ELC HD coolant in old Cooling system?

[jbenoit28]

I've read much on this site about changing out my coolant with the CAT ELC style coolant and I'm gathering the items I need to do a proper flush and fill for my 05 Excursion.

Has anyone run into issues performing the flush and then filling it with the ELC coolant on an older engine? Mine has 120K miles and the oil cooler was replaced about 10K miles ago. Ford Mechanic told me to get that Gold out of my system soon before is plugs up on me. My neighbor is a Diesel mechanic and said I should check and see that the new coolant won't hurt the older coolant system or water pump etc. before I go and do this. Any thoughts on this? Seems that it has been done many times already by several posters. I haven't read much for issues doing this but I haven't checked on the mileage of the trucks who did this.

Joe

[Clay Henry]

Originally Posted by jbenoit28

I've read much on this site about changing out my coolant with the CAT ELC style coolant and I'm gathering the items I need to do a proper flush and fill for my 05 Excursion.

Has anyone run into issues performing the flush and then filling it with the ELC coolant on an older engine? Mine has 120K miles and the oil cooler was replaced about 10K miles ago. Ford Mechanic told me to get that Gold out of my system soon before is plugs up on me. My neighbor is a Diesel mechanic and said I should check and see that the new coolant won't hurt the older coolant system or water pump etc. before I go and do this. Any thoughts on this? Seems that it has been done many times already by several posters. I haven't read much for issues doing this but I haven't checked on the mileage of the trucks who did this.

Joe

It wont hurt the system. Do a proper flush and use distilled water for the rinse and repeat the rinse several times. I didnt use both block drains because one is behind the starter but if you rinse enough times you will get it all out just draining the radiator and using the driver side block drain.
You can only drain 50% of the contents so once you finish the rinse, you will need 4 gal. of the concentrate coolant, not the 50/50 mixed coolant because there will still be 3-4 gal. of water in the system.

[pcris]

Take the starter off and put a fumoto valve in with about 8" of hose. Much quicker drain process and easy to reach valve through wheel well especially on 03-04 with leafs. Just watch out for manifold wrist burns

[Clay Henry]

Originally Posted by pcris

Take the starter off and put a fumoto valve in with about 8" of hose. Much quicker drain process and easy to reach valve through wheel well especially on 03-04 with leafs. Just watch out for manifold wrist burns

Thats not a bad idea but why put a valve on it when likely you will never need it again? Just use the other drain and rinse a few extra times. I used 14 gal. of distilled water to rinse and the last rinse I was satisfied with what drained out...just clear water.

[pcris]

The valve came back off once the flush was complete because as you said, you don't need it anymore. It just makes the flush a bit easier and its not hard to put the valve in.
Did you use restore or plus? Or just water? It took 30 gal of distilled on my father's to get most of the chemical cleaned out.

[Clay Henry]

Originally Posted by pcris

The valve came back off once the flush was complete because as you said, you don't need it anymore. It just makes the flush a bit easier and its not hard to put the valve in.
Did you use restore or plus? Or just water? It took 30 gal of distilled on my father's to get most of the chemical cleaned out.

I used the flush that they recommended down at the CAT dealer. I dont recal what it was.
30 gal.? wow. I stopped at 14 because I could no longer smell the chemical...

[pcris]

Yeah I've heard anywhere from 15-30 gal. Even after 30 the water was still somewhat slimy feeling from a little chemical but with that much water, it should be flushed well enough. Now the fumoto is off and ready to be passed around my family.

[PGreenSVT]

Flush until completely clear with tab water. Use tap water because this could take many, many flushes to really come clean. Then run another 24 gallons of distilled water through it. It takes that many to get it down to about 1% tap water left in the system. Start early as this is an all day job. Make sure you get the engine temp up to 190* with the cleaners in there to be effective and run them for 90 minutes each. Then rinse flush the living bejesus out of it with tap water until it is absolutely clean and clear. Then do your distilled.

[jbenoit28]

Thank you for all of the great responses. Think I will get the fomoto valve as well. Need to find a source for the ELC in the Tampa Bay area.

Joe

Sent from my SPH-D710 using AutoGuide.Com Free App

[acro]

I did mine and am using tap water for most of the rinse. Since it is summer, I am not really concerned with getting it all done in a day.

After the Restore Plus, I actually left the radiator drain open and the plug from the left side of the motor out. Ran the water hose in the tank and started the engine a few times while continuing to run more water in. I could definitely see more water being pushed out of the block drain when the engine was running. I figure that made up for not taking out the other plug behind the starter.

After that, I just filled it up with tap water and installed the cheap coolant filter. Sometime in the next few days I will flush a few times with DI water then add the coolant.