Dex-Cool

I use the regular green prestone antifreeze and always have. When I bought it in 2008 it had dex-cool in it I flushed it out good and changed it to green prestone. Never had a problem with it. 3 other trucks I've had with the same 4.3 engine have used green antifreeze too never had a problem with those either. A 4.3 engine is just a 350 with 2 cylinders chopped off. And it doesn't have any warranty on it.
 
ncff07 said:
I use the regular green prestone antifreeze and always have. When I bought it in 2008 it had dex-cool in it I flushed it out good and changed it to green prestone. Never had a problem with it. 3 other trucks I've had with the same 4.3 engine have used green antifreeze too never had a problem with those either. A 4.3 engine is just a 350 with 2 cylinders chopped off. And it doesn't have any warranty on it.
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keep a close eye ( not closed eyes ) on that water pump.
 
I guess it depends on what your owner manual tells you which antifreeze you can use and other recommendations.

At my work, the company uses red antifreeze on the fleet... which can be confusing for transmission fluid. A couple of times it got mixed up and plugged the radiator which required replacement.

Similar to this one:

31400-RV-50-Antifreeze.jpg
 
Calvin said:
I guess it depends on what your owner manual tells you which antifreeze you can use and other recommendations.

At my work, the company uses red antifreeze on the fleet... which can be confusing for transmission fluid. A couple of times it got mixed up and plugged the radiator which required replacement.

Similar to this one:

31400-RV-50-Antifreeze.jpg
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Red don't really confused me between ATF and coolant because of weight and feels. Like Shake the bottle then you will see ATF move very SLOW than coolant or you can use your finger to feels. ATF and red hydraulic feels smooth than coolant. Also red coolants are very strong smell than ATF and hydraulic. ATF and red hydraulic still confused me. My company use red hydraulic for liftgate and use yellow/gold hydraulics for heavy-duty and medium duty truck brake.
 
ncff07 said:
I use the regular green prestone antifreeze and always have. When I bought it in 2008 it had dex-cool in it I flushed it out good and changed it to green prestone. Never had a problem with it. 3 other trucks I've had with the same 4.3 engine have used green antifreeze too never had a problem with those either. A 4.3 engine is just a 350 with 2 cylinders chopped off. And it doesn't have any warranty on it.
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Dex-cool's last life as 5 years and green coolant last 3 years. Why dumped dex-cool and use green coolant? Dex-cool may become bad if skip maintenance or mix with wrong coolant. I prefer to follow the manufacturers's recommend. Why? Warranty.
 
Hi, ncff07. The red gunk u mentioned is I see it as rusty color. DexCool coolant make many mechanics headaches too much. F--ked GM DexCool coolant that can create more problematic. But I see ur pics is normal to me. If the coolant level in the radiator is too low, allow air enter the cooling system, produce more acid build-up and rust in the cooling system, can eat head gaskets or intake manifold gaskets or destroy water pump's impeller seals, leading coolant leaks or oil leaks into the cooling system. You know that DexCool can produce electrolysis that can eat aluminum radiators or heater cores same as head gaskets etc. What a horrible.....
 
deafsmogtech said:
Hi, ncff07. The red gunk u mentioned is I see it as rusty color. DexCool coolant make many mechanics headaches too much. F--ked GM DexCool coolant that can create more problematic. But I see ur pics is normal to me. If the coolant level in the radiator is too low, allow air enter the cooling system, produce more acid build-up and rust in the cooling system, can eat head gaskets or intake manifold gaskets or destroy water pump's impeller seals, leading coolant leaks or oil leaks into the cooling system. You know that DexCool can produce electrolysis that can eat aluminum radiators or heater cores same as head gaskets etc. What a horrible.....
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Sad but true. Dex-cool or no warranty. Your choose. That's why I never own American car before. I don't understand why GM still keeps Dex-cool even it have famous problem for history.
 
Make sure that your truck use Orange Antifreeze because it's less corrosive than Green Antifreeze and last long. I followed manufacturer's instruction that Dodge and Jeep ( I have em both under Chrystler) use Orange Antifreeze. Yes gunks settled on bottom, it's basically dirt accumulate from normal use, the Antifreeze Reservoir have lousy cap that snaps in place but does not seal completely. My durango is 140,000 miles and Jeep Liberty Limited is 135,000 miles (Both vehicles are of 2005 model). I never bother to change Antifreeze. Why so picky over slug settled on bottom of reservior?? I used to have 1989 Mazda 323 (the "GoCart on Steroid :giggle: ) had 225,000 miles (I'm the first owner and refuse to sell it cuz it's too good to lose and lot of peps). Its antifreeze reservior had gunks in it and it's pretty much like yours in pix, it all have to do with crappy snap on plastic cap.

Last June, I replaced Jeep radiator because it was cracked from last February accident and body shop did not noticed it. Jeep suffered fender bender accident which teenager sped about 40mph straight into my path on Rounda. I was outside of Rounda going around while dumb teenager was making right turn on inner circle into my path while speeding. The metal part of fender is fine and plastics damaged and tie rod bent. Their mother came and calmed boys down. I told his mom that they were speeding right through my path. Mother knew it's boy's fault but cop ended up decide it's No Fault. :pissed:

So after body shop, we took nice looking jeep back home. Month later I noticed Antifreeze in reservoir was empty. I fill it up and later on it went empty for 2nd time (June). I decide to investigate what's leaking, I don't see ANY leaks on floor or whatever. I found right plastic side of radiator had white streaks telling me it's cracked. No wonder so I bought new radiator for $79 and replaced it. I put in fresh orange antifreeze, So far no problems.

