Never mix coolant....

[Dirtman]

Ford gold coolant is pretty freaking good and lasts 10 years easy.

 

[G8orFord]

@racsan yes Ford does have its own questionable coolant. It's called Ford Gold. They ran it in the 6.0 diesel from the factory and, IMO, one of the culprits that gave the 6.0 a bad reputation. The coolant is fine as long as it's serviced regularly and is never exposed to extreme heat. The problem is the coolant is routed through the EGR cooler which can see 1000° temps under high load. This intense heat shortens the life of the coolant and causes the silicates to begin to drop out of suspension. These silicates get caught up in the oil cooler which it's upstream of the EGR cooler. Once the oil cooler is sufficiently clogged it starves the EGR cooler from coolant. The intense heat begins to deform the cooler and it eventually ruptures allowing coolant to enter the intake manifold and the passenger side exhaust manifold. Liquids don't compress, but TTY headbolts do stretch and headgaskets blow.

FWIW, International recommended CAT EC-1 ELC for the 6.0 and used it in their version. They have much fewer headgasket failures.

Edit: LOL @Dirtman posted while I was typing. I guess we have a difference if opinion there.

 

[Dirtman]

I've never seen an issue with gold.

I didn't change the gold in my truck for almost 10 years and it was immaculate. And all the other fords ive worked on with gold coolant had beatifully clean cooling systems.

Plus the 6.0 head gasket issue was adressed by ford by using better head bolts not changing the recommended coolant.

 

[4.0blue98]

I have Toyota specific, Subaru specific, Chrysler specific and some "green" stuff for the Ranger and 67. All different chemistries and I've seen the gel/sludge that happens when you mix them or neglect them. Somehow they're all "the best" based on the manufacturers research and cooling system. Not sure how that can be.

I miss the simpler times...

The Ford gold is a HOAT similar to the Chrysler but still not recommended for mixing with other HOATs. Hoat is usually good for 10 years and 150k at the min. I just had my Avenger serviced and it was immaculate at 125k. Dexcool is an OAT I think and that stuff forms The Blob all by itself after a number of years. Time to get an aircooled VW conversion...

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Ford gold coolant is pretty freaking good and lasts 10 years easy.

is that the G05? thats what my F150 calls for. Survived burning man back in '15, flushed fine since, seems alright.

 

[4.0blue98]

ZEREX G05 works for Chrysler and I believe Ford. I use that in my Chryslers and I know people who use the Ford HOAT in Chryslers and no problems. They still tell you not to mix. I mix it with the factory Chrysler stuff for almost 15 years and okay. The problem is the mineral content in the different brands of HOAT can vary even though they are HOAT.

 

[19Walt93]

We never had a problem with the Ford gold coolant, if someone mixed green with it no harm was done except shortening the flush interval. There can be some nasty stuff in municipal water,is that what FIAT chrysler uses for their factory fill? I've never had experience with dex cool, closest thing was the orange coolant used in hybrids.
I hate sellers who try to hide problems from buyers, I replaced the rear rotors and pads before turning my 2011 Ranger over to the new owner last fall because I wanted everything to be 100%. We used to have people trade vehicles with all kinds of hidden problems- one 4x4 didn't have a differential carrier or axles in the front end, for example. If a customer does that he got a good trade allowance, if a dealer did it he's a crook. Nope, they're both crooks, it's just that the dealer has no recourse and the customer can call the BBB or the state's consumer protection agency.

 

[Shran]

The one common coolant related issue I've seen is on 3.0 powered Taurus and Rangers from the mid 90's and newer. Something causes the inside of the engine block to rust and it slowly turns the coolant to brown sludge and plugs up everything. Not sure what causes it, electrolysis reaction maybe? I've seen it so many times that I'm convinced that it's not a simple matter of changing the coolant more often...that would probably help but there's something else going on there too.

I've always reused old coolant in old vehicles, if it's clean it's OK with me. Never had a problem with that. Filter it through a rag and run it. I'm a little more picky with my F250 and the fiance's Prius, I put the OEM recommended stuff in those.

 

[G8orFord]

I've never seen an issue with gold.

