Coolant fluid exchange 2019 Ranger

[chupapi]

Hello. When is it ideal to do coolant fluid exchange for 2019 ford ranger? My ranger is 5 years old with 50k miles but never had this coolant exchange done before. Thank you so much for all your help.

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[Dereku]

Manual says it somewhere. Think it is 7 yrs or 100k

 

[fusseli]

I plan to do mine early, I'm at 73k miles. The yellow motorcraft coolant that is compatible with orange that mine came with is cheap on Rockauto.

Drain and fill looks pretty darn easy. The air bubble procedure is to rev the engine a few times after, should be a piece of cake.

 

[LawnMM]

I plan to do mine early, I'm at 73k miles. The yellow motorcraft coolant that is compatible with orange that mine came with is cheap on Rockauto.

Drain and fill looks pretty darn easy. The air bubble procedure is to rev the engine a few times after, should be a piece of cake.

Maybe invest in a vacuum kit from the Harbor anyway, if that engine revving doesn't clear the bubble you're stuck in limp mode when it heats up

 

[jdog112123]

I did mine at 50,000 miles, pretty straight forward. Before my coolant temps would be 195-199 now it’s 185-193

 

[harringtondav]

Maybe invest in a vacuum kit from the Harbor anyway, if that engine revving doesn't clear the bubble you're stuck in limp mode when it heats up

Yes. My (now daughter's) 2016 Cherokee's tech manual required one to fully fill the system. It uses compressed air for its venturi vacuum pump. Worked like a dream.

Long story is I had a coolant leak. Pressure test found it at the only scroll hose clamp in the system. Before I found it I topped off the system with green ethylene glycol coolant. Super stupid bad move.
I didn't know ethylene glycol was incompatible with the orange OAT coolant in a bad way. A gooey residue forms than can clog the radiator and block passages.
So I drained the system, refilled with water and a system flush chemical. Ran it until up to temp, drained and water flushed again.
I was lucky since I only added 8-9 ounces of the green juice. The vacuum kit worked great....three times in a row.

Since then I learned all OAT coolants aren't the same. So next coolant flush I'll spend the extra pennies and buy factory OAT.

 

[fusseli]

I did mine at 50,000 miles, pretty straight forward. Before my coolant temps would be 195-199 now it’s 185-193

Did you add any coolant additives like water wetter? Royal Purple Ice? I saw it mentioned on the mustang forums.

 

[fusseli]

Maybe invest in a vacuum kit from the Harbor anyway, if that engine revving doesn't clear the bubble you're stuck in limp mode when it heats up

Yeah I may have to look into that! Not bad at harbor freight.

 

[rang19ca]

I think a minimum of 5 years regardless of miles is a good base for changing coolant. You need to get rid of the build up of chemicals that come with heat cycling.

 

[JohnnyO]

Prestone Platinum is compatible with the OE coolant and is the same color.
I've gotten away from doing full flushes and and just drain and refill the radiator every 50k on all our vehicles.
Several times I've had the water pumps go out to lunch a few weeks after flushing with water.
Pro Tip: Don't bother with the radiator petcock, just pull the lower radiator hose off.

 

[harringtondav]

I think a minimum of 5 years regardless of miles is a good base for changing coolant. You need to get rid of the build up of chemicals that come with heat cycling.

Happened to have my OM sitting beside me from another post.
Under "Other Maintenance Items":
At 200,000 miles - Change the engine coolant. ....14 yrs for the US ave of 14K miles/year.
OAT, or orange coolants are superior in longevity.

Buuut, the manual also states @ 150K miles change trans fluid and filter. ....seems iffy based on transmission reports and experience in this forum.

 

[fusseli]

There's no downside of changing the coolant early. Especially since it is a cheap DIY to do. 200k miles sure, maybe, for rigs that get 50k+ miles a year. Surely age is a factor here. My factory coolant is approaching 6 years old so I'm switching over to the Motorcraft yellow (replacement for orange).

 

[elaterite]

Thought I'd weigh in on this thread since information seems to be lacking on this topic.

I just did a drain-and-fill on my 2021 Ranger.

Summary:
1) The Harbor freight shop air vacuum fill tool did not work for me.

2) I was able to successfully drain-and-fill and purge the air without the vacuum tool using the Ford factory manual procedure.

---

Reading the factory manual and looking around online the procedure was a bit confusing. The manual calls for using a shop air vacuum tool and then doing an air purge--ten times. (I'll copy the procedure to this post below.)

Online several people did the job on a 5g without the shop air vacuum tool. A couple people, who didn't use a vacuum tool, had problems with air trapped in the system that they were unable to purge.

So, it seemed that the best way to avoid the trapped air was to use a vacuum tool and I bought the Harbor Freight vacuum tool. It is of good quality, but it did not work.

The top-hat style fitting didn't block the overflow port in the neck of the degas bottle. So I tried the cone shaped fitting. With it I was able to pull a vacuum but it didn't hold because again, the seal was improper.

