What the right coolant 1997 3.1 malibu

[tjr19136]

I was told that dex cool antifreeze destroy cars, but recently I had to replace a radiator hole's and the guy in the auto store said that I should use dex cool, and that the green antifreeze is the one that mess up cars............... Currently I am using water.............

[dpalomaki]

Check you owners manual and any stickers under the hood.

The greens stuff is OK, just should be changed every couple years. The problem is people forget to change it and it looses its lubricant and corrosion protection properties over time.

Dexcool is OK, and lasts longer, up to 5 years. It may interact with some gasket materials used in cars when it first came out, and cause problems, but should not be a problem in more recent cars if the coolant is maintained.

Best not to mix conventional green and dexcool. With green in the system you loose the longer life benefits of dexcool.

The universal (yellow) stuff is recommended by many folks.

Just plain water is not good and will lead to corrosion and early pump failure. Use at least a 50/50 mix, and 60% antifreeze is arguably better.

[jyount]

The only reason dex cool gets a bad rap is because if and when it hits air, ie a leak, it makes mud.
Like said, green is fine, but must be changed. Over the years the green stuff would become acidic(again, because it wasn't changed), and eat away at intakes/ heads/ blocks whatever, pull the intake on 20 year old small block chevy and look where the head and intake water passage meats and you'll see what I mean.

Like said though, DO NOT under any circumstances run plain water. Coolant stops rust, lubricates the water pump, stops deposits, etc., it also raises the boiling point of water, once whatever it is boils, the advantages of it are lost completely, so 212 versus 240 or 250 is a huge difference. PLUS if you are running tap water get it out now, I refuse to put anything but distilled in anything I work on, tap water is the sole cause of calcium stopping up the radiator and heater core.

[tjr19136]

thanks for the great advice.......................