Dexcool or Green stuff?
12-27-2003, 01:00 PM
#1
Dexcool or Green stuff? Dexcool or Green stuff?
Which is better to use and why? Read so stuff that basically Dexcool will turn to sludge in less than 5 years or 150,000 miles and can cause cooling problems and acid flushes may be required.
Sounds a good case for Green stuff.
What's the deal?
Since coolant goes inside the engine seemed like here would a reasonable spot but Mod's if this needs to be moved please feel free to.
Which is better to use and why? Read so stuff that basically Dexcool will turn to sludge in less than 5 years or 150,000 miles and can cause cooling problems and acid flushes may be required.
Sounds a good case for Green stuff.
What's the deal?
Since coolant goes inside the engine seemed like here would a reasonable spot but Mod's if this needs to be moved please feel free to.
12-27-2003, 01:02 PM
#2
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Some people have trouble with dexcool, but I have never had a problem with it. From what I hear, It is important to make sure the coolant level stays full so it doesn't turn into dexclog.
12-27-2003, 01:05 PM
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Two bottles of Prestone anti-rust and the rest water. More efficient than either Dexclog or traditional. But, I would use Dex over Green if I went back to them.
12-27-2003, 02:33 PM
#7
Originally Posted by 99 Black Bird T/A
? Read so stuff that basically Dexcool will turn to sludge in less than 5 years or 150,000 miles and can cause cooling problems and acid flushes may be required.
You need to OCCASIONALLY flush the radiator ...
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12-27-2003, 03:47 PM
#10
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ive never had problems with dexcool, with my past 2 vehicles
never had the sludge or nothing, and I can honestly say I've never as much as added anything to it, or flushed them
but on the other hand, my bro's wife's 99 GMC Jimmy only has like 50k miles and overheated a month or two ago, from the dreaded Dexclog
never had the sludge or nothing, and I can honestly say I've never as much as added anything to it, or flushed them
but on the other hand, my bro's wife's 99 GMC Jimmy only has like 50k miles and overheated a month or two ago, from the dreaded Dexclog
12-27-2003, 06:56 PM
#11
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I would say go ahead and run the green slime. It is cheaper than the dexcool and i don't see the dexcool adding any more protection over the regular coolant. It is true that the dexcool will turn to sludge, i've seen it happen a couple of times at the dealership that i work at.
12-27-2003, 07:36 PM
#12
From what I have seen the Dexcool builds up on aluminum for some reason. I always change all my vehicles to the green stuff. I've pulled a few motors apart that have run the Dex, and the water jacket holes on the head gasket where almost completly clogged off.
12-27-2003, 08:18 PM
#13
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Originally Posted by ULTIMATEORANGESS
is the green stuff aluminum block safe?
mercedes has always used the green stuff, they have had aluminum blocks for a LONG time.
only problem ive seen with "death" cool is in gm trucks. it turns to hard rusty sludge and you cannot get the cooling system fully clean.
in northstars, ive seen ALOT of head jobs come back because the time-serts pulled out of the block, they blamed it on the porous blocks.
the coolant get's to the head bolt holes and loosen's up the time-serts
ive actually seen a northstar valley full of coolant because of a porous block, NOT from the head gasket.
although I haven't seen a pre-96 porous block situation, a crap load of them leak from the head gaskets
Originally Posted by BEAST96Z
the water jacket holes on the head gasket where almost completly clogged off.
every northstar head i pulled had white crusty stuff filling the jackets
12-27-2003, 08:32 PM
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Dexcool will NEVER become an issue if you keep it changed regularly. Waiting the 100K or 150K or whatever GM recommends as an interval will cause the issues. Change it as often as you would change the green stuff and it'll be just fine.
The green stuff will also due damage if used for too long. At the least, it will corroide and eat through cooling system components and gaskets as well. This I know from experiance in my older cars....
I've never seen anything about the green stuff that is any better than dexcool if both systems are properly maintained.
The green stuff will also due damage if used for too long. At the least, it will corroide and eat through cooling system components and gaskets as well. This I know from experiance in my older cars....
I've never seen anything about the green stuff that is any better than dexcool if both systems are properly maintained.
12-27-2003, 08:46 PM
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i change mine once a year, never had a problem. also, my friend work at a gm dealership. they change coolant every 30k miles. the 150k mile rating is the max amount of miles that you can use the dexcool.
12-27-2003, 09:11 PM
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Originally Posted by 99 Black Bird T/A
What's the freezing point with the Prestone anti-rust? Or is it about the same as water on that?
BTW, "the green stuff" is NOT a problem in our motors or anyone's aluminum engines. As was stated above by Gen3benz, MB has used it for years. The problems result from crappy maintenance. Back when I was just a lad I worked in a radiator and A/C shop for a few years and we routinely used Prestone and many other coolants. They key in multi-metal cooling systems is to avoid electrolysis from occurring and to keep as clean a system as possible. We did that, as I continue to this day, to do it by using antifreeze and distilled water. That way we ensured we were not introducing any corrosives or contaminants that are abundant in much of the tap water available today. It is amazing the crap that is in our water.
Additionally, the idea of these new coolants and lubricants that allow you to (fill-in-the-blank-by-tens-of-thousands) miles is BS. Yes, these products can last that long, but are you going to run your car that long on the same lubricant? I'm getting off point here, but what you can do and what you should do are often two very different things.
Oh, I should explain electrolysis. We are most familiar with its by-product, the white pasty stuff (solder bloom) that is visible on the ends of the cooling tubes when you peek through the radiator cap hole. This is a chemical reaction that takes place when current introduces itself into a cooling mixture in search of a ground. Its source is most likely a poor ground or electrical “noise” put off by an electrical component located very closely to a radiator for instance. This is far more likely an occurrence with today’s computer controlled and electrical component-heavy engines than in the past. You don’t see many cars that aren’t using an electrical fan nowadays, and these are excellent current sources as they are located very close to the radiator and have motors that put out quite an electrical field. When the current passes through the different metals present in todays engines (iron, aluminum) and cooling systems (copper, brass, aluminum, silver) it sets off quite the little metallic party, altering the molecular structure of these metals and subsequently causing them to start corroding.
Anyhoo, use good coolant, flush it every year (no you don’t have to use distilled water for this, just run a gallon of it down from the top of the system before reattaching everything), and keep the mixture at 50/50 or whatever the coolant manufacturer says, and you should have few if any problems.
