Hey all, I did a search and there are many threads but I wanted some comments on this particular plan to flush.

2004 Screw with 5.4, 178,000 miles. Radiator has never been flushed unfortunately.....obviously way over due. I also have the curse of being rural and working off of well water. My water is pretty clean and has no smell but I still have a filter between the well and the pump and softener installed as well.

knowing that tap\well water is not a first choice, here is my plan,

-Drain system from petcock,
-remove thermostat and reconnect housing temporarily,
-remove upper hose from radiator,
-flush system out with hose in upper radiator opening until all the gunk is out and water is clear coming out the upper hose.
-remove thermo housing and seal block opening with duck tape or something
-remove lower hose at radiator and use a shop vac to suck the remaining well water from the block.
-rinse out the overflow resevoir
-reconnect lower hose, install new stat and reconnect upper hose and close drain.
-refill with 5 gallons of straight distilled water and let the truck run for a bit to circulate and rinse out the well water.
-repeat the above steps to get all the water out again.
-then I should be good the refill with motorcraft gold and distilled water.
DONE.

Does this sound like a reasonable plan to get the tap water out of the system. With the truck being 11 years old and not being able to get to the passenger side block drain plug anyway, I didn't want to mess with them.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for the input.

Jeff

 

That'll work

 

I just did drain and fills x3. If you can drain the thing with the nose of the truck considerably lower than the rear, you'll get significantly more coolant out. Make sure to aim the truck the other way when purging to get all the air out.


Also, while under my truck the other day, I believe to have found the block drain plug. On the drivers side, towards the rear is a casting/freeze plug. Directly next to it is a 6-8mm allen headed plug that looks to go into the water jacket area of the block.

EDIT: photo of the block drain in this thread: http://www.f150online.com/forums/v8-...rain-plug.html

 

do not install new T-Stat until your ready to fill with Gold...

 

Thanks for the confirmation guys, i appreciate the input. Tackling on Sat afternoon I think.

 

Why not install a "T" with a garden hose attachment in the heater hose send or return line? Then open the pedcock, connect a garden hose, turn it on low, and flush?

 

that would work also