Coolant Flush!!

[tgomes]

So tomorrow morning I will be tackling my coolant flush and adding fleet charge anti freeze a new motorcraft thermostat new heater hose and new upper and lower hoses. I know there is a ton of ways out there to do it. I found this example http://dieselhub.com/maintenance/idi-coolant-flush.html and it seems pretty thorough.... My question is do you need to drain the 2 holes on the side of the block? Or is the method described in that link sufficient? Thought?

 

[ironworker40]

Yes, you will get about a gallon out of each side, so defiantly pull them. Don't use cheep autozone draincocks if you decide to put them in instead of the plugs. Go to a marine store and buy some quality ones. I had cheepo's and one the handle just spun after fist time I tightened it and the other started to drip after a year.

 

[tgomes]

Ok so should I do that first along with draining the radiator or after I run distilled through the system.

 

[79jasper]

With every drain..
So yes, do that first.

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[Runningaford]

If the truck has been sitting for a while, and you're not entirely sure of it's history, it's not a bad time to pull the radiator, and have a shop rod it out; shouldn't be more than around $100, to $140 bucks. When I did mine, it was about 1/3 clogged up with crud. Motorcraft makes a cleaner that'll eat up any hard deposits, but it's somewhat corrosive so you don't want to leave it in for all that long.

Regarding the plugs, I agree with those above, pull both of them, as there's quite a bit of fluid left on each side of the block. You may want to look at adding a coolant filter that adds SCA's.... That's on my long list of 'to do nexts', but just haven't gotten around to it yet.