I'm not sure if this has already been said but, Don't use tap water to refill the radiator, use only distilled water. This is especially true for the 4.7L because the 4.7L has aluminum heads and a cast iron block. Aluminum and Iron do not go well together, they can corrode very wildly, tap water with mineral deposits can make the condition worse. The corrosion is very hard on head gasket materials. Ford has had major problems with there 3.8L doing the same thing. The Ford problem was made worse by a poor quality head gasket.
once the gasket gets weak, is gives out, and then you have blown gaskets.
I would highly recommend distilled water, the cost is very low, and it's worth the piece of mind.
Matt Y2K-HEMI
'00 RC 4.7L 5spd
In a message dated Tue, 7 Aug 2001 1:31:25 PM Eastern Daylight Time, "\(MAGNUM S/T\)" <hoegen@kersur.net> writes:
> Regarding coolant change....there is always a portion of water remaining in
> the system even if you use a complete flush system such as the Prestone kit
> (which I highly recommend!). Although I target the optimum amount of A.F. in
> the system myself, I have used the same technique over the past 10 years
> without fail.
>
> 1. Obtain the Prestone Flush Kit (allows you to flush entire system...not
> just the radiator)
> 2. After flushing with water, top system off with concentrated A.F.
> (remember there is already water left in the system.
> 3. Flush and top of resevoir with concentrated A.F.
>
> A.F. only needs a small amount of water to become optimally effective.
>
> I'm sure there are others who do the same. To check the strength of your
> antifreeze mix, you can simply pick-up a cheap antifreeze checker at your
> local auto store to confirm the level of protection. You can usually get one
> for a couple of dollars which has different colored balls of differing
> density in it.
>
> 0.02
>
> <Aajaynefour@cs.com> wrote in message news:9a.18334b34.28a17472@cs.com...
> > Hey all,
> >
> > I need to know what the real capacity of the cooling system is in order to
> > achieve a 30/70 coolant/water ratio plus a bottle of DEI Rad. Relief. The
> > FSM claims it is 13 qts. with heavy duty cooling and A/C etc... and the
> > owners manual claims it is 17 qts. Humm? Which is it? Anybody know? By
> > experience?
> >
> > A similar situation seems to exist regarding the engine oil capacity. The
> > book claims it is 6 qts. with filter change, but I can never get that much
> in
> > there. I usually end up putting in a little over 5 qts. and this is using
> a
> > larger than stock filter (Mobil M1-301 as opposed to M1-204). Anybody
> else
> > experience this?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Andrew
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