Quick coolant flush question

[TruckNorris]

Some background:

I bought my 04 in Oct. of last year with about 96k on it and knowing basically nothing about the maintenance history of it. Its at about 101k right now. I installed a Sinister coolant filter at about 98k-ish. When I changed the first coolant filter I expected it to be full of garbage since I had no idea about the status of the liquids. I was surprised to see that when I cut it open, there was absolutely nothing in the filter. Super clean. When I run it on the highway, I don't tow anything so its unloaded, the temp is usually about 188 with the deltas typically being 0-2 degrees, the highest I've ever seen was 5 and very briefly.

My question is, do I need to do a chemical flush (Restore, Restore+/VC-9), or would just a good distilled water flush work since my filters are clean and there's not a big temperature gap?

Thanks,

Boyle

[SCPowerstrokecowgirl]

I got a question when flushing with diststilled water do you have to remove all the water im putting the gold stuff back in? was going to do a few flushes with water

[pappy42]

Truck; you have a choice of two ways to go: 1) "If it ain't broke; don't fix it" or
2) "Fix it untill it's broke".

Cowgirl, the general idea behind the distilled water flush is to add the distilled water, run to operating temp, then drain multiple times. Then after the last distilled water fill, run, and drain; add approximately 3 gallons of concentrated (not 50/50 mix) coolant. It's done this way because there will be distilled water still trapped in your engine from the flush. That trapped distilled water and the concentrated coolant should give you the proper 50/50 mix.

[draboo]

Originally Posted by TruckNorris

Some background:

I bought my 04 in Oct. of last year with about 96k on in and nothing basically nothing about the maintenance history of it. Its at about 101k right now. I installed a Sinister coolant filter at about 98k-ish. When I changed the first coolant filter I expected it to be full of garbage since I had no idea about the status of the liquids. I was surprised to see that when I cut it open, there was absolutely nothing in the filter. Super clean. When I run it on the highway, I don't tow anything so its unloaded, the temp is usually about 188 with the deltas typically being 0-2 degrees, the highest I've ever seen was 5 and very briefly.

My question is, do I need to do a chemical flush (Restore, Restore+/VC-9), or would just a good distilled water flush work since my filters are clean and there's not a big temperature gap?

Thanks,

Boyle

Since you don't know the history, I would use the chemical flush. Then, when you change it again, just use distilled water, or maybe some Cascade.

It looks like someone has done some cooling system upkeep in the past. Does it have the original colored coolant in it?

[JIM_C]

Truck, I wouldn't mess with a good thing. Stick with distilled water.

Cowgirl, disconnecting the lower coolant hose drains about half the volume out of the cooling system. If you do it this way, have a spare hose clamp ready to go back on because the past two times I've done this the clamp craps out.
Why aren't you going with an ELC? I've heard the new Ford gold is silicate-free but I'm not sure. I KNOW the NAPA ELC I put in is silicate-free and that's why I used it.

[TruckNorris]

Pappy, Jim, thanks for the info.

Draboo, it still has the gold coolant in it. I was planning on switching it to an ELC when I did the flush, just need to find one to switch to.