Coolant

[Seth]

I know there have a been a couple of discussions about this, but when I searched I didn't see an actual thread.

Just wanted to share this little bit. I have in front of me a gallon of Prestone "Dexcool" coolant (ORANGE), a gallon of O'Reilly's generic coolant (CLEARISH), a gallon of Mopar coolant (RED), and a gallon of Ford coolant (YELLOW). Our green stuff comes in bulk and feeds through a gun.

1 - The Prestone guys have done a great job marketing, as I always thought that it was the real deal GM stuff.

2 - The Mopar and FoMoCo stuff are similar ingredients, with ethylene glycol being the first ingredient, but are slightly different after that. I am guessing these are just additives.

3 - The O'Reilly's coolant and the Prestone coolant appear to be exactly the same, accoring to the ingredients. They also say they can be used in any vehicle, any color, blah blah, but when you read the fine print, that is only after a full drain and flush.
I know that you can pour the Prestone product into a GM car with "orange" coolant and it will not cause anything bad or strange to happen, as this is what we have been doing here since I started in June 2005. I am curious what the ingredient list on the genuine GM coolant is. I am also curious if you can add the Prestone orange stuff to Fords and Chryslers with non-green coolants without any bad side effects. I am guessing yes. I think you just can't mix ethylene coolant with propylene coolant.
All that being said, I am going to start topping vehicles that are red or gold with the generic clear O'reilly's stuff from here on out, if anything blows up I will update you guys.

4 - I still think if it came with EG, stick with that, and if it came with PG, stick with that. The performance is virtually the same, price is close, and availability is not an issue.

5 - DO NOT put "works in any car" coolant into your green coolant without flushing it totally first. It is most likely EG which will not like your PG.

6 - Use Distilled water!

7 - Apparently the sludge I have found in systems is a product of phosphates in the coolant and solids in the water added.

8 - I don't know about effects on seals , if any, yet.

[robertf03]

ever used these? http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=all&item_ID=72508&group_ID=12500&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

Its almost impossible to get all of the air out of a disco cooling system the first try, looks promising.

[Seth]

yeah, we have something almost just like that. also does a beter job at sucking all the old out.

[DRAGOONRANCH]

I am having a problem w/ the upper radiator hose collapsing on the new chevy. Everybody keeps saying that the radiator cap is gunking up and causing a vacuum in the system, so you just have to keep cleaning/replacing the cap. BOOO. When I get home this summer, I am going to do a total fluid change over to AMSOIL (granddads a dealer) and going to try out what ever coolant they offer for it to see if it helps.

[TxCruzr]

Is there a not a spring in the upper hose or does it even compress the spring?

[DRAGOONRANCH]

No spring. The "dealer" fix is to just replace the cap if under warranty. B12 works pretty good at cleaning it up.

[tigweld]

the spring only goes in the lower hose

[bburris]

3 - The O'Reilly's coolant and the Prestone coolant appear to be exactly the same, accoring to the ingredients. They also say they can be used in any vehicle, any color, blah blah, but when you read the fine print, that is only after a full drain and flush.

I think Prestone makes most of the house brand fluids for parts stores.

[DRAGOONRANCH]

I was talking w/ the our heavy mechanic chika a few nights ago, and they are going to start ordering the "yellow" coolant. It is supposed to be able to mix w/ the green and orange.

[uglyota]

The old discussions on Toyota Red coolant vs prestone or whatever always seem to boil down to silicates vs no silicates, I think the red stuff has no silicates and slows electrolysis btw aluminum heads and everything else. Think Dexcool may be no- or low-silicate as well.

[Seth]

are you thinking silicates or phosphates? silicates are dirt. phosphates attract the dirt, calcium etc.

[uglyota]

no, silicates are silicon-based. So is sand, but some antifreeze has silicates. Phosphates are in laundry detergent :flipoff2:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/how_to_central/automotive/1272436.html
japanese antifreeze = no silicates
orange = organic acids :confused2: