Is my coolant Green or Yellow....?

[NoRalPh]

Yea, I know... seems like a stupid question

I just got this '02 F350 and I'm changing the fluids BUT, I really am having trouble telling which coolant it has.

It looks kinda brown in the reservoir (unopened)

If I open the reservoir and shine a flashlight down thru it, looks green to me.

If I pull some out with a 1/4in. clear tube it's a light amber/clear.

I want to replace it with the same stuff as is in there (and know about the "gelling" that can happen to a "green" system if you put yellow into it) plus, because I though it was green when I "flash-lighted" it, I already got some of the green additive.

I'm certainly familiar with regular green antifreeze and never had any trouble telling it from the GM Dexicool, but this Yellow Premium stuff is confusing me

[vitalidle]

If your engine was built at the kentucky engine plant then it has the yellow or gold coolant. Check your vin all 2002 F-Series built at the Kentucky truck plant VIN 11th digit "E". Make sure you don't have green in it now though as you can't switch to gold if it has green in it

I believe the cut off is '01. After that it was all yellow. If you use the green coolant you have to put the additive in. If you use they yellow you dont. To make life easy, you can convert all older powerstrokes to yellow.

[NCHornet]

Originally Posted by vitalidle

If your engine was built at the kentucky engine plant then it has the yellow or gold coolant. Check your vin all 2002 F-Series built at the Kentucky truck plant VIN 11th digit "E". Make sure you don't have green in it now though as you can't switch to gold if it has green in it

Who told you that? They lied to you. When all the hype about the Gold came out many of use with 99-2001 PSD owners fell for it and switched to Gold. As long as you get all the green out there is no problem with running the Gold, the same is true whenever changing coolants though. However the Gold is not a very robust coolant and all the hype is just that hype. Do this test for yourself. Take a brand new jug of the Gold Ford coolant and dilute it 50/50 with distilled water and test for nitrites ( cavitation protection) the bare minimum suggested is 1200 ppm with the ideal level being 1800-2000 ppm, the Gold will test out at only 800 ppm, way below min protection. All the hype about it being good for 100K is nothing but BS. It took 2 bottles of NapaKool to get my protection up to par. I am glad I only ran it for a short time before learning about the true ELC coolant, like the Fleetrite ELC. This coolant is truly maintenance free to 300K and if you use the extender at 300K it is good to 600K. This is the coolant used in the OTR trucks. It is approved by Navistar in all engines from midd 99 and up. You won't find it any auto store, look in the phone book for a International dealer, they will have it on the shelf.
I am not saying the Gold coolant is going to destroy your engine, what I am saying is it doesn't protect your engine the way Ford wants you to think it does, don't believe me do the test for yourself. BTW the brown color comes from tablets Ford puts in the coolant that disolve over time. They are suppose to keep corrosion down. I would also add a coolant filter if you are doing a coolant change.
PM me for more info if needed.
NCH

[horsehauler]

hey NCHORNET
I switched mine to fleetguard, which is precharged. it is made for road tractors and i had a former ford mechanic tell me he thought it would okay to use. did i do wrong??? i have 119,000+ on the truck and i am planning adding a filter to the system and use the pre-charged filters..that will be a job for the summer.

[vitalidle]

Originally Posted by NCHornet

Who told you that? They lied to you. When all the hype about the Gold came out many of use with 99-2001 PSD owners fell for it and switched to Gold. As long as you get all the green out there is no problem with running the Gold, the same is true whenever changing coolants though. However the Gold is not a very robust coolant and all the hype is just that hype. Do this test for yourself. Take a brand new jug of the Gold Ford coolant and dilute it 50/50 with distilled water and test for nitrites ( cavitation protection) the bare minimum suggested is 1200 ppm with the ideal level being 1800-2000 ppm, the Gold will test out at only 800 ppm, way below min protection. All the hype about it being good for 100K is nothing but BS. It took 2 bottles of NapaKool to get my protection up to par. I am glad I only ran it for a short time before learning about the true ELC coolant, like the Fleetrite ELC. This coolant is truly maintenance free to 300K and if you use the extender at 300K it is good to 600K. This is the coolant used in the OTR trucks. It is approved by Navistar in all engines from midd 99 and up. You won't find it any auto store, look in the phone book for a International dealer, they will have it on the shelf.
I am not saying the Gold coolant is going to destroy your engine, what I am saying is it doesn't protect your engine the way Ford wants you to think it does, don't believe me do the test for yourself. BTW the brown color comes from tablets Ford puts in the coolant that disolve over time. They are suppose to keep corrosion down. I would also add a coolant filter if you are doing a coolant change.
PM me for more info if needed.
NCH

Not sure which part of my post your refering too? I think your talking about you can't use the gold if you have the green? Well maybe I should have spelled that out differently. It's not a lie, because ford does recommend you not to switch to the gold if you have had the green, because they say you can't flush out all the green, and if there is any green left, and you mix with gold you need to treat the coolant just like the green. I was told that by a Diesel tech on this forum and I happen to trust his information. So I guess maybe we both should explain to the member who asked the question what ford recommends on one hand, and what you have explained is your opinion....then the person can make a decision on which way they would like to proceed. And Im not questioning your opinion because I have read the same thing at the dieselstop myself, but that just isn't what ford recommends. Doesn't mean I wouldn't do it myself, but its factual info

[NoRalPh]

Originally Posted by vitalidle

If your engine was built at the kentucky engine plant then it has the yellow or gold coolant. Check your vin all 2002 F-Series built at the Kentucky truck plant VIN 11th digit "E". Make sure you don't have green in it now though as you can't switch to gold if it has green in it

That's VERY interesting... I DO have an "E" in the vin there so that means it HAD to come with the "Yellow" stuff?

