green antifreeze with dexcool?

[gw84]

the bottle says that it "Works with any color antifreeze/coolant" If I mix it, what will happen? Should I just get dex cool?

[Stealthee]

Personally I am not a fan of Dexcool. Dexcool is corrosive and it gels up. Soon after I bought my Grand Prix I flushed the entire system and put plain on green coolant in it.

That being said, if it says its compatible it should be. If it is not compatible you are going to have a mess on your hands.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by Stealthee

Personally I am not a fan of Dexcool. Dexcool is corrosive and it gels up. Soon after I bought my Grand Prix I flushed the entire system and put plain on green coolant in it.

That being said, if it says its compatible it should be. If it is not compatible you are going to have a mess on your hands.

I disagree with all of your dexcool comments...

having a 21 yr old 96 impala ss that came with dexcool and having it serviced by me for the 21 years I never had any issues with what your putting out .

Just last week I drained the entire coolant system , was in there 3.5 yrs and the coolant was perfect also the metal inside like the goose neck was with no residue or any metal corrosion. the plastic tank as well had no crud in it.

With your compatible coolant opinion if you use a coolant that says compatible with ALL coolants your gonna pay big using that product ,no matter what vehicle it is ..
Toyota VW Dodge/GM etc. you must use the proper manufacturer spec. if not on the coolant container ,, the manufactures spec ,, good chance your not gonna be happy with the results and added costs.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by gw84

the bottle says that it "Works with any color antifreeze/coolant" If I mix it, what will happen? Should I just get dex cool?

you only use Dexcool with Dexcool . if the container says GM APPROVED DEXCOOL then its the correct product.

also only use distilled water .. do not use any drinking water/well water etc... the engines made today use metals that react to the impurities of the water causing the corrosion very expensive costs which are unnecessary.

I use 65% Dexcool 35% distilled. this provides long protection from corrosion .
many owners down in warm climates use too little antifreeze coolant this is not just for freezing but for corrosion control and that is why many in those regions do have corrosion problems.

you buy the 100% product much cheaper. distilled water is $1gallon..

[Stealthee]

Originally Posted by j cAT

I disagree with all of your dexcool comments...

having a 21 yr old 96 impala ss that came with dexcool and having it serviced by me for the 21 years I never had any issues with what your putting out .

Just last week I drained the entire coolant system , was in there 3.5 yrs and the coolant was perfect also the metal inside like the goose neck was with no residue or any metal corrosion. the plastic tank as well had no crud in it.

With your compatible coolant opinion if you use a coolant that says compatible with ALL coolants your gonna pay big using that product ,no matter what vehicle it is ..
Toyota VW Dodge/GM etc. you must use the proper manufacturer spec. if not on the coolant container ,, the manufactures spec ,, good chance your not gonna be happy with the results and added costs.

I'll say you've been very lucky. Just Google Dexcool is corrosive, and you will find multitudes of posts of people having issues with it eating aluminum. Dexcool is why the 3800's had the LIM gasket issues and why GM finally changed them to metal gaskets. Dexcool does crud and gel.

Regular green coolant doesn't do any of that.

[gw84]

my lumina ltz, with the 3800 had dexcool in it when I bought it. It looked nasty. I had it flushed and filled and it still looked gross after while. It seemed to stain the reservoir and always looked like it had a foamy and thicker than usual texture.

[Blue Bowtie]

Whatever you do, do NOT mix the two. Sludge from precipitating silica crystals will almost certainly result. It will appear as a rather unappealing brown/black solid, not unlike the morning after Taco Tuesday.

I've had a similar experience to j cAT. I have DexCool in everything. As long as the prescribed maintenance is performed (pH testing and TDS testing) it will be better than the old non-acid (silicate) for protecting soft metals like aluminum. The LIM erosion and leaks are a problem, but are attributable to other causes. If you doubt this, consider that almost ALL major manufacturers, foreign and domestic, have followed in GM's footsteps and switched to organic acid coolants to be able to provide the 100,000 mile warranties they offer.

I had replaced TWO heater cores in my 1986 Trans Am by the time it was almost ten years old. The plain OLD-FASHIONED Prestoen was changed routinely, like all other fluids. After replacing the second I switched to DexCool. It is now 30 years old and I haven't touched anything in the cooling system. With the aluminum TPI, heater core, and aluminum radiator, I'd say that the OAT coolant is more than doing its job.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by Stealthee

I'll say you've been very lucky. Just Google Dexcool is corrosive, and you will find multitudes of posts of people having issues with it eating aluminum. Dexcool is why the 3800's had the LIM gasket issues and why GM finally changed them to metal gaskets. Dexcool does crud and gel.

Regular green coolant doesn't do any of that.

its not dexcool that is corrosive , its the bad water used with corrosive chemicals in it. I know down in Florida there are a lot of coolant system failures do to improper antifreeze concentrations and the bad water used . down there they call it VOLTS IN MY RADIATOR ...like a boat propeller being eaten away by electrolysis...

[Blue Bowtie]

j cAT - That's probably right. If the TDS testing shows high solids, chances are that a good portion of it is rogue minerals in the water, not ions leaching from the metals. I have used softened (ion exchanged) water that has been run through an RO system and not had problems. Distilled water would likely be a little better than that, and at 97¢/gallon it makes good sense.

[jyount]

DEXCOOL is not corrosive, this is coming from a past tech that had a multitude of engines apart. It was GMs reason for going to it in the first place. That said, if it has an air leak, it WILL sludge up. If you mix it with green it WILL sludge. I personally like it if it is kept up with. Too often all cooling systems aren't maintained correctly a 5 year versus a 2 year maintenance interval is not to be ignored. As long as problems are fixed straight away and the system is maintained correctly, DEXCOOL is a winner hands down in my book.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by jyount

DEXCOOL is not corrosive, this is coming from a past tech that had a multitude of engines apart. It was GMs reason for going to it in the first place. That said, if it has an air leak, it WILL sludge up. If you mix it with green it WILL sludge. I personally like it if it is kept up with. Too often all cooling systems aren't maintained correctly a 5 year versus a 2 year maintenance interval is not to be ignored. As long as problems are fixed straight away and the system is maintained correctly, DEXCOOL is a winner hands down in my book.

you left out the most important issue with any coolant/antifreeze . all systems do have leaks. its not perfect . with small leaks and the small loss not causing any temp problems this normal.

dexcool and other antifreeze requires a distilled water. this is now listed in most all vehicles made today.

also we now have a 10yr antifreeze which is a Chrysler product for those vehicles. we also have on the antifreeze market many types of these products all of which state by manufacturers do not mix. compatible as is stated on these containers on some , this leads many into the coolant system damage.

It is well known and a common procedure owners do reduce the % of antifreeze in warm areas. what they do not GET is this lowers the boiling point and also has less chemicals to control corrosion. [much less than 50%]