coolant flush/oil cooler question

[JGI]

so iv gone through the service records on the truck i recently bought. it looks like it's never had a coolent flush or drain/refill. just top off's during the LOF's. its got 99k and i relize i despratly need to do a full fush using restore and vc-9 as described here: http://home.comcast.net/~lyon.family...ush%20v1-0.pdf (minus the reverse flush)

so from what iv read, it looks like a 50/50 chance that the oil cooler will get plugged if i do this. quiet frankly, id rather not get in to pulling and replacing/rebuilding the oil cooler right now. im going to install the coolent filter mod and i was thinking, if i put the filter system on BEFORE i flushed would that help to minimize the chance of the oil cooler failing due to blockage? or is the damage already done, and im essentially 'lighting the fuse' to the bomb when i do the flush? also, i don't have any gauges yet, but im hoping to have a scangauge II in the next few weeks. is this something i shouldn't even get in to until i have a monitoring system in place?

[Donnie1]

I will be watching this as I have the same questions. I have an 07 with 125k miles. Just insalled my Edge Insight. I think right now my temps are good but just like you I need to do a flush but wonder what it will do to the cooler. I have 25 gal of distilled water and my Restore, Restore+ sitting in the garage.

I towed around 9k yesterday with outside temp in the 90's and my EOC was around 205-211 and ECT was 199-206. Trans temp never went over 190.

I still want to do a flush and then in a month or so, the EGR delete and possibly an oil cooler change.

[dazdillenger]

I wouldn't do a flush until after your delta's start to creep up, or you are ready to do a cooler replacement. You do run a substantial risk if you do a flush, so be prepared. Just get a coolant filter and change the coolant at the recommended intervals. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me, but that's my opinion.

[JGI]

Originally Posted by dazdillenger

I wouldn't do a flush until after your delta's start to creep up, or you are ready to do a cooler replacement. You do run a substantial risk if you do a flush, so be prepared. Just get a coolant filter and change the coolant at the recommended intervals. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me, but that's my opinion.

how about just flushing repeatedly with distilled water only, then refilling the system with a ELC CAT-EC1 coolant? then later down the road if i notice issues after my scangauge is in i can address the system with a full restore type flush. i haven't seen any warning signs that something might be going south due to the ford gold coolant, then again iv only had the rig for 2 weeks.... i imagine the sooner i get that crap coolant out of there the better though. i'll be doing an RCD egr delete next weekend, at the same time installing the coolant filter kit from dieselsite.

[dazdillenger]

I wouldn't worry about that-The main concern to me would be breaking loose sludge and clogging the cooler. Removing loose particulates can only help the situation. I'd remove the thermostat, and stick a garden hose in the degas bottle with the drain in the radiator removed until it runs clean, then fill with distilled water, drive, drain, repeat until you remove the majority of the tap water. Then, refill with distilled water and fresh coolant.

[colo_dually]

Installing a coolant filter isn't going to keep the oil cooler from getting clogged, since most coolant filters on the market are a by-pass design.

You should not be making the switch to a silicate-free ELC, until you are ready to do a thorough flush with Restore and VC9. The flush that's going to get all that Ford Gold out of your engine is going to also break up the scaling and sludge and clog your oil cooler. (No amount of back flushing is going to save it).

This is one of those things I think folks try and accomplish without a cooler rebuild, and in the end its going to need to be done anyways. I have a flush done a few months back, my deltas are sitting at 10* daily so its only a matter of time.

[nylyon]

I have had several PM's and e-mails regarding the flush procedure, all of them successful when coupled with the oil cooler flush. Reverse flushing everything is the way to go and YES reverse flushing the oil cooler is working in some cases. Will it work on yours I don't know, if you have a really plugged oil cooler probably not, they will require replacement, but I do believe that if you "break things loose" those are easily removed with a reverse flush of the oil cooler. Even if you do end up replacing your oil cooler, you will have a far better starting point with a cleaner system. And NO, flushing does not equal replace oil cooler.

[PGreenSVT]

Originally Posted by dazdillenger

I wouldn't do a flush until after your delta's start to creep up, or you are ready to do a cooler replacement. You do run a substantial risk if you do a flush, so be prepared. Just get a coolant filter and change the coolant at the recommended intervals. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me, but that's my opinion.

They are already way beyond acceptable change intervals for the coolant.