I just changed mine as it came in the head gasket kit. The old one was packed full of crystals, not sure if it is calcium deposits or what but I can't imagine its a good thing having that restriction there. Anyone else notice this before?

 

I have never changed mine but build up like that is not good any where in your cooling system. What kind of antifreeze are you using? Do you buy the premixed or do you dilute it yourself? If diluting it yourself I would guess it's something in the water. A lot of city water systems have calcium added during the treatment process.

You can actually just use a piece of copper tubing to make a loop in the coolant lines going to the throttle body heater and bypass it if you wanted to. Unless you plan to operate the truck in extreme negative temps it won't hurt not to have the throttle body heater.

 

I mix it myself, I guess I will use distilled water from now on.

 

It is very easy to replace. Many of us have done it. The whole piece ran about $30 for the gasket and the plate. All I can say is make certain you have the right socket. Those tiny little heads are small. I think all together it took me 15 minutes.

You might as well flush your coolant at the same time (if you haven't recently). The thing I've always read about Dex Cool is that it gets really corrosive when exposed to air, thus the buildup.

 

I did change it that is when I noticed all the calcification.

 

You MUST use distilled water, DexCool is nortoruious for gumming up cooling systems, DII's came with DexCool and that is what is recommended for them but you do NOT have to use it.
ANY aluminum safe coolant will do just fine.
But you MUST buy it premixd or use distilled water, tap water has floride, chlorine and other things added to it.
If you use well water in your cooling system you are asking for more trouble than you want to think about.
Well water has all kinds of minerals and rust and crap that will eat a radiator from the inside out faster than you can drive to McDonalds to get a burger and fries.

 

What he said. I just want to add that if you go away from dex-cool make sure you get every drop of it out of the system before adding the other coolant. From what I have been told dex-cool plus non-dex-cool coolant equals a nasty mess about like cottage cheese.

 

100% true, I have seen the goo that is made when you mix the two, it was part of my coolant training, looks like paint stipper, the really thick kind that you apply with a cheap paint brush and then scrap off with a puddy knife.

Drain, refill with water, run to temp, repeat until only clean water comes out.
Refill with any aluminum safe coolant.

 

Well its drained now, I was going to flush it out anyways. When I bought the truck it had regular old coolant in it and pipes look good, I did not notice any cottage cheese so it seems OK.