Red vs Green
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Teching In
Joined: Aug 2005
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From: Spring, Texas
Red vs Green I have an 01 Z-28. It has been in the body shop cause it was in an accident. They had to replace my radiator and when I was checking the fluids last night, I noticed that they had put in the green antifreeze. Does anyone know if you have to use the red antifreeze or is green alright? The car did come with red antifreeze. 
i'm pretty sure that you need the red (well, orange really) stuff, and if they put in the green without completely flushing the orange stuff out (and i would almost bet money they didn't do a full flush), then it can cause bad stuff to happen.
the only time the green stuff is corrosive is when your putting it in a motor with dissimilar metals in it. like a lt1 .aluminum heads on a iron block. but for something like a ls1 i dont see a problem.
is there any problem with mixing the two? i've always heard that you shouldn't do that, and that if you want to switch from one to the other, you should do a thorough flush of the coolant....please correct me if this is wrong....
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Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Aug 2005
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From: Spring, Texas
Thanks guys for all the info. I went ahead and took it back and they drained and put the dexcool back in. The Chevy house said that if the two gets mixed up that it could start lumping up and eventually clogged your radiator. I am not taking that chance.
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Joined: Apr 2005
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From: Arlington,TX
from my understanding,if you mix the red with the green and they didn't flush it well it will cause it to start gumming up and cause problems. t-stat sticking and problems with the water pump, cause the radiator to gum up,etc.
Not being able to mix them is a total myth. They are BOTH ethylene glycol based and will not react with each other. All this does is reduce the lifespan of the Dexcool. Dexcool just doesn't have sillicates the other does plus Dexcool has some lubricants for the water pump.
I ran a mix in our GA for about a year w/out a problem. This is a high milage car too. 01 GA w/150k miles so it saw a lot of miles in that year.
All the gumming up and hardening has been reported w/running Dexcool, not a mix. These problems are due to contamination. It'll turn brownish when exposed to air, as in the fill tank. Its also due to the idiots that believed the 150k mile/5 year change intervals.
http://www.imcool.com/articles/antif...l-macs2001.htm
I ran a mix in our GA for about a year w/out a problem. This is a high milage car too. 01 GA w/150k miles so it saw a lot of miles in that year.
All the gumming up and hardening has been reported w/running Dexcool, not a mix. These problems are due to contamination. It'll turn brownish when exposed to air, as in the fill tank. Its also due to the idiots that believed the 150k mile/5 year change intervals.
http://www.imcool.com/articles/antif...l-macs2001.htm