Should I warm the engine up to open up the thermostat before I drain the coolant? Also, I have a '97 w/37,000 miles, should I also do a flush? I'm assuming it's never been changed before.

 

IMO: No need to warm it up. Yes, you should flush it.

 

Ok, thanks. Also, I picked up some 50/50 premix Final Charge coolant. If I flush, won't that leave some water in the system? Is it enough to worry about reducing the 50/50 premix too much?

 

Btw, it's an F250 PSD if that makes any difference.

 

There will always be a little left in the system, no way to really get around that.

 

If you have the time, take back the 50/50 and get some 100%. Put in half the system capacity at 100% and fill the rest w/water. No more worries about dilution.

 

Don't use the premixes, you are paying for water. Also whatever water is stuck in your system will dilute it and over time the coolant gets weak and you will go below 50% strength so adding 50% premix never really gets you back up to 50%.

Yeah when you drain the coolant, if you only use the drain ****, you will get about half to maybe 2/3rds. If you remove the drain bolts on the sides of the engine(not all have these since sometimes there is a knock sensro there) you will get maybe 3/4s of the water. That leaves several quarts of dirty coolant in the engine.

What I do is back flush and run the engine while doing it. I then close the drains, fill the engine with water and run it around the neighborhood a bit and then drain. If I have time I will often fill with water and drain and fill for several days in a row.

Then on my last drain and fill I add the antifreeze equal to half the capacity and then fill with water, that way you at least know you have the 50% antifreeze part of it. Then I bleed the system and then check coolant level every day for a week or so and top off as needed. BUbbles will work their way out of the system and you will need to top it up. I would top up with antifreeze now and whenever you get low. Water just dilutes what you got in there if you top up later.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

Looks like I'm heading back to the store to return the premix.

Thanks again!!!!

 

Well I got some Motorcraft Gold and some deionized water. My truck had the green stuff in it so I drained the radiator and pulled both block plugs. I then put the plugs back in but kept the radiator valve open and flushed the radiator until it was clear. I then closed the radiator valve and filled it whole system with hose water again and ran the engine for like 10min. I pulled the plugs and opened the valve and allowed all the water to drain. After it drained, I put one gal of straight Gold, followed by 5gal of 50/50. It wasn't enough and I got kinda confused as to what to add next. So I ended up adding a little over 3/4gal of straight Gold. Went for a drive, got kinda worried as I saw the TEMP gauge go up past half way but no heat from the heater??? But as I got closer to home all of a sudden it got real warm in the cab and the TEMP shot down to 1/4. What a relief!!!! I'm assuming it was an air pocket. Got home and topped off the bottle with another 3/4gal of water. I started with 4gal of gold and 4gal of water. I ended up with about 1/8gal gold and 1/4gal water. So now I've got a couple questions.

If I didn't end up flushing enough, is a little green left over going to cause problems with the gold? Is there any other way to determine how close I got to 50/50? If I have to add more after driving the next days, should I add straight gold, water, or 50/50? In other words, is it better to error on the side of being too strong or too weak?

 

It depends on your weather.

If you're in a climate that doesn't see a lot of -20F and lower temps, then make your error towards the water side of the formula.

If you live in Frostbite Falls MN then make your error towards the antifreeze side of the formula.

Not sure of you can mix green and gold, but it sounds like you flushed it out OK.

 

My question is:

What antifreeze are you guys using?
I was gonna do a flush but the Ford
book is not clear to me. They are so busy stating
what not to use, i.e. Not Ford Extended Life Coolant
Not Dex-Cool
Not Alcohol or Methanol antifreeze
Not supplemental additives

Ford states to also have a 50/50 mixture of
Ford Premium Engine Coolant and distilled water
Huh? I gotta buy water for the Beast?
Any help would be better than the book.

 

Redford, I'm in Northern California so I'll be adding straight water if it purges more air. I'll just use the remaining 50/50 for future top offs. Makes sense and thanks.

Texex, I basically went with advise on this forum and Steve Baz tips&tricks. I went with Motorcraft Gold which is Premium and Extended as well. I think I paid more for the Motorcraft Gold but wanted to make sure I didn't have to add any additives like SCA although other products don't need it as well. Somewhere I read that deionized/distilled water was better than just distilled but I think others just used distilled.

One thing I think helped in draining more from the system was I had my truck nose down on my driveway when I flushed. I was expecting to have a couple gallons of water left in the system but ended up adding close to 7.5gals to refill.