tripblackls1

iTrader: (11)

this is wrong and complete crap, in my profession as a solar engineer i deal with propylene glycol almost every day and with my company that has been dealing with glycol for over 30 years we have never found any ill effects of using "tap" with glycol and have found no benefit of using filtered/purified water and these solar system are much more abusive then a cooling system in car will ever be, and further more ive also have been envolved with the automotive industry for quite some time and i can guarntee 99% shops including your dealerships use tap!
and to add to this thread our company would never use dexcool, although ive never independently tested it ill take the word of my boss that has over 30 years experience in thermal eco systems (and a masters degree from ucla)

but guys please spend the extra 2$ for the low tox propylene glycol(the green stuff) its well worth the benefits

remauto1187

iTrader: (1)

Hmmm imagine that ...you had the SAME heater fitting bust that i did. It didnt dawn on you that cast aluminum should not corrode and pit like it did ON THE INSIDE ??? Oddly the replacement part is now STEEL!

safemode

iTrader: (1)

the lawsuit against dex-cool did go somewhere. It's done. GM changed out the material to a bunch of gaskets in the engine bay but notably the intake gasket. There were other changes too but they get around many of the issues because like BWW up there, they say it's operator error.

The fact is, if you have two coolants and both get the job done and you've decided that you're going to flush it regularly and do everything to the books. Then why would you even bother with the one fluid that when anything gets F'd up could turn the entire coolant system into garbage like dex-cool can do if the other fluid wont ? It's retarded.

SOMbitch

iTrader: (8)

It was a PLASTIC fitting that STRESS CRACKED after 11 years and 200K

And the replacement part from GM is PLASTIC just like the original.....

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

I'll tell you what's retarted, is taking one perfectly good coolant out and replacing it with another perfectly good coolant because your too lazy or stupid to flush your coolant every 2 years or 60-70k miles.

safemode

iTrader: (1)

If i use dirty motor oil and change it out every couple hundred miles, I doubt my car would be negatively effected either. You are telling people every 2 years or 60-70,000 miles but Dex-cool's manufacturers say 5 years or 150,000 miles. It's whole purpose is to be an extended life coolant and you're basically getting around it's horribleness by removing that purpose entirely.

Good job, you circumvented the nasty side-effects of using dex-cool. I'll just avoid them entirely by not using it at all. Also, why would you consider it retarded to switch coolant ? Flushing the system is flushing the system. The next coolant going in should have absolute 0 effect by what came before. Since you're not using any of the qualities of dex-cool that dex-cool was made for, why even bother with it? you make absolutely no sense.

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

Because I have no desire to use green stuff when dexcool is perfectly good. And...and...dexcool is good for 5 years or 150k as long as you keep your system full. Air in the system from keeping it topped off causes it to gel and gunk up...why? Because air carries impurities. Just as tap water does. Make sense now? Probably not to you, which doesn't suprise me a bit.

Also on a side note. I searched and searched for a claim made by dexcool manufactuers and nowhere did I find where it says it is designed to be used with tap water. But also on the other side of the coin I never found anything saying it had to be mixed with distilled water. All I could find was the 50/50 pre diluted is mixed ready to use with distilled deionized water. So as far as I can gather on that note, if the manufacturer uses distilled water on the 50/50 stuff...I will too, and suggest everyone else do the same.

safemode

iTrader: (1)

Air causes it to oxidize. Has nothing to do with impurities in air. You know what doesn't mind some air, the green stuff. You know what coolant system isn't closed and so is open to the air? every car's. You keep saying dex-cool is perfectly good but dance around all the trivial and rather common issues that wouldn't cause really any harm in a car using other coolant but causes significant with dex-cool.

Basically If you do this and If you do that and as long as you flush this and make sure this is pure and that is clean and check levels every couple of days and top off then dex-cool is a great coolant. Or... you could not look like someone with serious OCD and just use green coolant. It basically amounts to how much BS coolant maintenance do you want to deal with and how much you enjoy the look of orange stain on everything it touches.

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

your exactly right. the makers of dexcool know nothing...its absoutely junk. green coolant is the best thing since sliced bread. i guess thats why every domestic and most foreign auto manufacters use a dexcool variant. because they want all their vehicles to come back with cooling system problems that they have to fix under warranty.

it doesnt come down to how much BS maintenance you want to do, it comes down to how well you take care of your car. if you want to put green stuff in your car just so you can neglect it, fine. your vehicle, your decision. you can stand in the corner with all the honda fan boys and scream BS on dexcool and American vehicles because you have to take proper care of them to make them last.

i digress...its about 60k miles, and its supposed to be nice tomorrow, so i think ill go do some preventative maintenance to my Cavalier and flush and fill the coolant system with dexcool and distilled water and enjoy the peace of mind that my coolant system is never going to fail me in any way, shape or form due to dexcool or my proper care habits.