I was unable to figure out where that overflow port emptied out externally so I could block it or seal it in some way. That stupid degas bottle is complicated--lots of chambers and channels. I did pull the two smaller upper hoses and they had nothing to do with the overflow. The larger bottom hose, was, of course, the main radiator hose.

So I gave up trying to use the vacuum fill device. And after re-reading the shop manual, it seems Ford recommends using the vacuum to simplify filling, in a shop setting, but you still have to go through the bleed and purge procedure.

I drained out almost two gallons, so the refill only required a single gallon of Yellow concentrate and a gallon of distilled water. (Note: Never ever use tap water! You'll see some "experts" using tap water in YouTube videos. And I used to do that over 30 years ago, but I read that this modern fluid will react with the minerals in tap water, so just don't do it. Also, I wouldn't flush the system unless you are having overheating problems. A drain-and-fill every 60k miles should be fine for a regular maintenance cycle.)

With the engine cold, I poured in as much 50/50 mixed fluid as I was able, probably a gallon and two-thirds.

And then I followed Ford's procedure for bleeding air and topping off the degas bottle. (Note: After doing two cycles of running the engine at 3500rpm for 30 seconds. I did six or seven more while driving. I'm not a fan of running an unloaded engine at that speed. I'm an old guy and I remember old engine tech.)

Here's Ford's procedure from the shop manual:

303-03 Engine Cooling - 2.3L EcoBoost (201kW/273PS)
General Procedures 2021 Ranger Procedure revision date: 03/8/2019
Engine Cooling System Draining, Vacuum Filling and Bleeding

4. Install the vacuum cooling system filler and follow the manufacturer's instructions to fill and bleed the system.​

Use the General Equipment: Cooling System Vacuum Tester and Refiller​

[Of course, I skipped this part since I was unable to hold a vacuum with the Harbor Freight tool.]​

​

[I started here.]​

5. Fill the degas bottle to the MAX FILL line.​

​

6. Install the degas bottle cap until it contacts the hard stop.​

​

7. Turn the climate control system off.​

​

8. Start the engine and increase the engine speed to 3,500 rpm and hold for 30 seconds. [I hated doing this to a cold engine!]​

​

9. Turn the engine off and wait for 1 minute to purge any large air pockets from the cooling system.​

​

10. WARNING: Always allow the engine to cool before opening the cooling system. Do not​

unscrew the coolant pressure relief cap when the engine is operating or the cooling system is​

hot. The cooling system is under pressure; steam and hot liquid can come out forcefully when​

the cap is loosened slightly. Failure to follow these instructions may result in serious personal injury.​

Check the engine coolant level in degas bottle and if necessary fill to the top of the MAX FILL line on the degas bottle.​

​

11. Start the engine and let it idle until the engine reaches normal operating temperature and the​

thermostat is fully open. A fully open thermostat is verified by the cooling fan cycling on at least​

once.​

​

12. Increase the engine speed to 3,500 rpm and hold for 30 seconds.​

​

13. Allow the engine to idle for 30 seconds.​

​

14. Turn the engine off for 1 minute.​

​

15. Repeat steps 12 through 14 a total of 10 times to remove any remaining air trapped in the system. [As mentioned earlier, I did about six or seven of these while driving. Also, I turned the heater on high.]​

​

16. WARNING: Always allow the engine to cool before opening the cooling system. Do not​

unscrew the coolant pressure relief cap when the engine is operating or the cooling system is​

hot. The cooling system is under pressure; steam and hot liquid can come out forcefully when​

the cap is loosened slightly. Failure to follow these instructions may result in serious personal​

injury. Check the engine coolant level in degas bottle and if necessary fill to the top of the MAX FILL line on the degas bottle.​

​

17. Install the degas bottle cap until it contacts the hard stop.​

And with all of that, everything seems to be working fine. Hope this helps!

 

[TJC]

Thought I'd weigh in on this thread since information seems to be lacking on this topic.

I just did a drain-and-fill on my 2021 Ranger.

Summary:
1) The Harbor freight shop air vacuum fill tool did not work for me.

2) I was able to successfully drain-and-fill and purge the air without the vacuum tool using the Ford factory manual procedure.

---

Reading the factory manual and looking around online the procedure was a bit confusing. The manual calls for using a shop air vacuum tool and then doing an air purge--ten times. (I'll copy the procedure to this post below.)

Online several people did the job on a 5g without the shop air vacuum tool. A couple people, who didn't use a vacuum tool, had problems with air trapped in the system that they were unable to purge.

So, it seemed that the best way to avoid the trapped air was to use a vacuum tool and I bought the Harbor Freight vacuum tool. It is of good quality, but it did not work.

The top-hat style fitting didn't block the overflow port in the neck of the degas bottle. So I tried the cone shaped fitting. With it I was able to pull a vacuum but it didn't hold because again, the seal was improper.