Maybe, at some time in it's history, some boob added green to the system to account for the green tint it now has.... (all the more reason to flush it out now I guess)

The owners manual says it could have either.... now it might have both!!!

Originally Posted by NCHornet

Who told you that? They lied to you. When all the hype about the Gold came out many of use with 99-2001 PSD owners fell for it and switched to Gold. As long as you get all the green out there is no problem with running the Gold, the same is true whenever changing coolants though. However the Gold is not a very robust coolant and all the hype is just that hype. Do this test for yourself. Take a brand new jug of the Gold Ford coolant and dilute it 50/50 with distilled water and test for nitrites ( cavitation protection) the bare minimum suggested is 1200 ppm with the ideal level being 1800-2000 ppm, the Gold will test out at only 800 ppm, way below min protection. All the hype about it being good for 100K is nothing but BS. It took 2 bottles of NapaKool to get my protection up to par. I am glad I only ran it for a short time before learning about the true ELC coolant, like the Fleetrite ELC. This coolant is truly maintenance free to 300K and if you use the extender at 300K it is good to 600K. This is the coolant used in the OTR trucks. It is approved by Navistar in all engines from midd 99 and up. You won't find it any auto store, look in the phone book for a International dealer, they will have it on the shelf.
I am not saying the Gold coolant is going to destroy your engine, what I am saying is it doesn't protect your engine the way Ford wants you to think it does, don't believe me do the test for yourself. BTW the brown color comes from tablets Ford puts in the coolant that disolve over time. They are suppose to keep corrosion down. I would also add a coolant filter if you are doing a coolant change.
PM me for more info if needed.
NCH

So, how could I be sure I got ALL the remains of any green out? Maybe Fords Premium (Yellow/Gold/whatever) isn't as incompatible with the green as the orange (DexiCool etc.) is because I understood that mixing THEM together (in ANY quantity) was a disaster!!!

What does everybody think of that Prestone "Universal" coolant that is supposed to be compatible with either? If I've got some mix in there now, maybe it would be a good solution?

Do I do a flush and use the green I've already got kicking around (and who KNOWS where else I'm ever going to use it) with the additive I just bought....

Or is going to the dealership and plunking down the big-bucks for the genuine FoMoCo stuff the right thing to do?

Thank You ALL Very Much for your opinions....

[NCHornet]

If you want the best protection for your truck use the Fleetrite ELC, Rotella ELC is the same coolant different bottle. Stay away from Univeral coolants. You wwant a coolant that meets the very strict rating of CA1, I believe this is the correct number, if you buy the Fleetrite you won't have to worry about it. It is easy to get all the green out. But it takes some time. Simply drain the rad via the pet****, fill with tap water, drive until hot air comes out of vents with heater on high, stop, drain pet****, fill with tap, do this until nothing but clear water comes out, usually 6-8 times, then on the final dump fill with 5 gal of distilled water, do this four times ( 20 gal of distilled water) on the final dump you should have 99% distilled water in the system, fill with 4 gal of Fleetrite concentrate, top off with distilled water as needed.
Vitalidle,
Thanks for clarifying your statement, there is big difference between saying it can't be done, and you need to get all the green out before you can add the gold, which I have just explained how to do this, it is not impossible. If you believe everything Ford tells you, than you are way more trusting than I am. Their coolant chart doesn't agree with their TSB'S, which don't agree with my owners manual, so if you are over at TDS you probably know Gooch, this guy knows more about coolant than anybody I have ever met, I will believe him and Navistar over anything Ford says. Ford is also the one that created all the hype about the "maintenance Free" Gold coolant that doesn't even come close to meeting the bare minimum protection requirements for our engines. If you are running the Gold buy some fleetrite test strips and check it for yourself. You may also want to pick up two bottles of additive because you're going to need it!! Remember Ford is also telling you that Mercon V is okay to use in your auto trans, but they have never said why it is all of a sudden okay. This goes against everything that has been printed in every PSD owners manual from 99-2003, so if you believe Ford for everything, the question is which one?
BTW. The rumor about MerconV being reformulated is nothing but a myth. Many of us have researched this and there has been so such reformulation done.

To shorten this all up. If your truck had green in it you can put green in it with the additive. If your truck had gold in it you can put gold in it. And if you want you can flush the green and run gold. Thats all there is to it. Unless we've been wrong at Ford?

[vitalidle]

Let me just add my whole point is its not about whether I trust ford or not or if anyone else does, but I do believe they have a reason for saying they don't recommend you to switch coolants. This is pure speculation on my part, but Im sure they do this because there is going to be people out there that don't get all the green out and put the gold in thinking they don't need to treat the coolant and then they can be asking for trouble. I guess my point is both sides should be explained to the individual asking the question so he or she has the info to make his or her decision. I have seen the many heated arguments of gooch about the coolant issue. He makes a very compelling argument, but there is also a reason why ford recommends you don't switch in my opinion and I explained that reason. Anyway good info you provide. I will just say that I did take issue with your "someone lied to you" comment as I don't think its a very productive way to answer questions on the ORG!