i agree with you 100%. i pretty much always agree with what you have to say, RPM. what i'm disagreeing with are the people that say: "dexcool doesn't cause problems." period. that's a lie. dexcool is problematic when you let it go too long, and that time period is often within its advertised lifespan.

i've said numerous times that if you change our your dexcool regularly - such as every other year - you likely won't have a problem. however, with dexcool, there's always that possibility that it will eat up your gaskets, plus, if you get air in the tank, it'll gum up into a gelatin. i'm using green coolant now because green coolant just doesn't seem to do that. it doesn't have that gelatin problem and it seems to be much more gentle on seals. while running dexcool likely won't cause any problems to most drivers, the chance of it causing problems is still much higher than that of green coolant. that's my only stance on the subject at hand.

 

i don't have any pictures. the gaskets were just trashed. my mechanic recommended i just buy a new waterpump as it was "on its way out anyway" as he put it. i trust him because he's one of my friend's brothers, plus, a new one from napa wasn't out of my price range. it's always better peace of mind to have a brand new product operating than a refurb.

 

You keep talking in generalities about something very specific. Saying that green coolant "seems to be much more gentle on the seals" means nothing at all. If that is your stance, then so be it, but I hope no one takes your advice as the gospel.

 

So you can't even say that it ate your waterpump. So back to what I said earlier, all you can say DEFINITIVELY is that it ate your seals, and that your mechanic advised you to get a new pump while you were at it (which was probably sound advice). In other words, you can't say that it actually ate your pump, because you honestly don't know. You just think it did. Correct?

 

I purchased our T/A new. At 30,000 miles the water pump started leaking. It looked like it was leaking from the gasket. I put a new pump and gasket on it just to be on the safe side. The coolant was very clean. I put Dex back in it.

I stating this for the record. I feel this is good information being that I'm the original owner.

 

I guess the reason why I continue using dex over the old green stuff is mostly because I've seen first hand what green can do as it gets old. I've owned a lot of cars that were built long before dexcool came along, and I remember how their radiators looked on the inside; all this grayish cement looking stuff that would build up on the tank walls; I just don't ever see that in dexcool radiators, even when the coolant is allowed to go for too long without a change. And with green I've seen one overflow bottle that developed a leak from old green eating away the plastic, and many, many others that developed massive discoloration and a thick brownish film along the inside walls of the bottle.

I've either worked on or owned many "green" coolant cars with multiple leaks, clogged cooling systems, and damage components. So I guess for me, since I've seen the "ugly" side of green, I just don't feel that it's really any better than dex, changed often or not.

But I can see your side of it as well. Probably, you haven't delt with issues caused by green, so in your eyes dex is the enemy now. I just want to be sure that you understand that green isn't so harmless either. I'm really not sure about which is easier on seals and such, but what I can tell you with 100% certainty is that green will do all the same damage as any other coolant as it ages. Is it better when new? Honestly, I don't know. But I just feel better sticking with dex and keeping it as fresh as I would with green anyway.

 

what the HELL are you talking about? the seals are part of the pump. without seals, the pump will leak everywhere, making the pump no good. dexcool ate my seals - the pump is worthless. DEXCOOL ATE MY WATERPUMP. if anything breaks on it, it's as good as broken. i never said the casting cracked in half. have you ever seen seen the inside of a waterpump, steve? there's really not much in there. if the seals go, that classifies as the waterpump being trashed. coolant can't destroy the pump itself, it's made of cast aluminum. it can only damage the non-metallic internals, in this case, the seals. if i had green coolant, this likely wouldn't have happened since green coolant is much more gentle on seals and gaskets.

 

nice to know i wasn't the only one who has had dexcool eat their waterpump in 30k

 

 

moral of the story: whatever coolant you use, change it often. i personally feel better sticking with green as dex has done me dirty. if green did me dirty, i'd probably be singing a different tune. however, after this has happened, i'm leaning back on green coolant's lower proportion of damaged pumps. that's just me.
explain how i am "owned". without the gaskets, the waterpump is useless. it's really the only part in the pump coolant can eat. i take it you've never seen a waterpump off our cars, either?

here's another way of looking at it: say you blew a rod bearing in your motor. is it wrong for me to say "i blew my engine"? technically, you just blew a rod bearing, so does that make saying "i blew my engine" wrong? of course it doesn't. if one part on your engine breaks, the engine is broken. it doesn't matter what.

i swear, some of you people scare me sometimes.

 

That right there is really the best possibile conclusion to this topic, IMO.

Understood. I imagine you'll be fine with green as well so long as you change it often, which I'm sure you will.

 

Okay...

The water pump has a part number, correct?
The gaskets for said water pump have a part number, correct?

Two separate parts, albeit used in conjunction with each other, but two separate parts nonetheless. So without a doubt, the Dexcool ate your gaskets, not your waterpump. So by saying Dexcool ate your waterpump, you are technically incorrect. You could have spent $9.80 and been done with it. And a little more for some more coolant. And maybe a little swearing due to some banged knuckles.

