Suggestions on doing an orange to yellow Ford F150 Ecoboost flush?

[Marc Hufnagel]

2014 F150 Ecoboost 3.5, wanting to go from ford orange to new ford yellow suggested coolant. What's going to be the best way to get as much of the orange out as possible?

I was thinking starting with a drain , then using repeated fills with distilled water and draining until it looks clear-ish then start attempting to get the right ratio by utting in concentrate? Best to do these drains when the engine hot or cold?


I know it's not a small job and thought I'd ask for suggestions here where the population is a bit more mature and knowledgable.

thank you.

 

[BISCUT]

Don't sweat it. I'm a backyard wanna be mechanic, and this is one of the easiest things to do on an F150. I did simple radiator drain/fills 3x over a year. Absolutely, use distilled water. The only negative I encountered was a bit finicky burping to get the air out.

Caveat: Go slow and gently with the draincock; it's plastic!

 

[Marc Hufnagel]

Don't sweat it. I'm a backyard wanna be mechanic, and this is one of the easiest things to do on an F150. I did simple radiator drain/fills 3x over a year. Absolutely, use distilled water. The only negative I encountered was a bit finicky burping to get the air out.

Caveat: Go slow and gently with the draincock; it's plastic!

thanks for the thoughts I thought it would be plastic as so much is these days. If I was staying with orange it was be simple; I just don't want to end up with a mix of the colors and worse an air bubble somewhere. How did you burp the system?

 

[Snagglefoot]

2014 F150 Ecoboost 3.5, wanting to go from ford orange to new ford yellow suggested coolant. What's going to be the best way to get as much of the orange out as possible?

I was thinking starting with a drain , then using repeated fills with distilled water and draining until it looks clear-ish then start attempting to get the right ratio by utting in concentrate? Best to do these drains when the engine hot or cold?


I know it's not a small job and thought I'd ask for suggestions here where the population is a bit more mature and knowledgable.

thank you.

Your plan looks good but you need to drive the truck to bring it up to temperature so the thermostat opens and drive for a say 30 minutes to to mix the water and existing coolant then shut off the engine and let cool between drains. No use getting scalded. I’m going to post some photos to show you Prestone’s recommendation for Ford yellow coolant. By the way, they are compatible so don’t worry if there is some mixing.

 

[johnmyster]

Break some hoses in various places. Garden hose out everything you can. Reconnect hoses. Look at the manual and add back 1/2 capacity as concentrate (to account for any water you didn't get out.) Top off with distilled. Over the first few drives continue to top off as the system burps. Add water vs concentrate based on what the $3 hygrometer tells you.

Having a hose open at a high point will help get air out as you add. Watch as you approach operating temperature the first time.

If you want, do a prestone citric acid flush somewhere amongst the garden hose flushes.

Motorcraft orange and yellow aren't incompabible, so don't sweat it. Just make sure you don't do something silly like flush your garden hose into a PCV breather line...