07 4.6l rwd

how important is using the yellow ford coolant ?
the Preston’s “use on all cars “
is not okay nip?

 

For a topoff it would be fine, although I’ve never been much fan of the universal coolants... You don’t necessarily have to use MC Gold, you can pick up some G-05 at any jobber or box store. The better way to go IMO.

 

My opinion is the g05 is good, but any of the long life coolants are also probably fine. The key with any of them is replacing every 5 years when the anti corrosion additives are used up.

 

If you're going to go with universal, make sure you do an entire flush. Personally, I've been using G-05 from Zerex. Same as MC Gold, cheap, and keeps the same chemistry.

 

Ok I messed up then..i mixed um... 15k highway miles later, I drained rad and filled up again with prestone universal...
so it’s mostly pristone green ..

I think that might have cause my fan clutch getting loud as hell when driving for an hour straight...

Im gonna switch it over back to yellow
And I got a water pump, thermostat, and fan clutch all new to put in this weekend...
so Im gonna flush it properly, before, I install all the new parts...distilled water, flush chemical.. etc

is that the better way to du it?

i don’t have enough time to get the Motocraft coolant flush chemical..
any recommendations that I can get at Walmart?

 

It didn't do anything to your fan clutch.

 

Yeah, engine coolant doesn't run through the fan at all. Your fan clutch probably went bad.

 

Right?

Odds are OP was doing a coolant flush because that coolant was turning into rust sludge.

Had a coworker fuss with his truck last year. Change water pump, tried to change coolant and got little out of it because...rust sludge clogged up the radiator, too.

 

I spent some time researching same question a while back. My personal takeaway (opinion) after hearing lots of varying opinions/advice was (in order of importance):

- do not mix incompatible products (ie do a flush before/if switching)

- follow the service interval for the product you are using (which may be different than car manual if you changed type/formula)

- you’re probably going to be just fine running a different product/formula IF you do a proper flush before changing and then follow new service interval