Aren't the freeze plugs on the side of the block one time use? As soon as you remove it to drain your fluid you'll need to seal it up somehow. This would leave another place for coolant to leak from at some point in the future.

 

I do a lot of work myself on the truck; the radiator flush/fill is one I didn't because of the time and multiple fills to get it all changed out.

The dealer has an exchange machine that can flush and fill it in one shot. I paid for this service for the time saving/convenience. If I remember correctly I want to say it was around $150 for parts/labor.

Just a data point FYI.

 

Best bet is to vacuum fill. It's easy to get air trapped in the heater core, which causes crazy things that can make u chase ghosts (was my experience). Or, put a T online at the core whole its drained so u can purge the air .

 

Yeah but those vacuum tools are like $120. Won't running the engine (driving) for a while burp all the air out?

 

I've done two and have never had any problems. Just turn the heat on and let it idle to truck is hot and add antifreeze as needed. Not saying you can have issues but I've been lucky.

 

Well, I'd put in the T while its empty. That way, u have a way to bleed any air for sure.

The only way I know to tell ya to check is when it's at operating temp, turn the heat on, wide open, temp all the way up and feel the heat coming out the vents.

Then, rev the engine to 3000 rpm +/_ and hold for 30 seconds and feel the heat again. If it gets substantially warmer, then its likely that you got an air bubble. This happened to me after a fill, and even after Ford installed my new engine.

Seems that, given how subtle some of the symptoms may be, chances are that this happens more often than is immediately recognized and may go unnoticed completely.

That's about all I got to offer and installing a T is cheap, easy, and gives u the ability to ensure and have piece of mind (however much value that holds I suppose depends on the beholder) that u purged out the air.

Bleeding it out the expansion chamber is an option although not 100 percent effective and, once ur at that point, installing the t just got more complicated.

Goodnluck!

 

Freeze plugs and drain plugs are two different things.

 

You'll be fine burping the system without a vacuum tool. Though you should try and get it burped and filled to the correct level before doing your normal driving.