What if my coolant has never been changed?

[locoroco]

Hi, I am a recent owner of a 2000 superduty 7.3. I did not get any maintenance info with the truck and the original owner had passed away so i was buying from someone unfamiliar.

I am worried that my coolant has never been changed(truck has 110,000 miles on it).

Before i change the coolant I would like to determine if there is any damage to the engine. Would i be able to get some test strips to see what the coolant quality is? How could i tell if it was changed or not?

My truck has the green coolant in it.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[HOUTX01X]

bump for ya wouldnt mind knowing myself

[bigcountrysg]

Your stressing about coolant. There is a specific gravity test you can do. This test tells you how good your coolant is. Basically letting you know how cold your antifreeze is good before it starts freezing.

Now back when automobiles were first made. They used straight water for coolant. They did not have antifreeze to add to the water.

I would not stress over any damage. But what I would do if you are concerned with it. Is flush the system and refill with new coolant.

[GreenF350]

The factory coolant is green as far as I know. Never had anything else in mine. There is an additive that is supposed to go in it that can be tested for with strips, but I doubt with that mileage there are any problems. Mine had never been changed until almost 140,000 and nothing bad has reared it's head. The only thing I would remotely worry about is if it didn't have the anti cavitation additive in it. Even then you wouldn't know if there were any problems without seeing the cylinder walls.
-Aaron

[bigcountrysg]

210,000 miles on my truck. No additive in the coolant. No probelms with it over heating or causing damage.

I did the water pump around 175,000 miles. It was not damaged from not having the additive. It was wore out.

I never even heard about cavitation til I joined this site. I am a trained diesel mechanic too. In fact the 7 years as a Diesel Mechanic while in the Marines. We never used an additive to prevent Cavitation.

[countryraised]

All wet sleeve deisel's should have the additive, you will only see the damage from no additive on the sleeves themselves. Cavitaion occurs on the sleeve walls, no other parts will show. additive is needed on a regular basis.

[GreenF350]

Yup, what countryraised said. I had never heard of it until I joined this site. Since then I have seen/heard of it in multiple places (Repair manuals, text books, forums, coolant bottles, etc). I just don't think I ever paid any attention before. Many diesel/fleet coolants already have the additive in them. The Motorcraft Gold does not. Regardless, problems from cavitation don't happen in a day. Chances are, you will never even know you have an issue with it until it is too late. I know plenty of people that didn't know about the additive and show no signs of problems and have since started using it. Do I want to chance it instead of buying an $8 bottle of additive....Nope, not this guy. That being said, I highly doubt the OP will have any problems from coolant. Just change/flush it out and press on.
-Aaron

[locoroco]

Thanks everyone. I was just worried about cavitation. I need to do a 1000 k trip in a day or two with no time to change.

So should I just buy some additive from ford and toss it in for the trip?

[GreenF350]

Before you just dump some in, you might try and find some of the strips to test for the additive. Mine doesn't seem to "use" much additive over time, so if it had it put in there at one time, it's probably fine. Hard to say without testing first, I guess it would be a crap shoot.
-Aaron

[chrispaine]

Where do I get this additive and how much do I need to a flush/change?