I just bought 3 gallons of peak full strength and 3 gals of distilled water. Is the peaks gonna work with my truck? (04 f150 5.4l) it was same price as prestone but hell of lot cheaper than amsoil.

 

It will work fine.

 

thanks. I looked on the Peak website, I should be good. Any tips? first time

 

pull the lower radiator hose loose and have a big drain bucket ready

 

i put a hose on the radiator pet**** and drain it that way. then i would pull the plug on the motor on the driverside. make sure you have a large pan on the bottom to catch most of the antifreeze.

 

Ive read somewhere you can run water through upper radiator inlet after that pull off thermostat fill system with water and run for 15 minutes or so. let cool and drain again. afterwards fill with proper 50/50. Is that right?

 

Sometimes, bad things happen when you attempt to open your radiator's drain **** or pull the lower hose - especially as the radiator ages. If you are risk adverse, you can also consider dropping a small hose in the radiator and just syphoning the coolant into a bucket.

Also, if you run with plain water to flush, you may have quite a bit of water left in the system. After draining, I would add more antifreeze than water and test with a hydrometer. If you check your system's cooling capacity in your owner's manual, you can calculate how much antifreeze you need.

p.s. Sorry for the "****" after the word "drain," the site's profanity checker won't allow the name of the radiator drain to appear in a post. I do appreciate the site attempting to keep the posts clean though!

 

...I didn't know that Peak made the proper coolant for our trucks? As far as I know, only Motorcraft and Zerex (Valvoline) make the Gold formula for Ford/Chrysler.

 

And no, you can't flush it with water and then add a 50/50 mix. It will be too lean.

There will be water remaining in the engine, heater core, and some hoses. You need to take your coolant capacity, and pour half that amount of full-strength coolant into your system. Then top off with water. Make sense?

 

Gold is only required for extended drain - standard coolant is fine for "normal" change intervals. I've got the green stuff in mine. All you need to do to switch from gold to green is completely flush it out, you can't mix the 2.

 

I dont plan on removing any freeze plugs. Not ready for that headache if one were to strip.
I believe the capacity is 5.1 gallons. so Im thinking after complete flush adding 2 3/4peak(full strength) and rest distilled water. Do you have to run engine with fill cap off to allow air to escape system and fluid to enter block/heater etc.? or is there an easier way?

 

A way I found to get most air bubbles out Is to squeeze the upper radiator hose and pump the coolant threw the system.

 

I agree with str8t six- the squeezing of the upper radiator hose has worked for me as well to get the air out of the system.
You also may want to get one of those little anti-freeze testers to make sure your anti-freeze mixture is proportioned correctly.

 

thanks for all the knowledge guys.

 

changed it out this weekend. I should of taken pics for the forum. It was real simple though.