New member needing some good advice

[03KingRanchFX4]

First off, Glad to be a member of this forum! Over the past few weeks I have been doing a TON of reading and research on here, some helping me and some raising even more questions than answers. I'm a college student who works with the family company which is general contracting and construction. My grandad owns an 08 F350 SRW King Ranch however most of the grunt work around our shop is given to me and my 03 F250 King Ranch (210k miles all stock) that was purchased new by the company and which I now own outright. The truck hasn't been abused and hasn't really pulled what I would consider "heavy" loads so I don't think it has taken too much strain on it over the years. The service has been kept up with, albeit not all the time with the proper Motorcraft filters and I'm not even going to try to guess what type of coolant is in it right now! haha

My predicament is this: Working full time and going to class at night, I need a truck I can lean on to be there for me. I have been wanting to service all of the fluids and filters, as well as give the coolant system a good flush or ten with Restore/Distilled water and swap in some CAT ELC with a Coolant filter system. From some of the reading I have been doing I have seen that some people were having their Oil/EGR coolers stopping up with silicate/sand/whatever else during their flushes. I'm trying to avoid having to start replacing things as I then get sucked into the vortex of "While the oil cooler is down I should go ahead and delete the EGR system, since I'm going that far I should go ahead and pull the heads for machining/ARP Studs/Gaskets..." and so on. I am paying for my classes as much as I can out of pocket to keep myself out of debt as much as possible so money is a large factor in this service decision.

What I'm looking for is just some advice from the outside looking in. Am I overthinking/overworrying about this or are my fears legitimate? Any other information that could be provided would be greatly appreciated!

History on the truck is no problems with the EGR sytem/head gaskets/studs/oil cooler/or Injectors. Had the HPOP go down @ 130k but other than that the truck has been really good to us so maybe I got lucky and got a factory freak? haha

[ryan.sampson]

so one of the most important things is a coolant filter... installing the coolant filter and running it for a while before doing a flush will help get some of the junk out before you do a flush and move everything around. granted its only a bypass filter so it doesnt filter all the coolant, but it will still pull a lot. that would be your first step, then doing a flush.

as far as overthinking.. i do the same, so spend the 150 bucks and get a scangauge II that reads the eot and ect so that way you don't worry! i use my livewire to monitor the temps. from my experience i did a flush and egr delete when i bought my truck with 95k on it and pretty sure it'd never been flushed, and i haven't plugged anything up 15k later

and welcome to the org!

[2 stroker]

Get a coolant filter and some gauges i like the Edge CTS but the ScangaugeII will do the job just a little harder to setup need to know the health of the motor and a fuel pressure gauge, pressure under 45lbs at WOT kills injectors.
2 stroker

[03KingRanchFX4]

Yea I have been looking into the Edge, its super sharp. I have been wanting a way to monitor what is going on under the hood but also didn't want a console full of gauges either so that thing looks like my best bet. Also, this "Restore" stuff that everyone uses...once I actually make it to the flush, how much (in a percentage) will this actually help my system if it already has some blockage? Lets say for the sake of argument that the cooler is 50% blocked, am I going to drop down to like 10%, 30%? I've looked for threads on it but came up empty

[2 stroker]

It is all about the health of the motor and if the Ford Gold has ever been changed max life of the coolant is 25-30k with testing, plus the amount of casting sand just never know. If it is plugged the chances of it getting better are slim to none.
2 stroker

[ryan.sampson]

it all depends on how much money and time you want to invest... everything you do should only help. when i got my truck, the first weekend i had it i parked it in the barn, drained the fluid, put a $150 egr full delete, and flushed. with coolant and a few odds and ends i ended up spending $300 and a good weekend. i'd never worked on a diesel before and i had no problems other than forgetting to tighten a coolant hose

if i were you i'd just do that, get whichever gauges you want that read ect and eot, and keep an eye on those temps. sorry if thats repetitive of what i said earlier

[03KingRanchFX4]

I'm really trying to hold off on deleting the EGR system at the moment since I just paid for classes and books for the summer semester only to turn around and drop more cash in August on the fall semester . Plus I've been putting off getting my Banks exhaust put on long enough! haha Thank you guys for your help, I think I am headed in the right direction now.

[ryan.sampson]

i know what thats like.... i'm still in school too, damn truck sucks every penny left over

[03KingRanchFX4]

Sure do! lol Thankfully since I use the truck for company purposes I have my Fuel and Maintenance paid for, aside from things they don't consider needing done like the coolant flush/filter system or EGR Delete or Monitoring tools. They think I'm being paranoid haha But I have always been this way with all my muscle cars I've owned too. :