My boss has a 2002 Firebird/TransAm with the LS1 motor in it. If you pull the cap off of the overflow bottle and look at the stick that is down in there it is all brown/orange/rust color like I have seen many times before. He just had it flushed at approx 30,000 miles and it now has 43,000 on it and is this brown/orange/rust color and looks bad. What is everyones feelings on switching to the older style green type antifreeze or should he stick to dex cool. I know there is alot of negatives out there on dex cool if you look around some on the net as well. He had engine troubles due to piston slap and they put in a new long block for him around 5000 miles and then gave him a 100,000 engine warranty for the troubles. Does anyone know if switching to the green will void the warranty as well?

Thanks
Andy
__________________

 

I like the DexCool for the aluminum engines. It sounds like there might be a small leak or the technician put some tap water in there.

 

There are some good articles at IMCOOL about Dexcool. Issues are usually low coolant or the use of the pellets to prevent leaks. I have actually gone the other way, installed Dexcool in all my cars that previously had the green stuff. I drained my older Vette once when doing some major work and looked into the block and the radiator with a boroscope. It was immaculate. I would flush per the manual and then re-fill with Dexcool and distilled water at a minimum 50/50 mix if it were my car.

 

When they flushed the coolant they didn't touch the coolant overflow tank no one hardly ever does! Thats why it still looks like crap!When a radiator cap goes bad with the dexcool or seeps alittle the air make the coolant look rusty! As long as the coolant looks alright in the radiator you'll be fine.You will have to drain and refill the coolant overflow tank on its on be cause of the remote setup.As for coolant the coolants are not supose to be interchangable! And not Recommended!!!!!

 

You're supposed to leave the cap on untill the overflow is drained. Then pop the cap and drain the rest of the cooling system.

 

Don't mean to post on a post but may help you too... What will happen if you add regular water with Dex Cool??? Will it hurt the car???

 

DexCool is formulated to help keep the aluminum radiator from rusting on the inside. It is proven that the regular green stuff will lead to much more rapid rusting inside the radiator which will only end up costing you more in the long run. There is really no reason not to run DexCool. It is recommended for a reason.

 

Not necessarily, but you won't have much control over what minerals, etc. are in the water. I always use distilled as we have very hard water in my area.

 

What he said....

 

I'm using the Prestone 50/50 premix that is good for any car, or any radiator I've had it in since last summer no problems. My heads are coming off next week and I'm going with Walmart Super Tech 50/50 premix. These are great products, go to Prestones site and check them out.