Im about due for a coolant change/flush. What im wondering is, has anyone here used that small bottle of flush they make? And how is their coolant?

 

You know what, I wouldn't use it on these rads. This might be the reason I went though 2 rads for leaks, seemed too coincidental. Just flush regularly.

 

What should i use to flush it? Just water?

 

Unless the cooling system has been neglected there's no need to flush it. Just do a simple drain/fill. Takes two gallons.

 

I havent changed it in awhile.....And as far as 2 gallons, is it 2 gallons of mix or 2 gallons of antifreeze?

 

Not sure what a while is, you'll have to judge the condition of the coolant. The radiator will drain a total of 2 gallons. The system holds around 3 gallons. So 2/3 of the coolant will be replaced by doing a drain/fill. If you preform a drain/fill and want more piece of mind or if the coolant is still a little off color, simply repeat the drain/fill. It takes 1/2 hour or so for the radiator to fully drain and you may see little bits of crud of in the bottom of the drain pan. If you intend to do your own mix, buy 1 gallon of coolant and 1 gallon of distilled water. Mix together and add slowly. My last few drain/fills I've bought 2 gallons of the 50/50 premix stuff sold everywhere and poured that in. It's convenient and works fine. I preform this service every 30K.

 

The whole system takes a lot more than 3 gallons. It's more like 5 or 6. Your owner's manual should have the cooling system capacity, listed in quarts. You will want to buy half the system's total capacity for a 50/50 mix, which is what's recommended.

Preferred method of home flushing:

If your heater hoses are accessible, get a Prestone flushing tee kit and install/use as per instructions. Flush till nothing but clear water is coming out. Turn off the hose, remove it from the tee, and open the radiator drain. Close the drain when water stops running, leave the cap off the tee. Fill the radiator with the calculated amount of straight coolant, you will see plain water run out of the tee. When all the coolant is in, cap the tee. Then you can run the engine and burp the air, topping off with water as necessary.

If the heater hoses are not accessible, drain the radiator and try to get the block drain plugs open. Replug and fill with water, run for 15 minutes, repeat till clear water is all that's left. With both the radiator and block drained, you can easily get half the system capacity's worth of coolant in there. Without draining the block, you probably can't.

If you don't have accessible heater hoses and you can't get at the block drains, I'd consider having a garage flush it for you with a machine.

If you are going to use Prestone coolant, *ALL* the factory stuff has to be flushed out. Not the same stuff as the factory "long life" coolant.

 

Also be wary on the type of coolant it recommends... If it has the orange coolant, it HAS to be replaced with the orange coolant from Ford.

If it's green, Prestone is fine.

I think they used the orange one for a certain type radiator core... probably for corrosion resistance or something.

 

It's the green type. Thanks

 

Im not really sure what you're talking about, but last time i changed it, i just opened up the drain valve on the radiator and put a running water hose in the res. and ran the truck until all clear water came out....It's an 01 5.4 4x2 if that helps any. Thanks for the info thou.

 

I stand corrected. The cooling system holds 21 quarts or a little over 5 gallons. Doing a drain/fill on the radiator will change 2 out of 5 gallons of coolant. That's adequate if the service is being done every 30K or so. If the system has been neglected you should flush it completely or at least do 2 or 3 drain/fills to remove as much of the old coolant as possible.

 

Manual- Ford has a prominent warning NOT to use ORANGE anti-freeze in Ford products. Ford's long life anti-freeze is GOLD. GM's Dexcool is orange. I have used the orange and I understand why Ford doesn't want it in anything they build. I don't want it in anything I own either.

 

Define neglected? Is 60k miles neglected?

 

No. I didn't service my cooling system until 50K and the drained coolant looked fine to me. The OEM Zerex G-05 coolant is very robust.