New Coolant Recommendations for 1987 2.9L V6

[Dirtman]

I read the whole thing. Not only is it incoherent rambling nonsense void of any scientific reasoning in a strange attempt to sell snake oil, it's very basic principle is invalid. Distilled water is NOT the same as deionized water. Not that deionized water is bad for a cooling system anyway. Distilled water is generally slightly acidic so not good on metal (we can sorta agree there) but coolant is designed to be mixed with it to create the proper chemical balance. No antifreeze in existence can possibly be created and balanced to be mixed with tap water since no one knows what the hell comes out of a tap. It can however be created and balanced to be mixed with a universally known formula - aka distilled water. So unless you run only 100% water as a coolant, you mix coolant with distilled water. You know, like the directions on every bottle of coolant says because they freaking designed it for distilled water.

 

[19Walt93]

The Ford manuals specified distilled water so that's what I use. I replaced the radiator in my Mustang in 1990 and it's still clean.
My tap water is well water that is conditioned to remove minerals that cause hardness, lead, raydon, and uranium. The softener backflushes with a salt solution so my water contains trace amounts of salt. Municipal water contains chlorine and who knows what else.

 

[wildbill23c]

Plain old green coolant mixed 50/50 coolant/water, they're nothing special, regular oil and coolant and they'll do fine...just keeping up on the maintenance is the biggest thing that people skip and wonder why they have trouble.