im sure this isnt a hard thing to do, but the superbeast needs its coolant changed i think. its all kinda brown colored, and i have no clue if its sposed to be that color or not! its a 96 2.3 with ac manual, idk if that helps. does the color even matter? i plan on doin this myself(with the help of bf) but ive never done it before and neither has he. also do you have to replace the thermostat? and how do i know if i have to or not?

and what the hell is a petcock? cuz when i saw that my mind started to wander...

 

well, as for a petcock, I will not go there for i do not want zabeard to ban me lol.. for the coolent.. does not matter which coolent you get.. Just for the easy factor, get the pre-mixed coolant, that way all you have to do is drain it, and poor the new stuff in.. and no, if your thermostat is good, you do not need to replace it..

 

well how do i know if its good or not, it seems to heat up much more faster in the past few months, i just figured it was because the coolant needed to be changed. used to be the needle would stay just above the c mark and stay there, now itll go up almost halfway and fluctuates.

 

it won't hurt to change it, they are like $15-20 with a new gasket. how many miles do you have on it? and do you know if its ever been changed before?

 

It is heating up faster because it isn't winter anymore. Its got a 50+ degree head start compared to winter. The color depends on what was put in there to begin with. Orange or green is normal. Brown is time for a change. Also it not heating up beyond a little past C in the winter or wierd fluctuations means the thermostat is shot too. Those are signs that the t-stat is stuck open and not allowing the engine to warm up and regulate its own temperature. A petcock is the official name for a small drain valve at the bottome of the radiator if so-equiped.

So in short, yes do complete flush and fill and replace the thermostat.

 

the truck just hit 160,000 and honestly i dont have much to go on for the history, it got ridden hard is all i know, still runs like a champ.

i was trying to think logistics for how much fluid ill have to run thru to clean it out and all i can think of is like i need to get a kiddie pool or something to hold all of it. when you all flush it out with water or whatever, do you stop it up and then let it drain or just drain on the ground or what, i mean i dont want the cat to come by and decide to itll be an opportune day to kibby on the lawn.

 

go to the dealership and get the new thermostat housing and it'll come with the new senors and thermostat itself and gasket, if you take off the thermostat housing and put it back on without replacing it prepare for it to split in half and coolant to go everywhere.

I speak from past experience