Long Life Antifreeze (5 year)

[OriginalOpelGTOwner]

Any experience or issues with the new long life antifreeze formulations? I have always used the standard 2 year green antifreeze with no issues but lets face it, every 2 years comes up fast these days. I did a search first but found no comments.

[guyopel]

Stay with the green . Just clean up and repair leaks when they occur to protect your pets & kids ( poison that taste sweet ) Dexcool is one brand of the long life coolant and it can evaporate on small leaks before you notice it and then you have a major leak before you know it also it has shown that it can sludge up if you donot keep it at 50% ( most people will add coolant to their rad. and not enough water ) HTH
John

[GTJIM]

Have a look here for some FAQ's:

Antifreeze Recycling FAQ

Note that some 'long life' anti-freezes do attack the solder in older copper radiators .....

[RallyBob]

Hmm, not too many good things said about the DexCool stuff here.

I use the Sierra stuff because it's supposedly a little less harsh on the environment should it leak out. I don't have any pets but I'm also not in the business of killing the neighbor's dog either should a leak occur. This stuff is commonly mandated as the only legal coolant for use in rally cars should they operate on state-owned land. In case a car crashes and loses its' coolant, it won't kill the wildlife.

A few years ago I had a drain pan full of (old) normal coolant in my barn, within 3 weeks time I had 9 dead mice in there...guess the smell and taste are mighty appealing to furry critters. Too bad the side effects are terminal.

Bob

[Paul]

Originally Posted by RallyBob within 3 weeks time I had 9 dead mice in there...Bob

That's Bob, ... always looking to build a better mouse trap... you da man

[madhatterpdc]

I've worked with DexCool in customer's cars as well my own, and I am not too fond of it. I would never consider it in a car that wasn't designed for it (on the flip side, if a car calls for DexCool, I stick to it, but I am not happy about it). I have found in a DexCool system, the service interval should be closer to 3 years/30,000 miles. If it goes any longer, or there are any leaks in the system, it starts to get chunky and will come out like a paste when you flush the system. That wouldn't be too bad if all of the chunks would kindly exit the system during flushing, but it's kind of like engine sludge, once it starts, it's impossible to get it all out.


I flushed and back flushed a Blazer from every inlet and outlet until clear water flowed freely. A few weeks later, I had to pull the intake manifold and there were still chunks of Dexcool paste covering various parts. The only way that Dexcool is effective is if you are well ahead of the factory recommended service intervals, and you refill with brand new, just opened Dexcool and deionized water (located at your pharmacy, bottom shelf, near the epsom salts). Don't use tap water, distilled, or purified water, don't be dumb.

Also, don't ever ever ever mix Dexcool with any other form of anti-freeze. Don't do it.

Next on the magical mystery list of coolants: All-makes, All-models. This drew an enormous "meh" from the industry. Novel idea, and I am sure that it is a perfect fit for somebody, but you are paying a premium for a product that isn't any better than any other option.

Next: 50/50 pre-mix. I like this stuff as it is already mixed, no thinking, no measuring, and no mess from over filling the mixer bottle. The premium for buying pre-mix used to be reasonable, about a dollar a gallon, but the prices have gone up recently and the premium is a little stiffer now.

Next: Redline Water Wetter. We've talked about this stuff on this site before, and since then I have used it in a few cars. It does cool everything down a bit, but it won't solve an overheating problem. The primary benefit of the stuff is its built in lubricants and rust inhibitors. A friend of mine runs a fox body Mustang in the 1/4 mile (quick too, 8.2 sec on street radials). He was using straight water and would drain and fill after every race to keep the rust at bay. Now with water wetter, he drains at the end of the season and fills it up in the spring.

He is also the source of one of my favorite quotes "I'm really good at making stuff go boom." At 1200 hp, he gets to use that line a lot.

[wrench459]

[QUOTE=madhatterpdc;131347]I've worked with DexCool in customer's cars as well my own, and I am not too fond of it. I would never consider it in a car that wasn't designed for it (on the flip side, if a car calls for DexCool, I stick to it, but I am not happy about it). I have found in a DexCool system, the service interval should be closer to 3 years/30,000 miles. If it goes any longer, or there are any leaks in the system, it starts to get chunky and will come out like a paste when you flush the system. That wouldn't be too bad if all of the chunks would kindly exit the system during flushing, but it's kind of like engine sludge, once it starts, it's impossible to get it all out.


QUOTE]

AMEN!! guys and gals read the above reply.
Theres law suits all over the USA over this problem.
GM has a bulletin on this issue there fix was to overfill the coolant
reservoir to keep the air head down in the radiator.
But once it starts you can not get rid of it ..till you pull the engine completely
down vat the block to get rid of the electrolysis.

[automata3.0turbo]

i have to use dexcool fluid in the pontiac, it calls for its use only. on the supra, i only use redline products, including the water wetter, and have enjoyed great results.

[wrench459]

Thats the funny thing about dexacool its hit or miss
no rime or reason if you got a 4.3 look out
you'll have radiator problems ,heater core problems.....

[Paul]

The one thing about Reline Water Wetter, it works best when there is no more that 25% anti-freeze.

[ddoyle]

Most all coolant today even the green has a very powerful bittering agent, let me tell you it IS nasty!! I think it was a federal mandate. I am sure their still is some of the good tasting stuff around still. I always thought the enviromentaly friendly stuff a bit of a joke, put just about any liquid in a system that has lead, copper iron steel alum and heat it up several times(thousands), I think it may pick up a trace of something. The green is good, just keep up the maintenance.

Dan

[OriginalOpelGTOwner]

Sure glad I asked the question. Thanks for all the responses. I will stay with green antifreeze. Thanks!