I learned that if you use Green antifreeze, It'll damage seals and component of water cooling system over time of newer car because of acidity is high. So be sure to follow auto manufacturer. Green Antifreeze usually use for old cars. I have 1996 Honda Accord (the junker) still use green antifreeze so I bought green antifreeze for it.

Catty
 
ncff07 said:
2003 Chevy Blazer with a 4.3 V6 4x4 auto. 90,100 miles. I bought it in 2008 and it had the dex-cool junk in it the first thing I did was get rid of that and use regular prestone antifreeze. I had rinsed the overflow tank out good and figured it'd do but last winter I took the radiator cap off to check the freeze level and noticed it had some of that red gunk on the bottom of it(replaced the cap when I changed it over to prestone then too). I had to change the thermostat last year twice too and after seeing the bottom of the radiator cap figured it fouled those up too. Yesterday I replaced the reservoir tank and lines, radiator cap and used new prestone antifreeze after flushing the entire system 3 times.
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You know why is some old mud leftover inside the jackets in the engine block and in the radiator (bottom) where the fresh coolant collect the mud up and circulating the coolant over time and become rust color again. Mud build-ups are common in casting iron engine blocks not to aluminum engine blocks. Also mud in plastic seam sides of the radiators too.
 
sonocativo said:
keep a close eye ( not closed eyes ) on that water pump.
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I second that... Lot GM have leaky water pumps where the DexCool coolant used. Due to a lack of lubricant in DexCool coolant when the coolant became deteriorate even the engine is about 25k miles on it....shitty but make me happy for water pump jobs. I need money money....
 
Nice to see some know about the seals and water pump issues related to dex-cool/regular anti freeze... they dont recommend it for the hell of it.
 
The coolant colors for the vehicles what I see is:
Ford = Green and Yellow
GM = Orange for 1996 and later. Early model year use Green
Chrysler = Yellow, Orange and Pink
Toyota = Red, Dark Blue and Pink
Nissan= Green (I forget one more color)
Honda = Dark Green
Subaru = Dark Green
European vehicles = Orange, Blue, Yellow and Pink.
 
deafsmogtech said:
First DexCool coolant used on 1996 and later in GM vehicles I think
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Yep, Brand new as 2014 still use Dexcool. Oh poor to GM owners.

deafsmogtech said:
I second that... Lot GM have leaky water pumps where the DexCool coolant used. Due to a lack of lubricant in DexCool coolant when the coolant became deteriorate even the engine is about 25k miles on it....shitty but make me happy for water pump jobs. I need money money....
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I am sure you remembered that I replaced the new water pump for my nephew's Buick. It was only 80k on it.
 
then tell me why that the new antifreeze now days say its safe to use on all makes and all colors?! I hate the dex cool stuff and used it for first 150k miles in one car. I stopped using it and used the general stuff. Less crap to have extra in my garage, less gunk in my tank,rad. car has 215k on it now.
 
I don't like dex-cool I've heard nightmare stories about the intake or head gaskets and other stuff failing cause of it. Figured there was some residual stuff stuck inside thats why I flushed it good and replaced that over flow tank. Figure the water pump will fail or the radiator will spring a leak eventually so which ever goes first I'll replace both at the same time. Been looking at full aluminum radiators and they run $300+.
 
radioman said:
then tell me why that the new antifreeze now days say its safe to use on all makes and all colors?! I hate the dex cool stuff and used it for first 150k miles in one car. I stopped using it and used the general stuff. Less crap to have extra in my garage, less gunk in my tank,rad. car has 215k on it now.
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Read the new anitfreeze coolant's label to see if they can compatible with another coolant such as DexCool or orange but if you own a modern MBZ or Subaru, use same factory coolants. If you fill green coolant in DexCool system then u are fine to go. I use Honda coolant for my other Honda. One caution is Toyota Prius, they have 2 different coolant type in this car. one is for engine and one is for generator motor (built-in automatic tranny). For generator motor, use Toyota coolant type. I won't do coolant services on all hybrid vehicles. Too scare of high voltage :ugh:
 
deafsmogtech said:
Read the new anitfreeze coolant's label to see if they can compatible with another coolant such as DexCool or orange but if you own a modern MBZ or Subaru, use same factory coolants. If you fill green coolant in DexCool system then u are fine to go. I use Honda coolant for my other Honda. One caution is Toyota Prius, they have 2 different coolant type in this car. one is for engine and one is for generator motor (built-in automatic tranny). For generator motor, use Toyota coolant type. I won't do coolant services on all hybrid vehicles. Too scare of high voltage :ugh:
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Then you would do service for electric car?
 
deafsmogtech said:
Nope, just fix flat tires.
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How about semi truck's batteries?

BatteryBox-frame-CR-JP.jpg


This picture looks like brand new truck. I seem lot of trucks battries's positive got cable corrosion all times which it's common. I had to take all cables off then clean with air angle die grinder. Sometime cut cable end due too bend or crack then installed new cable end then installed heat shrink tube then mini torch till it become tight then applied NKY-77 compound on the post/nuts almost everyday.
 
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