You have three options you can run all with some pros/cons.


plain jane regular greed BUT.... you must use the sca addative its cheap enough from ford you'll need 3-4 bottles to add to your system.

pros-cheap and everywhere
cons-you'll need to use the coolant test strips couple times a year and possibly *** sca to it.
*the sca addative keeps the coolant from causing damage to your engine, front cover and more through cavitation.

Ford premium Gold
Pros-Fairly cheap and available at lots but not as easy as green
cons-You STILL have to add SOME sca addatives to it. studies have shown even though it has scas, not enough so grab 1-2 bottles and test it first.

ELC

pros-no sca, superior in almost everyway and not too expensive at all. I used the zerex brand and most parts stores have it. PLUS it allows up to a 10% mix of "other coolants" without harming the composition probably wouldn't do it for fun, but in a pinch. *A friend had his water pump replaced, they drained his red elc and filled with green so he had about a 50/50 green/red mix for couple years with no issue.

cons-not available everywhere but napa, tractor supply, autozone, advanceautoparts, o riley can order it or have it on stock.


I went with zerex brand ELC and bought a few extra concentrate gallons and haven't used barley any since replacing some bulging coolant hoses and coolant overflow bottle etc.

 

Thanks for the info! On MY 6.0, I went to ELC with a proper flush and descaling/acid crap the whole nine yards.

If I had time, I would go through that process on this, but I don't. Thanks again!

 

You don't need to do the complete crazy flush on a 7.3l like the 6.0ls. The 6.0L manufacturing process left a lot of scale in the blocks so people went through multiple oil coolers before they flushed their coolant system thoroughly. This is USUALLY never an issue on the 7.3l the oil cooler has huge cooling tubes for oil/coolant flow. if you clog an oil cooler on a 7.3l you have big issues lol. You can drain and refill you system with water a few times and you will get 99.9% of the stuff out of the 7.3l.

 

Garden hose flush it while you have to have it apart. Dump all your old coolant out and turn the hose loose in the degass bottle and let it run while feeding it water till its clean coming out the bottom hose.

No point not to clean it out while it's all apart. Refill with any parts store or walmart green with some Motorcraft VC-8 per bottle instructions.

Get the mix right for winter too, since it's coming.

Simple stuff. House water is fine. Distilled water flushes are a giant waste of time and money.

 

USE A GARDEN HOSE?

That's like blasphemy! I was always anal about using only DI water in my 6.0.

I mean, If I'm going to flush the system, shouldn't I just dump this in instead:

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/shell-rotella-elc-antifreeze-1-gal

This IS safe for the 7.3, right?

 

That's exactly what I use right now. sorry I got the zerex and rotella confused. Both are great coolants. The rotella is just a couple bucks cheaper too.

 

So, If I just disconnect the lower hose, and keep the degas filled with garden hose water while its running and at operating temp, I will have gotten enough coolant out to refill the radiator with concentrated red ELC?

 

If I were you, pop off the lower radiator hose and let as much drain out as possible, fill with water and drive around, drain and refill with water and drive around again. add 3-4 gallons of concentrate to your truck. you have a 8 gallon system. so you will have 3-4 gallons of water in the truck after you drain and refill 2-3 times. You really want to get as much coolant out of the system before changing.

I would replace the thermostat, thermostat housing, thermostat o ring and get the dual alternator upper radiator hose. The oem for single alt set ups routes the upper hose between the belts. getting the dual alternator upper hose puts hose around belts. that way if you ever change your belt you don't have to drain coolant and remove the upper hose.

 

I use the cheap green coolant from Walmart with the SCA additive, never had an issue with the cooling system, and if you are ever out somewhere and spring a leak you can find the green coolant anywhere, to refill it.

 

I use the cheap green coolant from Walmart with the SCA additive

Thanks. I just did a quick search and confirmed that there IS such a thing as "SCA pre-charged". Never knew that before.

 

I gather this statement from the owner's manual is for gas engines???

Add Motorcraft Premium Engine Coolant (green-colored), VC-4–A (U.S.) or CXC-10 (Canada) or Motorcraft Premium Gold Engine Coolant (yellow-colored), VC-7–A (VC-7–B in Oregon), depending on the type of coolant originally equipped in your vehicle.

I pulled that from the owner's manual, but the diesel supplement says:

Use only a permanent-type coolant that meets Ford Specification ESE-M97B44–A such as Ford Premium Cooling System Fluid E2FZ-19549–AA.

Soooooo, if a fella was to use the wrong coolant, how bad would that be????

 

You don't want to mix the green and gold but it wont cause super major issues. Just drain it out and refill with fresh green and add a couple of sca bottles, or get ford gold premium or red elc coolant. The only issue is if you have a early 1999 12/1998 and older build date on door sticker. The red elc coolant eats the injector cup sealent on the early 1999s and some obs models so most don't recommend early99 and older use ELC. Just ford gold or green with the sca addative.

 

When I type in "premium gold coolant" into Amazon, it brings up Gold Antifreeze VC-7DIL-B.

I'm currently looking at a jug of VC-7DIL-B, and the label on the back says "Do not use this product in systems originally equipped with, nor mix it with, any other type of Motorcraft engine antifreeze/coolant, including those meeting Ford Spec ESE-M97B44-A,..."

The Diesel Supplement for my '02 says "Use only a permanent-type coolant that meets Ford Specification ESE-M97B44–A..."

Help me out... what coolant should be in the truck??? Old Amazon doesn't bring up a coolant with the ESE spec when I search it.

 

When I type in "premium gold coolant" into Amazon, it brings up Gold Antifreeze VC-7DIL-B.

I'm currently looking at a jug of VC-7DIL-B, and the label on the back says "Do not use this product in systems originally equipped with, nor mix it with, any other type of Motorcraft engine antifreeze/coolant, including those meeting Ford Spec ESE-M97B44-A,..."

The Diesel Supplement for my '02 says "Use only a permanent-type coolant that meets Ford Specification ESE-M97B44–A..."

Help me out... what coolant should be in the truck??? Old Amazon doesn't bring up a coolant with the ESE spec when I search it.

here is the zerex brand of g05 coolant for your powerstroke:

https://www.amazon.com/Valvoline-Ze...818943&sr=8-1&keywords=zerex+g05&dpID=51HVbHhcu1L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch


drain and refill your truck a few times with water then on final drain add 3-4 gallons of concentrate and top off after driving a few days.

I promise its the right coolant. Amazon is really hard to find quality stuff.

 

The green coolant looks like slime !

 

After a garden hose flush, it's a good idea to do a few fill N drains with distilled water before filling with the coolant of choice. It's also a good idea to use concentrate since you can never get all the water out.

 

I saw where this briefly touched on E99's so figured it's as good a place as any for my question. The research I did for my e99 had a lot of conflicting information that I found so I went with the old green and sca additive.

I saw a video with two guys in it, one of the guys most people here don't like and the other was an amsoil lube specialist. He was talking about poly organic coolants that can be used on all diesels. Amsoil makes and sells said coolant, is it all bs trying to sell amsoil product or is there something to it? I figure if it was the miracle coolant they claim then I'd see a lot more about it on forums....

 

My opinion on Amsoil is it's just an overpriced scam. Sure Its fine to use but there are other products that are cheaper that do just as good.