I am wanting to do a coolant change on my 2001 v10. The coolant in it is awful dark but tests ok. I want fresh in it. Now when you syphon some out and put it in a jar it looks to have a goldish color but I thought 01 used green coolant. My question is I have 4 gallons of Ford Gold that I was going to put in my 05 6.0 but am going to run the cat elc instead in it. Can I use the gold in the v10 as long as it's a 50/50 mix. Figures to be about 3.5 gallons of coolant with equal part water if I figure right. Also does it take as an extensive flush as the 6.0 or can I just drain at hoses and plugs and run a hose in it til its clear then just refill. I know they recommend the chemicals to clean out on the 6.0 due to the oil and egr coolers. Thanks.

 

The V10 is supposed to take the Gold, I know that for sure. Not sure about the capacity. I'm wanting to do a flush in mine also.

Let me know how much it takes.

 

I am thinking about doing a change also, but does it really matter what kind you use ? I got some from a garage sale that should do the job (can't beat 50 cents a gallon) also if I drained what I could out (take off bottom hose?) about how much would it take to be the desired?, amount 50%?

 

I read somewhere that it was pretty damn important to use the Gold, could be just Ford/Motorcraft propaganda, who knows.

 

I was going to remove the 2 block drain plugs, thermostat and upper hose and flush til clear but didn't know if I needed to run something like restore in it first. Doing a flush on a 6.0 diesel you have to flush numerous times, just wasn't sure how thorough it needed to be on a gasser. I know on my 6.0 you can see through my coolant in the coolant tank but it's pretty shallow, on the v10 its real dark but the tank itself is alot bigger. Its not dark when syphoned out and the consistency is good but since its new to me I wanted to start off fresh. Gonna do an oil change, trans fluid looks good and doesn't smell burnt so im not going to address it just yet.

 

So what's the skinny on it?

 

Bumpety bump, I need an answer.

 

I would use the G-05 extended life coolant. It is not compatible with green so you definitely need to do a full flush. Get it up to operating temperature and turn the heat on front and rear. I then shut it down, drain the radiator and fill with distilled water. Start it up and then drain it again and refill with distilled water. It took me 3 drain/refill cycles to get mine completely clear. Once it was clear, I removed the hoses I could get to so I could drain as much as possible. The complete capacity is 30 quarts or 7.5 gallons. I used 3.5 gallons of G-05 to refill the system and then started the truck with the cap off to bleed the air out. Once you have heat on both front and rear systems you are basically done. Top off with coolant or distilled water to the max line and install your new overflow pressure cap with the new style. After you drive a few times, check the level again as it can still burp some air and lower the fluid down - top off as necessary.

So -I bought 4 gallons of G-05 coolant, 12 gallons of distilled water and a new overflow cap to do my job. Some don't want to use distilled water but it's recommended to keep the minerals and deposits out. It's only a $1.00 a gallon at my grocery store so it was cheap as well.

 

So what is the deal with the gold stuff? How do you get to the block drains to remove them? I was under the impression that they were almost inaccessable? I would think any modern antifreeze that is compatible with aluminum and cast iron and they all are now days would do the trick.

The stuff that is in there now is a honey color and I am sure it is the factory stuff. I am sure it need changing.

Perry

 

You don't need to get to any drains other than the hoses and the petcock in the radiator. Any antifreeze compatible with aluminum is fine with the metal itself - but not with other types of antifreeze. If you currently have the gold color coolant than you can get away with just draining out the current using the radiator petcock and then adding G-05 or Ford Premium but I would still recommend the flush. It's easy enough and cheap insurance.

 

Yeah but if you flush it you re going to leave tap water in there and in this part of the country is it full of lime which is going to leave deposits and under the deposits it is going to start to corrode not to mention stopping up the radiator. I am sure the gold stuff is $20-30 a gallon since the cheap green is $10 a gallon.

Perry

 

From what I have read the green stuff isn't even made anymore (pets were drinking it) but will work fine even though it doesn't have the life span of the Gold but is has to be all green or all gold.. Everyone including the manufacturer said if you mix the two it will cause a reaction that will reduce it's life drastically and reduce the anti corrosion qualities significantly also. So it's either all green with a shorter life span or all gold with longer span. I doubt that not getting all the non-distilled water out will a difference. I got 2 gallons of gold from a garage sale for $1 (had to throw that in).

 

Well I will check into the gold.

Perry

 

From what I found I know that the early X's take the old green stuff. I am sure you can use the newer stuff (gold?) but you have to flush out all the old stuff.
I Would drain as much as possible, then flush it with the thermostat removed. Just use regular water.
Then once it's clean enough, do the last flush with distilled water.
Find out what the full capacity is for your years model.
USe half of that amount to fill it with the concentrated coolant (NOT pre-mixed). Then add distilled water until it's full. Do not forget to put the thermostat back, in the correct position. Even better would be a new thermostat.
This way you get the correct mixture of coolant/water.
This way you:
Get as close to a 50/50 mixture as possible
and
Most of the water part is distilled water. Should be good to go.

 

Well someone has put the gold stuff in it. So I can either just dump and fill with the gold or go with the green and do a total flush. One has to wonder if the gold color is degraded green stuff with a little rust or is it good as gold? Since I bought it used, I don't know what color it was when it was last changed.

Perry