You got it right. They just do not recommend mixing the green and gold together, but it reduces the gold 150,000 mile change. If you keep the green, then you will have to change it at 60,000 miles. No problem for you...since you change it often anyway.

My '03 uses the Gold...and just had it changed at the dealership. Heck...those fools didn't even fill-up the reservoir tank. I had to purchase a gallon of Gold and did my own 50/50 mix to fill the tank.

biz

 

sle the gold is a very pale yellow color.

 

The basic green coolant that is higher in silicates has been used for many years and there are a lot of engines out there with major mileage on them. The gold stuff may be wonderful, but I don't think that the green is all that bad. The primary objection to the silacates is the wear on the water pump, which is the only moving part within the system. Water pumps typically hold up over 100K with the green stuff.

 

I agree with this. I think it's a marketing ploy, basically.

Anything that doesn't freeze, provides some higher level of heat-density than plain water, and has a reasonable amount of anti-corrosive additives, well, that's good enough for me.

Just change it every 2 years.