Well my 05 5.4 is looking a little low on coolant (just below the horizontal seam of the reservoir)...I think my local oil change guys have been topping off with water for a while now...

A complete exchange of the coolant is pretty much out of the question...should I drive 15 miles to my local Ford dealer for VC-7-B anti freeze (owners manual say this one for CA, OR, NM vehicles), or is there an equivalent Zerex, Prestone...or do I just add some Distilled water...

The engine temp gauge is still below the half mark, but on a 500 mile trip earlier this week (250 miles towing a 6 X 13 cargo trailer), it seemed a little closer to half than I remember...the outside temps reached as high as 95... I have to repeat this trip in the next week to pick up the trailer...

As far as I know, the antifreeze has not been changed during any of the repairs (including the replacement head at 80K...

Regards!

 

A 2005 running the original coolant should have the coolant changed IMO. Your antifreeze is 10 years old!

My 2003 has the gold Ford Long Life stuff in it and that is what I replaced it with. The cost was bad at all. I don't like mixing antifreeze, even if the jug tells you it is compatible with other antifreezes. If you have to top up that regular you have a leak that needs to be fixed.

 

Going back through the service records, it looks like they put 2 VC-7-B antifreeze in it when the head was changed at 80,197..2 what? gallons, quarts...who knows...

The truck has no apparent leaks...its probably going through the head gaskets along with the oil...which I can't seem to keep in this engine...

 

I was noticing on other Ford forums...that Zerex G-05 is the same/equivalent to the VC-7-B...

If I have to drive to the nearest dealer, it adds $8 to the price...

 

Do a complete flush and use any name brand standard coolant you want. Repeat every 3 years or 30k.

 

Thanks for the good advice!

Unfortunately, I can't afford to have a full flush done right now...I'm having to live with alot things wrong or broken because of a lack of funds...just limping along...

I picked up a gallon of Zerex G05...I only need about a quart to top off...

I need the rear end rebuilt, as the LS is locked in and the pinion seal is leaking...Its quite noisy... $ 1k ?
My power sliding window cables broke... $200
I need a drivers side catalytic converter... $2300 just for the part

I'm sure I will get a "I told you so" some time in the future...

 

I probably shouldn't speak up, cuz I'm a maintenance ******, but I just did my first flush of the coolant system and recharge, its very easy.

$15 for new antifreeze, and in my case (old truck) an afternoon of flushing utill it ran clear.

With the help this forum has given me, I've done thousands of dollars of easy repairs for a few bucks in parts.

"get er done."

 

I second the great info here! Lots of knowledgeable people here!

My problem is that I don't have some place to just let the system drain...and flush...refuse to watch it run down the storm drain (and highly illegal), and trying to figure out how to properly dispose of many gallons of water is a pain...that is partially why I quit doing my own oil changes years ago...trying to get rid of a body is tough!

The advice and knowledge base here is top notch! I have tackled a few repairs myself because of it!

 

The city owned land fills here have a recycling area in them for used oil, antifreeze, old batteries etc. So these items are not disposed of illegally. Also the government has required that any business that does oil changes must also take and dispose of used oil by anyone that brings it in. They hate doing this and complain about it so I take it to the city landfill when my jugs are full. I am surprised that a state like CA does not have something similar in place.

 

CA definitely has a similar program, but it's a REAL pain bottling up all the water you use to do the flush........

 

Wow, that seems high. Why do you think you need a new CAT?

 

Search out his posts - he's been throwing a P0430, and there are no CARB-approved aftermarket cats for his truck.