my buddy just bought a '06 six liter w/56k miles and came over to show it to me...
when he popped his hood the first thing i looked at was his degas bottle (no sign of puking) but it was full with green coolant. i thought our engines were only to use the gold coolant right? how big of a deal is this?

 

I'm curious to hear the answer to this one. I do know I eliminated the dexcool from my gasser chevy with no problems.

 

I would tell him to be on the safe side and flush it and put Motorcraft Gold in it.

 

Per Ford, if you put green coolant in it, other than flushing the system several times, the tell us to treat it like green coolant but you must add the additive that was added to the 7.3 motor to adjust for cavitation.

 

Good post! Ford says NOT to mix the two. If you choose to use the green, you MUST FLUSH THE SYSTEM THOROUGHLY and add the Ford coolant additives and, as a result, the service life will be WAY less than with the Motorcraft Gold. Also, you should use the test strips fairly frequently to ensure the additives are still active.

It is just not worth it ..... use the Motorcraft Gold. Most folks I know will eventually quit checking w/ the strips and consequently quit adding the additives. This can put the engine components at risk due to cavitation, etc. Mixing two different types of coolant WILL cause silicates to percipitate out.

 

Do not use green coolant.... have never seen anything from Ford stating to use this stuff (Ford Premium Gold only). Not just any gold... either use the Ford stuff or a brand that states the Ford equivalant spec number.

Personally, the Ford Gold coolant is great stuff.

Here is what I would do.

1) Buy 15 gallons of distilled water at grocery store and 4 gallons of Ford Premium Gold coolant at dealership.

2) Drive truck until temp guage is warm.

3) Loosen and drop lower rad. hose and drain.

4) Re-connect hose and refill with enough distilled water to bring to MIN mark on degas bottle.

5) Repeat steps #2 - #4 about 4 or 5 times (depends on how much distilled water you have).

6) You now have a 100% flushed with distilled water cooling system. If you see any hint of green coolant or tint to the water... repeat the flushing procedure above until the water is crystal clear!!!

7) Drop lower rad. hose one last time (drain).

8) Read owners manual and find total capacity of system and divide by 2 (this is the amount of coolant to add) - about 3-1/2 gallons if I remember correctly.

9) Pout the coolant straight into degas bottle and add the amount of coolant that is 50% of your total system capacity.

10) When down or close to, start truck up and turn heater on. Allow for bubbles to excape and either add the balance of your coolant (no more than what you calculated) or top off with more distilled water.

11) You now a 100% flushed system and have a perfect 50/50 mixture of coolant and distilled water.

Enjoy... now you can drink a beer!!!!

 

Not that I am not **** enough to flush my system with distilled water if told to do so. But why are people worried about the small amount of hose water that would be left the old fashioned way?

 

I can't remember the technical answer to your question but the minerals in hose water do something to the cooling system. I can get a gallon of distilled water at Bi-Lo in the rough part of town for .89 cents.

 

Hose water will have chemicals in it.. such as Chlorine and such... and there is hard water deposits such as calsium and other stuff. Distiled water has had all the minerals taken out and therefore is the purest water you can use in your cooling system.

By flushing your system with "tap/hose water" your system will be 50% tap water and not just a little bit when done.

The manual states to flush and refill after 100,000 miles due to the factory using distilled water... and your manual states to do it every 50,000 miles after that since all/most dealerships use tap water... and the minerals in tap water a not bad... but not good either for one's motor.

Distilled water is cheap enough so I use it.

Good luck,