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

http://www.castrol.com/castrol/secti...tentId=7022991

sorry to break it to you, but your tap water is not softened unless you have a softener.

again, distilled water for me and my coolant system.

and please explain to me and every other person using dexcool and not having problems what the benefits are that green coolant has that dexcool does not. enlighten us Helios.

O2Form

bww you need need to do some real reading dood....you don't know a dam thing about dexcool! Don't you get it? DEXCOOL is compatible with clean drinking water! Why are you posting up info that has nothing to do with gms dexcool? Is your brain broken?

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

then school me...you seem to know everything. tell me what i said that is wrong.

i was reffering to the poster i quoted saying drinking (tap) water is compatiable with ALL coolant types. both propylene glycol and ethylene glycol.

i must know more about dexcool than you do cause ive made it work in all my vehicles for 10 years now.

35th camaro

if you think it's the air only in our systeme causing all that gunk and rust,the air must be pretty poluted around your place, i have been working as a mecanic since the 80s and never seen the damage to cooling system and gaskets or aluminum parts like i have seen with dexcool. and about the lawsuite, i had seen an add 2 years ago in locale paper about a deadline for people that had repairs done and wanted to be part of the suite,i told a customer about it, i remember him thanking me a couple of months later saying he had received a check for good part of his repair bill. i wonder about the imports, i don't see them having the problems we are having with the gm's, the over flow reservoir are not dirty and rads are always clean, it's long life coolant but not dexcool if i am not mistaken.

safemode

iTrader: (1)

You have only made it work by flushing it twice as often as the manufacturer recommends. Seriously, do you have stock in havoline ? It's mind boggling how insistent you are that dex-cool is great and has no issues yet you have to replace it at less than half it's recommended service life.

That's not preventative maintenance, that's working around a product fault that you know exists and have obviously built a routine to avoid.

You can do the same with green stuff, but have the peace of mind that you aren't playing with the possibility of gunking and eating away your engine parts.

joecar

What maintenance can be performed on a 20K mile vehicle with no radiator cap (overflow reservoir is pressurized, cooling system is completely closed)...?

The silicone seals of the LIMG had deformed and had the same consistency as fresh putty.

I noted that failed LS1 WP gasket orange silicone seals had the same putty consistency... GM has changed the WPG seal to some different black colored material.

DexCool contains 2-EHA which is said to be a known plasticizer.

More info: http://www.sancarlosradiator.com/dex-cool.htm

OldCobraGuy

iTrader: (2)

I used to work for a company that made flushing machines designed who's original sole purpose was targeted at changing out Dexcool from GM vehicles.

I made a LOT of money doing just that. You would not believe the number of vehicles sludged up that were STILL UNDER WARRANTY. Can't blame that on operator error. Sorry bww...but you are one of the very fortunate ones here. Dexcool has no business in an automobile as far as I'm concerned. There is no upside I can see compared to the old tried and true stuff.

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

ive been "very fortunate" with 5 different cars factory filled with dex and one vehicle that was changed from green to dex.

i wouldnt call that "very fortunate"

BigEd_98Formula

iTrader: (4)

EDIT: um well ignore some of my below post because I found this nifty PDF, and my system was losing a touch of coolant over time, I added 2 tabs and its been fine:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...4A4Wvw&cad=rja

Aren't you supposed to also drop in the coolant supplement tabs or something like that, its what gives dex the brown color. It seals impurities in aluminum and nuisance leaks, learned that from caddyinfo.com

I'll be honest, I haven't really been a good example of changing coolant on time, but haven't had any issues in my families dex vehicles (98 Deville 125K, no head gasket issues either, 03 Seville good to go, 04 Grand Prix never changed, but topped when I cut the overflow hose with the serp belt, modded and traded in on my 05 Sierra,) all seem to have coolant as the least of the worries, then again anytime I saw something drip to driveway I take care of it, coolant or not.

There are a lot of horror stories out there, but then again when people have trouble with figuring out how to reset their average MPG, is it difficult to understand buying a used vehicle and a previous owner, shop etc, putting the wrong coolant in.

Thought Dexcool was really known for being low (or no?) silicate and something with Organic Acid Technology to protect, where green is high silicate to protect the system.

So once a system is coated in the silicate from green, dex doesn't do so well? Nothing to do with glycol.

tripblackls1

iTrader: (11)

wow good job you found a disclaimer from a manufacture that really does not mean anything,
reading>you
i never stated that tap is compatible with all coolant just propylene glycol
and you made your point yes you made it work in your cars, well guess what i dont have to make propylene glycol work it just does!

oh btw pls tell me the benefits of using dexcool over propylene glycol

SteveB4C

Dex + tap water ok for TOP OFF. If flushing or starting fresh mix 50-50 with distilled or deionized water! There is a pre-mix of 50-50 dex and deionized water that is the only coolant that is to be used for the Hybrid systems. If they are still using Dex for that I'm pretty sure its ok.