High mileage explorer and coolant flush

[gto78]

I've got to do a lower intake on my explorer which has 175,000 miles on it. As a result I need to drain and refill the coolant (there's also a coolant leak now which is why I have to remove the intake). I know pretty much everything's aluminum nowadays. I know the old school flush chemicals contained acid... and you never introduce acid into aluminum. So between having high mileage and being aluminum, I don't want to flush the engine and create 10 more leaks while fixing one leak.

What do you guys usually do in this situation. In the past on all my old cars I've always just flushed with water to be safe. What options have you seen, and at the same time is there an additive that actually is worth using?

 

[XS650]

Prestone makes a couple of relatively gentle flush chemicals. I forget their names but have used both on aluminum engined cars with no problems.

If you are concerned and there are no obvious problems indicating that you need a flush, why not just use water again?

If you have accessible drain plugs in the block, take those out too. I've had crud come out of those when the coolant looked clean.