GON
$100 Site Donor 2024
Purchased a one owner 2002 F350 V10 two years ago. One owner vehicle, but prior owner appeared to have been very tight with his money when it came to vehicle maintenance. No proactive or preventive maintenance appeared to have happened in the trucks first 150 k miles.
The overflow tank was yellowed and had residual material in it. Decided to replace the tank. Issue is, even OEM replacement tanks appear to be at risk of poor quality and leaking shortly after use. I went with OEM, but a bit worried. I also replaced all the hoses with OEM. Very easy to replace all the hoses, kudos to Ford. Two hoses go to the oil filter for cooling, so had to remove the oil filter to remove those hoses so I also changed the oil.
Could not find Thermocure or any other cleaner locally other than Prestone. Put the Prestone in, two bottles, and followed the procedures. Water came out rust colored. Flushed the cooling system three more times and although the water was less dirty, it was still dirty. Put in another bottle of Prestone cleaner/ flusg. Then three more cooling system flushes, still dirty water coming out.
Did a road trip to many auto parts stores, but all I could find was Prestone and Blue Devil. Prestone is citric acid based, and the Blue Devil did not list their ingredient. I chose not to use a product that does not list the ingredient. Kept driving and found a Napa that sold a Zerex cleaner/ flush. Purchased that, ran the procedure. Zerex cleaner contains ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACE TIC ACID, TETRASODIUM SALT.
After three distilled water flushes post Zerex clean, the radiator drained clear. Put in the Zerex G05, and all is well. Used over 30 gallons of distilled water from Walmart, but at .80 a gallon not a showstopper expense.
The overflow tank was yellowed and had residual material in it. Decided to replace the tank. Issue is, even OEM replacement tanks appear to be at risk of poor quality and leaking shortly after use. I went with OEM, but a bit worried. I also replaced all the hoses with OEM. Very easy to replace all the hoses, kudos to Ford. Two hoses go to the oil filter for cooling, so had to remove the oil filter to remove those hoses so I also changed the oil.
Could not find Thermocure or any other cleaner locally other than Prestone. Put the Prestone in, two bottles, and followed the procedures. Water came out rust colored. Flushed the cooling system three more times and although the water was less dirty, it was still dirty. Put in another bottle of Prestone cleaner/ flusg. Then three more cooling system flushes, still dirty water coming out.
Did a road trip to many auto parts stores, but all I could find was Prestone and Blue Devil. Prestone is citric acid based, and the Blue Devil did not list their ingredient. I chose not to use a product that does not list the ingredient. Kept driving and found a Napa that sold a Zerex cleaner/ flush. Purchased that, ran the procedure. Zerex cleaner contains ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACE TIC ACID, TETRASODIUM SALT.
After three distilled water flushes post Zerex clean, the radiator drained clear. Put in the Zerex G05, and all is well. Used over 30 gallons of distilled water from Walmart, but at .80 a gallon not a showstopper expense.