I didn't change the gold in my truck for almost 10 years and it was immaculate. And all the other fords ive worked on with gold coolant had beatifully clean cooling systems.

Plus the 6.0 head gasket issue was adressed by ford by using better head bolts not changing the recommended coolant.

We never had a problem with the Ford gold coolant, if someone mixed green with it no harm was done except shortening the flush interval. There can be some nasty stuff in municipal water,is that what FIAT chrysler uses for their factory fill? I've never had experience with dex cool, closest thing was the orange coolant used in hybrids.
I hate sellers who try to hide problems from buyers, I replaced the rear rotors and pads before turning my 2011 Ranger over to the new owner last fall because I wanted everything to be 100%. We used to have people trade vehicles with all kinds of hidden problems- one 4x4 didn't have a differential carrier or axles in the front end, for example. If a customer does that he got a good trade allowance, if a dealer did it he's a crook. Nope, they're both crooks, it's just that the dealer has no recourse and the customer can call the BBB or the state's consumer protection agency.

I have experienced it first hand. If you got ten years out of G05 without servicing it, you did well. Even Ford recognized there was an issue with it's use in the turbo diesel engines and put out a document shortening their original coolant lifetime and giving specifics on additives and replacement intervals (I don't have the document and I'm not going to look it up, but it have seen it before). You can go to just about any PowerStroke forum and read all yo want about it. I doubt the G05 would be much of a problem in most engines, but the 6.0's oil cooler has VERY small coolant passages and when the coolant begins to break down, the goo created begins to clog those passages. Eventually, there will be enough blockage to limit the flow to the EGR cooler and this just exacerbates the problem by superheating the lesser amount of coolant flowing through the EGR cooler. If the cooler ruptures, any coolant that finds its way into the exhaust gas part has free flow back into any open exhaust port on the passenger side head. Not to mention, directly into the intake the next time the EGR valve opens.

To my knowledge, Ford never "updated" their TTY bolts for the 6.0. The only update I know of is replacing them with ARP (or similar) studs and most Ford dealers would do that if the owner supplied the studs.

Here's a picture of the coolant filter out of my 6.0 after a thorough flush. Thorough flush meaning a water hose running into the degas bottle with lower radiator hose and block drains removed while engine was running for 20-30 minutes on two or three occasions. Then filling the system with distilled water and a reasonable amount of Dawn dishwasher soap and driving for a few hundred miles before another flush, twice. Then filling the system with pure distilled, driving for a few heat cycles, draining and repeating two more times. Finally refilling with a 50/50 mixture of an EC-1 rated ELC. The picture of the filter is about 1500 miles after the flushing and refill. The red tint is from the ELC I used, the flakes are from the G05. Even with a full drain and pulling the block plugs on a 6.0, you still leave about 2 gallons of coolant in the bottom of the block. While some of that may look like sand, I assure you it is not or at least very little of it is. Sand does not mush out when you rub it between your fingers.

Here's a picture of what came out of the system on the first drain. Before any flushing was done. The truck was 10 years old and it was probably the first time the coolant had been serviced.

 

[Dirtman]

That seems more like a powerstroke problem then an actual problem with the coolant though since it seems specific to them.

 

[Snoranger]

Maybe that’s why we haven’t had any real issues with our 6.0s (other then standpipes and dummy plugs before they updated them with he nylon backup ring.) We never follow manufacturers recommendation for coolant... The first time it gets any coolant system work, everything get drained and filled with our coolant.

 

[sgtsandman]

I’ve heard of issues like that in the past but I’ve never seen it. Then again, I’m too particular than to mix coolants.

 

[G8orFord]

That seems more like a powerstroke problem then an actual problem with the coolant though since it seems specific to them.

Yeah, I think it's s more of a Ford problem though. They knew that International recommended the non-silicate EC-1 coolant but chose to use the Gold to pad their profits.

 

[Ranger101]

Which coolant would any of you recommend for an 89 with a 2.9L engine?

 

[RonD]

Silicate based, standard green coolant, change it every 2 years

On older vehicles you WILL have cooling system issues, so using a more expensive 5-year yellow/gold HOAT coolant just doesn't make sense or cents