Hey folks,

I've looked in the tech folders but came up short. I plan on draining, flushing and replacing the anti-freeze in my '05. Is there a special procedure for this?

Are there block drains?

 

Here is a flush procedure:
<TABLE style="WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=843 border=0 x:str><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 632pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 30829" width=843><TBODY><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17></TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17>1) Buy 4 galons of Ford Premium Gold coolant at dealer</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17>2) Buy 15 gallons of distilled water at local grocery store.</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17>3) Drop lower radiator hose until empty.</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17>4) Reconnect hose and add distilled water to degas bottle until full.</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17>5) Drive truck until temp guage goes to normal and thermostat opens.</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17>6) Repeat steps #3 through #5 no less than 4 or 5 times (depends on distilled water amaount used) - I can't remember?</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17>7) You now have 100% distilled water in you system.</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17>8) Drop lower hose 1 last time, drain and reconnect.</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 25.5pt" height=34><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 25.5pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=34>9) Look in manual for your system capacity and for a 50/50% refill of coolant just add the coolant straight into your degas bottle up to the amount that equals a 50/50% concentration (27.5 quarts plus a pint for the coolant filter).</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=17>10) Start motor and add distilled water to bring system level to the MIN mark on degas bottle.</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 38.25pt" height=51><TD class=xl24 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 632pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; HEIGHT: 38.25pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=843 height=51>11) Drive truck around to open thermostat and let cool 1 or twice to purge any air. May need to add more distilled water... but when done you have flushed your entire system and have a perfect 50/50% concentration of coolant and distilled water!!!!</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

Yep, I agree with this flush procedure.... hey wait....

I wrote that flush procedure way back when... I thought it looked for familiar.

Only way to go... Ford Premium Gold coolant and distilled water... better than any dealer will do for you. Personally, Ford states to do it every 100,000 miles... I do mine every 50,000 to be on the safe side (and I use a coolant filter as well)!!!

Coolant and distilled water is cheap... and so is 2 - 3 hours of my time... so I do it this way every 50,000 miles and never look back.

Good luck...

 

Good to see you posting here again Jeff!. Good posts never die - they just keep coming back. IIRC, this one was from quite a while back - when I was just starting to save good info in my spreadsheets. Now, I usually try to save the link to the original post as well as saving the information. This one, I guess I only saved the information. Thank you for the "original"!

 

do we need to use dca in these systems like we do in the 7.3 ?

 

No - we do not.

 

Thanks for the advice. Did not realize it wasn't due until 100K.

I may wait a bit.

 

i don't mean to sound stupid, but i am a bit confused starting at step 8. when you take the lower hose off for the last time and drain it,is the radiator and block completely empty or is there some distilled water left in the block? if so do you need to add a little more coolant than water when filling to maintain a 50/50 mix and if so how much more coolant?

 

Very easy... and it's just math related...

Step 1) Take total system capacity (I forget the number right now) in quarts as listed in your owners manual for 6.0L PSD motors.

Step 2) Divide the total capacity by 2 (or half if that makes sense).

Step 3) the figure you calculated in step 2 is the amount of coolant you need for a 50/50 mix as recommended by Ford and in your manual.

Step 4) After your last drain (removing lower radiator hose from radiator - reconnect when down).... you now add the amount of coolant you calculated in 2 and step 3.

Step 4) Since you have only distilled water in your motor (yes some stays in the block) you just add the amount of coolant in step 2, 3 and 4.

Step 5) When down adding all of the coolant, you now top off your system with distilled water to bring your coolant up to the proper level on your degas bottle. Your system will purge air so you will need to check and re-check after 1 or 2 heating/cooling cycles to ensure all air is purged.

Step 6) You now a perfect 50/50 mix of coolant and distilled water as you added exactly 1/2 of the total capacity of your cooling system of coolant... and you topped it off with distilled water to maintain the 50/50 ratio and completely fill to the cold level line on your degas bottle.

Make sense?????

 

Yes, that makes perfect sense. Don't think the brain was working to good last night.Thanks.

 

Great write up thanks for the info.

 

Is there any kind of detergent that should be used to clean gunk out if you have oil in it from one of the known trouble causers?


BuckWeet

 

Mine was changed when they replaced the head gaskets @ 35,000 but, Ford says that it's 100,000 mile coolant. Is there a reason for changing it?

 

100,000 Mile Coolant.....
For those of us with less then 100,000 is it also not a requirement to change every 5 years???? My 2003 only has 40 someodd thousand miles but is 5 years old in December. I was assuming I needed to change this winter???

What about all these concerns with casting sand??? Will flushing help such or is the sand already in the wrong spots??? Is there anything to worry about -- preventing from getting any more in the egr coolers - by disturbing it as part of flushing???, etc???

 

might be a good time to change the overflow coolant cap. i have had 2 "fail" and just got a new one from ford for around $10. good piece of mind...