No, not the toilet...

Getting ready to flush my cooling system.
Will probably drain, fill with a 'flush' chemical, idle, drain again...

Than I want to pull the water pump (it's getting replaced, 151k is far enough) and the coolant crossover pipe and power-back-flush things with the garden hose.

So, the question: Is the crossover pipe gasket reusable?


Thanks,
E

 

Detail me on how you flush it because I'm at 124k with the orignal coolant. It's still adequate in terms of it's performance but I want new on in there. And what coolant will you be using?

 

Going to use Motorcraft gold or equivalent. Whatever meets the spec in the manual.

The plan is to drain it all out, re-fill with a can of some sort of radiator flush solution and the garden hose, run the flush per directions, then pull the thermostat, crossover pipe, hoses, water pump and force-flush everything with the garden hose (including radiator and heater core, both ways, many times until clean)

After that, I'll use reverse osmosis water (that I buy in 5 gallon jugs 'cuz my city water sux) and dump a gallon or two down each cylinder head water jacket to get any garden hose water out, put everything back together with a new pump and thermostat, add 10-point-something quarts of antifreeze, top off with more RO water, and run it.


Do yourself and your truck a favor and put a new pressure cap on your bottle. If you haven't already, yours has failed and doesn't hold pressure any more.

 

If you're gonna remove it, just get new gaskets. All sounds a bit extensive IMO, but it's your truck. I'd simply just recommend a regular flush from the local parts store and use as directed. Then refill with G05 or MC Gold. I'd also let the water pump ride... suprisingly enough, the 3v has a pretty durable water pump. I get that some like having peace of mind though.

 

I've read that using a flush chemical is a bad idea as it can dislodge crap and plug the heater core. However I know Ford uses a MC flush chemical as well. I figured I'd do the "drain, refill, drain, refill" method each time with the heater on full warm and blast and driving it and draining it until the water is clear. But I'd be using distilled instead of tap honestly. My main concern would be making sure there's a correct 50/50 ratio. I guess the best way to know would be to: drain the system for the final time, refill completely with distilled, drain again from the radiator petcock, measure how much came out, and compensate to 5 gallons with the concentrated MC Gold?

The last thing I'd want is for my heater core to be plugged up.

 

Sounds way to overkill for a flush. The coolant crossover is under the intake manifold, so unless it's leaking I would leave that alone. They are not prone to leaking. Water pump failure is also very uncommon on these engines. So unless your pump is making noise I'd save your money for better or additional maintenance tasks. FPDM, fuel filter, vct solenoids to name a few..

I never recommend jiffy lube, unless your doing a coolant flush/exchange. But the way they do it actually works better than the garden hose method.. They suck it under vacuum till the hoses collapse, fill it, and then suck it again, than fill it once more and it's done. You can clearly see how well it worked judging by the scum in their reservoir.
The key to a clean coolant system is to run more distilled water and less coolant, like a 45/55 ratio or even a 35/65 ratio if you know freezing temps are not going to happen. 50/50 is honestly fine too if you change the coolant often enough (every 2-3 years)..
Water wetter is also an additive I run in my coolant for cooler temps.
Distilled water is all you need. RO is overkill.
If you have a dehumidifier at home, use the water it collects, the ppm's (total dissolved solids) of dehumidifier water are between 12-20 or better which is damn close to RO water, but it's free if you are using a dehumidifier.

 

Would I need to even flush mine at 12 years and 124k? I mean mine looks brown and old obviously but could I get away with draining the radiator and filling it with antifreeze? Or would flushing be better?

 

I only use distilled water to flush out the system; tap water has too many dissolved solids & calcium in it. I drain the radiator, then fill it up with distilled water, run it about 10-15 minutes, and repeat this cycle until nothing but clear water drains out. I think add Motorcraft coolant till full. don't forget to clean out the reservoir tank, a baby bottle brush works wonders on cleaning it up. You can only reach about 50% of it due to internal baffling-but its better than not cleaning it. I change mine about every 2yrs;haven't had any issues. I use about 6 gals of distilled water in this process.

 

Did you run it meaning you let it idle for 10-15 minutes? Did you turn your heater on full warm? And did you only fill it with the concentrated motor craft coolant (since we know you only get about half of the amount of water out thru the drain)? Thank you in advance (:

 

Yes.. during the flush turn the heat to full so, the entire system will circulate.. you do not need the blower on.