dex cool and corrosion

[NINFan]

so my son comes home the other day with steam pouring out from under the hood. ("gee, dad, i didn't notice the guage"). '99 blazer 4X4. V6.

turns out the water pump i put in a few months ago has a pinhole on the pipe where the bypass hose connects. replaced the water pump, all is good. now it sprung a leak in the metal pipe that sits on top of the thermostat housing where the upper radiator hose connects.

is this just coincidence? as i thought about it, i realized that i probably mixed dex cool with glycol-based antifreeze at one point or another in the past history of the car. could it be causing such bad corrosion? i've never seen pinholes in the metal like that. maybe bad rust in the block, but not steel.

btw, the stuff that's in there is the most ungodly looking brown crap i've ever seen. i've 'flushed' it (stuck the hose in the radiator with the engine running) multiple times, but it still runs brown.
any ideas?

[maxwedge]

At this point you will need a power flush on a coolant flush machine to get the job done, by the sounds of your coolant condition, and even that may not do the job completely, the heater core and radiator may be the next victims.

[j cAT]

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any ideas?[/quote]

unfortunately for you its all over for that engines coolant system...


mixing and the use of non dexcool in these engines is not recommend by GM the use of non dexcool will cause damage to the coolng system.....

by posting your results of this mixing hopefully others will learn without the pain.......

[NINFan]

think i got this. just kept flushing it over the last few weeks. ended up taking the return heater hose off at the firewall and ran it with a hose in the radiator. finally got it cleared out - it's running clear now. gonna let it go for a while and make sure all the gunk is out before i put antifreeze in it. hope that's got it.

[silicon212]

Originally Posted by NINFan

think i got this. just kept flushing it over the last few weeks. ended up taking the return heater hose off at the firewall and ran it with a hose in the radiator. finally got it cleared out - it's running clear now. gonna let it go for a while and make sure all the gunk is out before i put antifreeze in it. hope that's got it.

That is not advisable. The coolant acts as a lubricant to the bearing in the water pump, also straight water pressurized and under heat will corrode (rust) the head gaskets and the freeze plugs - both of which can be a serious (read: expensive) issue to resolve.

Get some coolant in there!

[Blue Bowtie]

Better yet, I'm not sure about where you are, but it's 27º (Fahrenheit, not Celsius) outside here right now, and pure water is going to get really problematic if you have similar weather.