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Found an old manual that said a 6.0 Powerstroke holds 4 gallons of coolant in the block alone
I was cleaning out a toolbox I bought at an auction in Boise and found a 2004 Ford service manual tucked in the bottom. Flipping through it, I saw the coolant capacity specs. The chart listed the block alone at 4 gallons, with the whole system at over 7. I always just drained the radiator and called it good. No wonder my flushes were never quite right. Anyone else run into a weird spec buried in an old book that changed how you do a job?
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charles7201mo ago
Man, I read a forum post years ago about that exact thing... some guy kept getting air pockets and overheating after a flush. He finally followed the manual and drained the block plugs too, and it fixed everything. That hidden coolant just sits there and mixes with all the old junk if you don't get it out. It totally changes how you have to do the job right.
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mark_green1mo ago
That 4 gallon block spec is the real deal. I worked on a 6.0 that kept puking coolant out the degas bottle after a simple radiator drain and fill. We finally pulled the block drain plugs, and it was like opening a mud faucet. All that old, sludgy coolant just contaminates the new stuff. You have to get it all out or you're just mixing old and new.
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hannahcraig4d ago
My buddy Dave has a 99 F-350 that was puking coolant for months after a regular drain and fill. He finally followed a YouTube video to pull both block plugs near the starter and passenger side mount, and said it literally dumped a gallon of thick mud and sand looking crap out. After he flushed it with a garden hose through the block and back flushed the heater core separately, his temps stayed rock steady and the degas bottle stopped overflowing. He told me he feels like an idiot for wasting money on two previous flushes that just mixed the good stuff with the sludge.
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ruby6591mo ago
That seems like a lot just for the block. Makes you wonder if it's really that critical for a flush, or if it's just a super cautious factory spec.
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