You are blowing a simple problem way out of proportion, and touting it to this board like it was the worst thing that could have ever happened. Gaskets aren't designed to have an infinite life...maybe you had some that weren't made as well as others. In my mind, you can't even conclusively prove that it was the Dexcool's fault at all. It could have been something completely different that you don't know about, nor your mechanic. You have no scientific data to back it up along with any of your other claims (like that green coolant is much more gentle on the seals and gaskets).

If you want to put this information across as your opinion, so be it. But people need to be aware that it is nothing more than that, and I personally think you need to change how you tell this story. You are spouting off "facts" that have no basis, scientific, engineering, or otherwise. Saying that green coolant "seems to be more gentle" and "is much more gentle" is downright laughable. Which one is it? Does it seem to be more gentle, or is it actually more gentle? If you pick the latter, you'd better be prepared to back that up...the burden of proof is on you.

 

Oh, and to answer your other question, my water pump is sitting on my garage floor right now. Want me to take a picture for you? The electric water pump that replaced it gave me some cuts to prove it.

 

I have a 98.

Lesson learned; change often.

 

again, steve, your comparison is flawed. your rod bearings have a different part number than the LS1 engine. if you blow a rod, does that mean your rods are bad, not the engine? the gaskets are a vital part to the waterpump just like your rod bearings are a vital part to the engine. blown rod = blown engine, bad gasket = bad waterpump. there's no reason why you should disagree with this logic. there's really nothing that makes up a waterpump. it's just a piece of cast aluminum with enter/exit ports for coolant lines, gaskets and bearings.
blah, blah, blah, i really didn't even read your post. you're grasping at straws. you know how i know your entire post is BS and instantly discredited? because of this line:

a simple cry of desperation and BAM, your argument is dead in the water. it was 100% dexcool's fault as it ate my gaskets. you can quibble over the phrase "ate your water pump" as much as you want, but you'd still be wrong. the only part antifreeze can eat anything inside our water pumps are the gaskets. everything else is metal. i'd like to see antifreeze chew through metal. it's not 99% hydrochloric acid, you know.

 

this is one of the longest posts i have ever seen LOL this needs to be stickyed

 

no it doesn't. i'm getting sick of this ping-pong-style pissing contest. people are starting to practice "selective quoting" and nitpick on word definitions in order to attempt to "prove a point" that is actually invalid.

 

What proof do you have that it was 100% dexcool's fault? Your only "proof" is your constant suggestion of "ask any mechanic". Well, it has been in my experiences, that guys I have know in REAL LIFE that drive LS1s have had very few water pump problems (I actually can't recall any at the moment), so I don't see Dexcool dissolving water pump gaskets left and right, at least in my own experiences. Also, I used to know a sizeable amount of GM mechanics, and I never really heard them bitch too much about the evils of Dexcool, except for some of them being hesitant to trust leaving any kind of coolant in an engine as long as GM says to run Dexcool.

I know the old GM v6s had head gasket problems, but what proof is there that Dexcool was the culprit. My old 90 Sable 3.8 had head gasket problems, and Ford sure as hell didn't run Dexcool in that car, and neither did I.

 

You didnt see a water pump yourself Mr Need a Mechanic to change a water pump.

LOL no I never saw a water pump, I only did a complete engine swap and changover all by myself, but what do i know, I mean I never took my waterpump to get replaced by a mecahnic so I must not know anything

BTW Drexel is like a 15 minute train ride to Jersey so lets not act like you being "out of state" is really far at all. You had plenty of time to change it yourself you just dont have the know how to do it. I dont know where in Jersey you are actually from but just about anywhere in Jersey is not that far from Philly, and that I know since I grew up in Camden Co NJ.

My enginge didnt blow a rod bearing, it broke a rod in half which went through my block, probably from a lot of repeated nitrous hits. And one of the piston tops nailed a valve too. So I guess I can safely say I blew my engine since it has holes and cracks all over the block. A simple new bearing set wasnt cutting it, it needed new block and internals.

Get your facts straight before you pop off. You dont even know what happened to my old motor yet you are here talking like you have seen it or something. Pure Internet Mechanic/Racer. Go get some ****** wrench time before you come here running off at your mouth like youre a ******* car expert because youre not, youre just a stupid *** college kid that thinks because he is in school for Engineering he knows everything.

Bottom line is whatever coolant you use just change it once a year or every other year, thats common sense regardless of the 5 year BS that GM states with Dexcool.

This thread needs to be moved out of the Advanced forum and put in like the general maint forum or better yet move it SSU. I got dumber reading this.

 

I agree.

Since there is really no advanced discussion here based on engineering principles or the dynamics of making horsepower, this really does belong in the General Maintanence section.

It's a good thread for people to read and draw their own conclusions about which coolant they feel most comfortable with, but it really has little to do with this specific section of the site.