Sludgy Coolant, 2001 Ford Windstar

[Peteco]

Getting my in-laws van current on its maintenance. Coolant hadn't been change in a LONG time, as evidence by the state of the coolant. Wondering how far I should go with a flush.

I plan to flush with water until water is clear. Then should I run some coolant flush like Prestone Radiator Flush and Cleaner? I'm worried that might dislodge some sludge or corrosion that is keeping it from leaking.

So is it best to just do the water flush and refill with coolant?

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Do the radiator cleaner flush first, then do a few clear water flushes until it's clear, then fill with G05 coolant

 

[melk]

Recently did my 99 Ford. Drained it, fill with the Prestone stuff + water and drove it about half-hour, then from there just water + idle until its running clean.

 

[Tempest1]

I've used RMI-25 to help clean up a neglected cooling system before. It's not miracle worker but it did seam to help.

 

[ripcord]

The Prestone flush product is just a weak citric acid cleaner. It won't do anything bad. If you get leaks afterwards, then it was in really bad shape already.

If it's really dirty, you can expect the new coolant to get ugly pretty quick, even if you flush it well. Plan on changing it again in a year or so.

 

[4strokes]

Fingers crossed but those 3.8 V6s were headgasket monsters.

 

[road_rascal]

Fingers crossed but those 3.8 V6s were headgasket monsters.

We had a 2001 Windstar with the 3.8, sold it at around 160,000 miles and it never needed a head gasket. I did swap the coolant about every 50,000 miles though. In fact, other than the dumb subframe and rear axle recalls we really never had any serious problems with it.

 

[ripcord]

We had a 2001 Windstar with the 3.8, sold it at around 160,000 miles and it never needed a head gasket. I did swap the coolant about every 50,000 miles though. In fact, other than the dumb subframe and rear axle recalls we really never had any serious problems with it.

Did you pay someone to do the rear sparkplugs or did you donate skin instead?