What was the color 11 years ago? I've seen unchanged green go all different colors in that amount of time. What's the history on the truck, bought new by you, someone you knew etc. Maybe a "universal" coolant was added along the way. I don't know why it'd be any color but green honestly until 2002ish. Fully flush the old, change the t-stat and o-ring and fill with green 50/50 mix. Call it a day after that. Also a good idea is to change the hoses if in rough shape or at the very least the crap clamps to better screw type ones.

 

Now that seems reasonable, but that still doesn't answer the question about why the manual says that the truck either came with green or orange, while the Motorcraft sheet said it came with green or yellow.

I have no idea what the color was 11 years ago. Truck was bought brand new by my parents. As I mentioned before, my Dad isn't much of a car guy so he took it to Wal-Mart for oil changes and got the transmission fluid changed once at 50K at a Ford dealership. Other than that, it was pretty much untouched as far as maintenance.

In the last year, among other things, I have: replaced the fuel filter, changed the gear oil (once, before 4.56s...have to do it again), changed the engine oil (twice), change the transmission fluid, changed the power steering fluid, changed the brake fluid, installed the Camburg 6.5 kit and Deavers, replaced the lower ball joints, and removed the sway bar.

For all I know, the coolant could have been green to start out with, but the stuff in the degas bottle now is orange. So I guess I'll just drain it out and refill it with green coolant.

 

Don't use 11-year-old coolant, or instructions. The PDF from the Ford website is their latest recommendation, and it's the last word in "proper" coolant for your truck.

 

If this helps, I just had the dealer do a flush and coolant replacement, and they used GREEN stuff. Regardless of what it came with, you can't go wrong with a complete flush and GREEN coolant. If yours came with yellow/gold/orange and you want to use it again, the bottle better say Motorcraft on it.

 

I have used the orange Dex Cool in the past in my wife's '95 Taurus and my '95 Eddie Bauer. Worst garbage I've ever seen. I guess you could expect GM would use something like that. I was working for a large govt. trans. agency and we had a LOT of Chebby's. That stuff ate the radiators out of those things as early as 35k mi. Ate heater cores out too and the heater hose fittings on the intake manifold. Does anyone remember when they bought back a few hundred Saturns and crushed 'em because they were filled with Dex Cool that didn't have the inhibitor in it ? They could have just replaced engines, but they were trying to project a "different kind of car company" Ford SPECIFICALLY told us they did not want the orange coolant used in their vehicles. If I remember, I think it even said that in the owners manual in the front. DON"T use that crap! I'm SURE the ORANGE they're suggesting in that chart ISN'T DEX COOL. Or not the old Dex Cool anyway.

 

If I wanted to flush my own, how are those plastic tools that Prestone sells that are used for flushing? Worth it or junk?

 

The Prestone flushing tee kits work very well.

 

To give some closure to this, I just called the dealership and they did a VIN search and confirmed that the truck was filled with...GREEN!

They said that since the truck is a '99 and not a '98, I can switch over to yellow, but only if ALL the old crap is flushed out. So I'm just gonna go with green. Thanks again everyone.

 

Very very true. Ive seen it eat through gaskets, aluminum intakes, heads, blocks etc. Its HORRIBLE. Stay away as far as you can. Either go with the green stuff (if it is older) or go with ford gold. I put gold in my truck. Dexcool is a major part of GMs problems.

 

Nobody was doubting that

 

Maybe I just got really lucky. When I swapped in my 5.4 I just filled the thing up while it was running, and didn't have a single issue with air

The only thing on the cooling system I modified was the water passage tube on the rear of the intake manifold. comes out and turns 90 degrees. Anyway the one on my intake was rusty and corroded to the point when I tried to remove the hose that goes to the heater core it was bending this pipe. So i spent about 2 hours removing it from the manifold. I then used a 3/8 NPT tap and threaded it, and threaded in a new pipe. This new piece is straight.

Maybe that helped

Any way no cooling issues, and no problem with air in the system during fill.

 

Truths been told. -

 

It is always suggested to use what your car came with and what is recommended in the owner's manual. The only thing I would add would be Purple Ice or Water Wetter. And don't forget to use distilled water when mixing your coolant.

 

No, Ford revises its recommendations every few years; not only for coolant, but other fluids, too. Check their website, linked in post #4.

 

Every manufacturer is going to tell you to use theirs if they come up with a new one and then you're going to hear Fanatics and ignorant idiots say oh no you can't use that you should use this because Grandpa told me or because I read it was somewhere the fact is that all you have to do is literally make sure it's meeting the standards the industry standards as well as meeting the approved recommendation and as long as you cycle everything out and flush everything out you can use either or don't listen to that hillbilly bul****... To me it's just like Ford Fanatics defending Ford and Chevy Fanatics defending Chevy's you even have people out there defending the colors of their vehicles okay it's the same thing to me...