This may seem obtuse to some of you, but until I started looking at the forums a few weeks ago,I had no idea about the cavitation issue in the 7.3L. My 92 has 340,000 miles on it now, and it has never had SCAs added to it. It has had the heads done (190k w/ new injectors), IP replaced (240k), is on its 3rd clutch (one-piece flywheel setup) and about its fourth radiator.
The excavating company I worked for bought this F250 SC 4x4 w/ manual new, and it spent all its life up 'til Dec '06 under the care of our shop mechanic. I've only been driving it about half its life, 9 yrs and 170k miles, but I recall most of the maintenance issues (like that nothing seems to make an idler pulley last very long) and have the records; I did a lot of the oil changes myself--so I know that no one has brought this issue up at all, and this is one of three 7.3 IDIs on the job. I think the only time it got fresh antifreeze would be if it needed to be worked on--radiator repair, water pump replacement, etc.
Until recently, I never had to worry about my inherent lack of wrench-twisting propensity, but now all the "Gray Ghost" and I have is each other, so I read the tutorial on SCAs/antifreeze and have a question or two:
If I use regular radiator flush (Prestone, say), and flush out the motor prior to infusing the magic ingredients, odds are I'm not going to get all that water back out of the motor, so do I need to use distilled water to do that?
Also, what type/brand antifreeze do I need? I've got some labeled "with Alugard high performance inhibitor containing silcone silicate" and some PRIME extended-life stuff labeled "for all vehicles". I thought what I read said low silicate antifreeze was what was best--what should I use?
The excavating company I worked for bought this F250 SC 4x4 w/ manual new, and it spent all its life up 'til Dec '06 under the care of our shop mechanic. I've only been driving it about half its life, 9 yrs and 170k miles, but I recall most of the maintenance issues (like that nothing seems to make an idler pulley last very long) and have the records; I did a lot of the oil changes myself--so I know that no one has brought this issue up at all, and this is one of three 7.3 IDIs on the job. I think the only time it got fresh antifreeze would be if it needed to be worked on--radiator repair, water pump replacement, etc.
Until recently, I never had to worry about my inherent lack of wrench-twisting propensity, but now all the "Gray Ghost" and I have is each other, so I read the tutorial on SCAs/antifreeze and have a question or two:
If I use regular radiator flush (Prestone, say), and flush out the motor prior to infusing the magic ingredients, odds are I'm not going to get all that water back out of the motor, so do I need to use distilled water to do that?
Also, what type/brand antifreeze do I need? I've got some labeled "with Alugard high performance inhibitor containing silcone silicate" and some PRIME extended-life stuff labeled "for all vehicles". I thought what I read said low silicate antifreeze was what was best--what should I use?