I was unable to figure out where that overflow port emptied out externally so I could block it or seal it in some way. That stupid degas bottle is complicated--lots of chambers and channels. I did pull the two smaller upper hoses and they had nothing to do with the overflow. The larger bottom hose, was, of course, the main radiator hose.

So I gave up trying to use the vacuum fill device. And after re-reading the shop manual, it seems Ford recommends using the vacuum to simplify filling, in a shop setting, but you still have to go through the bleed and purge procedure.

I drained out almost two gallons, so the refill only required a single gallon of Yellow concentrate and a gallon of distilled water. (Note: Never ever use tap water! You'll see some "experts" using tap water in YouTube videos. And I used to do that over 30 years ago, but I read that this modern fluid will react with the minerals in tap water, so just don't do it. Also, I wouldn't flush the system unless you are having overheating problems. A drain-and-fill every 60k miles should be fine for a regular maintenance cycle.)

With the engine cold, I poured in as much 50/50 mixed fluid as I was able, probably a gallon and two-thirds.

And then I followed Ford's procedure for bleeding air and topping off the degas bottle. (Note: After doing two cycles of running the engine at 3500rpm for 30 seconds. I did six or seven more while driving. I'm not a fan of running an unloaded engine at that speed. I'm an old guy and I remember old engine tech.)

Here's Ford's procedure from the shop manual:

303-03 Engine Cooling - 2.3L EcoBoost (201kW/273PS)
General Procedures 2021 Ranger Procedure revision date: 03/8/2019
Engine Cooling System Draining, Vacuum Filling and Bleeding

4. Install the vacuum cooling system filler and follow the manufacturer's instructions to fill and bleed the system.​

Use the General Equipment: Cooling System Vacuum Tester and Refiller​

[Of course, I skipped this part since I was unable to hold a vacuum with the Harbor Freight tool.]​

​

[I started here.]​

5. Fill the degas bottle to the MAX FILL line.​

​

6. Install the degas bottle cap until it contacts the hard stop.​

​

7. Turn the climate control system off.​

​

8. Start the engine and increase the engine speed to 3,500 rpm and hold for 30 seconds. [I hated doing this to a cold engine!]​

​

9. Turn the engine off and wait for 1 minute to purge any large air pockets from the cooling system.​

​

10. WARNING: Always allow the engine to cool before opening the cooling system. Do not​

unscrew the coolant pressure relief cap when the engine is operating or the cooling system is​

hot. The cooling system is under pressure; steam and hot liquid can come out forcefully when​

the cap is loosened slightly. Failure to follow these instructions may result in serious personal injury.​

Check the engine coolant level in degas bottle and if necessary fill to the top of the MAX FILL line on the degas bottle.​

​

11. Start the engine and let it idle until the engine reaches normal operating temperature and the​

thermostat is fully open. A fully open thermostat is verified by the cooling fan cycling on at least​

once.​

​

12. Increase the engine speed to 3,500 rpm and hold for 30 seconds.​

​

13. Allow the engine to idle for 30 seconds.​

​

14. Turn the engine off for 1 minute.​

​

15. Repeat steps 12 through 14 a total of 10 times to remove any remaining air trapped in the system. [As mentioned earlier, I did about six or seven of these while driving. Also, I turned the heater on high.]​

​

16. WARNING: Always allow the engine to cool before opening the cooling system. Do not​

unscrew the coolant pressure relief cap when the engine is operating or the cooling system is​

hot. The cooling system is under pressure; steam and hot liquid can come out forcefully when​

the cap is loosened slightly. Failure to follow these instructions may result in serious personal​

injury. Check the engine coolant level in degas bottle and if necessary fill to the top of the MAX FILL line on the degas bottle.​

​

17. Install the degas bottle cap until it contacts the hard stop.​

And with all of that, everything seems to be working fine. Hope this helps!

Good write up!

I am anal about my engines. I actually flush the system several times with distilled water until I am sure all residual anti freeze has been removed, than add the fresh anti freeze and top off with distilled water. Probably overkill, but distilled water is inexpensive and I want my water pump to last. It is a lot easier to do this than replace a water pump.

 

[harringtondav]

I have a venturi vacuum tool, and it works fine. I do have to shut it off a few times to let my air compressor charge back up to maintain full vacuum.
A problem I had with my wife's Dart was getting a full drain on the system. The lower radiator hose creates a trap that holds a fair amount of coolant. The hose clamp is a special crimp type, and buried about 4" in front of good access. I reckon a special angled tool might get it , but I just flushed/drained multiple times until the flush water was mostly clear.
If I find this when I service my Ranger's cooling system I'm going to cut the hose and install a hose drain.
Distilled water is the way to go. But there was so much residual flush water in the Dart's system I had just enough room for the OAT concentrate and had to use the left over water for the dilution mix. This is nagging me a bit. I'll redo the Dart next year with the hose drain. ...hopefully the same hose size as the Ranger.

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