Ok, one more question im a little confused here. You'll have to forgive my ignorance.

I just went down to my garage and opened the hood, I opened the radiator cap and it was full to the top w/ this bright electric Purple coolant. I looked down inside of the plastic coolant resivour next to the windshield washerfluid container and the coolant in there was Red? Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is something else going on here? I thought the coolant in the plastic container was supposed to be the same color as in the rad?

 

The coolant I have in my overflow is the same as I have in the radiator.

 

Yea it's weird, the coolant in the rad is purple and the coolant in my plastic container is red(unless the clear plastic makes the red look purple) but I looked down ontop of it and it deffinetly looks red. This is the first time i've opened my rad cap and looked at the coolant, i've never have seen purple coolant before?

I bought the truck w/ 60,xxx on it and now it's at 81,xxx no overheating problems with the seemingly mixed coolant. I think it is time for a change though(god only knows when the last owner changed it, if ever at all).

So this Zerex G-05 is the way to go? How much coolant is needed to flush everything out and fill her up to the top?

 

The manual says about 30 quarts (29.5) including the expansion tank. You will need 4 gallons coolant and 4 gallons water to make a 50/50 mix for all that. If you want to do a flush until clear with water, get more. The original coolant was rated for 5 yrs / 100,000 miles so I think you are fine. You may want to get some coolant on a white paper towel to see if purple really is the color.

 

Are you saying to flush it w/ a mix of 50/50 or just straight water?

Oh the coolant in the rad IS purple. I started my truck up at the house and drove it down to my garage, I got it in the garage and shut it off. Poped the hood and pulled off the rad cap for the first time so naturally the little pressure that accumulated shot a little coolant out, it ran down the side of the rad dripped on the sway bar then splashed on the concrete floor, it IS purple. Then in a confused way I checked the coolant in the resivor and lowe and behold it is red? lol.. Im just going to flush it out with in a week or so wether it's needed or not it will be good for my peice of mind.

 

What I did was drain the coolant from rad, refilled with plan water drained rad, refilled with a jug of distilled water,drained it.(it was clear water, no coolant) I put 4 gallons of coolant in first, not knowing how much water was still in the system, topped it off with distilled water. Should be good.

03 qcab sbox full gauges no cat no engine mods

 

If you were trying to get all the coolant out, you flush with distilled water only. You can fill the system with distilled, run the engine with the heater on, drain etc until it is all clear. I just wonder about you and your purple coolant. It may have had a dye added to help in finding leaks or someone may have put in some green maybe? If you do keep flushing the system with water, make sure you get at least 4 gallons out when you drain the radiator otherwise you won't have enough room for all the concentrate.

 

Yea it's Purple, I don't know if dye was added or what. But you know what im about to head on down to the shop and I will take a picture of the coolant in the rad(purple) and the coolant in the resivour(red). It runs fine, no overheating issues/leaks so I guess it's not to big of a deal(unless it is causing my engine to break down internally).

 

Oh sorry. I did start the truck and let it run in between each step. I did not see the point in useing distilled water for the first flush, I guess if you had hard water in your area or soft water, the water that comes out if the tap here in canada is very good all most no minerals, in fact most bottled water you buy comes from the province I live in. I did keep a count of how much I put in, and most of the 30 quarts in the system came out, becouse I all most put in 27 quarts in.

03 qcab sbox full gauges no cat no engine mods