Which coolant....green or gold??

6.0 Tech · Apr 25, 2016

Jomax said:
I'm pretty sure if people flushed every 36k, it would've worked perfectly. But, no one maintains the coolant, it's the forgotten fluid, which IMO is just as important as the engine oil.

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:whs: The problem was ford put the service interval at 100k, and nobody checked their stuff. Every 36k may be over kill, but over maintaining is better than under. I tend to recommend every 50k if its driven regularly. If it sits a ton, thats almost as bad as putting a ton of miles on it.

And an 02 would have come with gold from the factory.

DEEZUZ · Apr 25, 2016

hijack bogie inbound

this is a degas bottle from a 05 that had 47k on the clock.

I blame gold.

Had this been green/red it woulda been fine. Hell, I see OBSs' that are 1 owner 100k amd coolants never been touched..

Jomax · Apr 26, 2016

CTC DEEZUL said:
hijack bogie inbound

this is a degas bottle from a 05 that had 47k on the clock.

I blame gold.

Had this been green/red it woulda been fine. Hell, I see OBSs' that are 1 owner 100k amd coolants never been touched..

Were you sure the guy never added tap water, etc?

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6.0 Tech · Apr 26, 2016

That looks like they had aleak and added straight water the entire time to top it off.

DEEZUZ · Apr 26, 2016

Nope. It's gold. Besides oil and fuel filters, that's all that had been serviced on this truck. And it's not the first one I've seen this bad. It's about the 5th I've seen. It's so bad the bottle is not reusable, it takes about 8 flushes, 2 coolant filters, etc... The coolant has the all too common dark bronze color. Silicate drop out is what I've heard this referenced to...

Now I know what service procedures say, but explain that to the customer... No thanks.. Red ELC by prestone in every truck, even both of mine

CurtisF · Apr 26, 2016

CTC DEEZUL said:
Nope. It's gold. Besides oil and fuel filters, that's all that had been serviced on this truck. And it's not the first one I've seen this bad. It's about the 5th I've seen. It's so bad the bottle is not reusable, it takes about 8 flushes, 2 coolant filters, etc... The coolant has the all too common dark bronze color. Silicate drop out is what I've heard this referenced to...

Now I know what service procedures say, but explain that to the customer... No thanks.. Red ELC by prestone in every truck, even both of mine

The joys of having an EGR.

Ford learned that the heat from the EGR wipes out the coolant much quicker, and now you see on the 6.7L that they want you to check it at very close intervals by popping up notices on the driver's information display. Took 2 motors for them to learn, but they eventually did.

Just FYI..... ELC on an EGR equipped diesel is not a fill-and-forget. That stuff also has to be tested regularly, although it will tend to hold up better than green or gold stuff. All versions of coolant when used under high-heat conditions with the EGR, end up with changing levels of PH, nitrates, etc. This results in a degradation of corrosion inhibitors and a rise in acidic levels for example, among other things.

So although the ELC is great for less frequent flushes, it still needs to be monitored regularly.

But that was a derail.... after all this is the 7.3L section. We can all play together, right? :grouphug:

DEEZUZ · Apr 26, 2016

CurtisF said:
The joys of having an EGR.

Ford learned that the heat from the EGR wipes out the coolant much quicker, and now you see on the 6.7L that they want you to check it at very close intervals by popping up notices on the driver's information display. Took 2 motors for them to learn, but they eventually did.

Just FYI..... ELC on an EGR equipped diesel is not a fill-and-forget. That stuff also has to be tested regularly, although it will tend to hold up better than green or gold stuff. All versions of coolant when used under high-heat conditions with the EGR, end up with changing levels of PH, nitrates, etc. This results in a degradation of corrosion inhibitors and a rise in acidic levels for example, among other things.

So although the ELC is great for less frequent flushes, it still needs to be monitored regularly.

But that was a derail.... after all this is the 7.3L section. We can all play together, right? :grouphug:

I agree. One thing that does bother me, although it is coming from a salesman, is that ELC is no longer in production... Not sure if true though. I've been asked to decide which coolants we should carry on the shelf that can be used across all the fords. I have yet to produce an answer...

gnxtc2 · Apr 26, 2016

Does the gold coolant require the SCA additive?

Billy T.
[email protected]

PSD POWER007 · Apr 26, 2016

Best place I've found to get Rotella ELC concentrate is at Tractor Supply. Mine has it for around $15 per gallon.

atxjustice6r · May 1, 2016

sqrlgtr said:
The way I understand it if you do a complete flush you can run the elc (extended life coolant).i dont know if you still have to check for sca's with the elc.I do know mine came with the green from factory and you do have to replenish with additive,and I do know if you mix coolants you will have a bad situation because they will form a bad sludge in your system.I have seen this first hand and its not pretty.so what ever don't mix them because they do not play well with each other.that's my .02...
sqrlgtr

Is there any validity to this? That scares me because the truck came with green and I couldn't easily find any that wasn't just generic auto parts store BS, so I topped it off with a couple different brands/colors when I was going through serpentine belts there for a while due to a misaligned pulley. I cant recall the brands but I researched what to use when I was buying it and I know I got some stuff intended for heavy-duty diesel use SCA preloaded.

CurtisF · May 2, 2016

atxjustice6r said:
Is there any validity to this? That scares me because the truck came with green and I couldn't easily find any that wasn't just generic auto parts store BS, so I topped it off with a couple different brands/colors when I was going through serpentine belts there for a while due to a misaligned pulley. I cant recall the brands but I researched what to use when I was buying it and I know I got some stuff intended for heavy-duty diesel use SCA preloaded.

Yes there is lots of validity in this. Just because the color is the same doesn't mean it's actually the same stuff.

79jasper · May 2, 2016

Why does no one use the peak fleet charge?
Second option for me would be the cat ELC.

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rsater1 · Jun 10, 2016

so is the consensuses red prestone ,, is this correct or did I read this thread wrong CAT ELC ?? THANKS IN ADVANCE and I will be doing total flush thank's

DEEZUZ · Jun 11, 2016

its prestone red yes... but I have my coolant guy trying to sell me the 'orange' now since he says itll work great across all models including the 6.7...... but everytime he starts talking about organics and HMOATs and all that stuff I kinda start to wonder off a bit... lol

I wish we had a coolant guy here