Switching to Motorcraft Yellow Coolant

[The Critic]

For the record, I am not fluent in Ford.

2017 Focus ST, 26K — it was originally spec’ed for Motorcraft Orange and 6/100k for initial change. I drained the radiator and removed 5 qt out of 7. Vacuum filled with Motorcraft Yellow and followed up with the OEM bleed procedure and had no issues. Surprisingly, there was no level drop after a few days of driving.

As expected, the resulting mixture is neither yellow or orange, but it is what it is.

Two questions:

1) There is circumstantial evidence that Motorcraft Orange Coolant caused excessive cooling system deposits resulting in heater core issues. Was this truly an issue, or was it only an issue with certain platforms?

2) Per Ford, subsequent service intervals for Orange was 3/50K. Seems awfully short. I’ll do another drain/refill with Yellow, but is there any reason this cooling system needs to be serviced so often?

Thanks.

 

[pbm]

The Motorcraft Orange was basically Dexcool. The issues were with the Transit Connect only if I'm not mistaken.
From what I read the Motorcraft Yellow is almost if not exactly identical to Prestone with Corguard.
I switched my Fords over to PGL at the first change without issues.

* I googled to see if my memory was correct after writing the above response. AI is saying the orange coolant caused corrosion in certain 'Ecoboost' engines due to coolant intrusion but once again I'm nearly certain that the issue was related to the design of the block which Ford eventually changed.

From 'Slashgear'
"The first generation of the four-cylinder, 2.0-liter EcoBoost only lasted four years before its replacement was introduced to the world. As a member of the introductory 2010 lineup, it was part of the recalls that plagued the 1.5- and 1.6-liter Sigma four-cylinder engines and had similar difficulties with coolant infiltration. Coolant would work its way into the cylinders, most often through a crack between cylinders two and three, producing white smoke and sometimes blowing the head gasket. If not addressed, engine misfires and full seizing could occur.

Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/1358832/every-ford-ecoboost-engine-ranked/

 

[thastinger]

Have a couple of Fords that came with orange and now have yellow (my orange was actually kinda pink in color). I know they say no problem to mix them but i did flushes until I only had distilled water, then added yellow concentrate.