As soon as I bought it 6 years ago, I had a mechanic replace water pump, belts, hoses, thermostat. Well it looks like he may have mixed coolant types - my expansion tank was looking nasty.

So - I ordered a new expansion tank and 4 gallons of Ford VC-7-B coolant.

Advice for others reading this - stick with the concentrated coolant rather than the diluted.

I opened the drain screw at the bottom of the radiator and then the drain plug on the block down by the oil filter. As others may know, the *other* drain plug is behind the starter and basically inaccessible. By pulling out both of these, you can drain about 4 of the 7 gallons.

I replaced the expansion tank then put in as much distilled water as it would take - only about 1.5 gallons. I then started the van and let it warm up. As soon as the thermostat opened up, it took the remaining 2.5 gallons. I then did about 1.5 more full drains - putting ~14 gallons of distilled water through the system in total. I then put in 3.5 gallons of coolant and topped it up with as much water as it would take, which was less than 1 gallon. This is why it's best to use concentrate AND to use distilled water rather than the garden hose to flush - because unless you can remove that second block drain plug, your block will end up with ~3 gallons of whatever you used to flush remaining in the block.

It's so nice being able to slide a 5 gallon bucket under the van without lifting it up . (it's got a 3" lift on it)

I picked up this van for $5500 6 years ago.. it's been the best money I've ever spent!

 

 

Just less to deal with. Starting the van and waiting 5 minutes for the thermostat to open worked fine.