Plan to flush my system today and was wondering..should I go with DexCool...or the trusty green stuff? I've heard so much about DexCool creating sludge and such that I'm worried now. I decided to take a look at what it's done to my system and just be peeking in the fluid resevoir..I see a black gunk that have collected on the plastic of the tank. That has me wondering. Would it hurt my system to run Prestone All Makes through it..or should I stick to DexCool?

 

doesn't matter what you use, they both are similar

 

and what's the fluid capacity of my cooling system?

 

I would recommend Prestone All Makes All Models Extended Life coolant. Same extended life properties as Dexcool with a similar addative package as the green stuff.

The capacity of the cooling system is 11.6 quarts. Plan on having 2 gallons of coolant and around 6 gallons of distilled water hanging around. Flush through the engine, radiator, and heater core with the garden hose. Then drain it all out. Flush 4 gallons of distilled water through the system and drain again. Then put in 6 quarts of coolant and top off with distilled water. Use the left over coolant (1/2 gallon) and fill that gallon jug up with distilled water, shake it a bit and fill up the over flow tank.

 

I just had to put a new water pump on and flush my system out because my Blazer over heated. The orange dexcool got all chunky and clogged up my system. So I would recommend staying away from it. Just my experience.

 

Yea I don't recommend dex cool, I flushed mine out the day I got it and put in prestone all makes and models. The prestone is really good stuff!!

 

I flushed my system last spring. At the time it had 130,000 miles and was 6 years old. Spring of '06 that is. Everything was fine, then again I keep my overflow tank within the recommended range.

Last night I had to replace my thermostat, temps going way past normal then it would open up. The wife tells me that this past summer she heard gurrgling in the dash this summer. Fearing the worst. I had a bottle of prestone radiator flush and the heater hose flush kit sitting on my shelf in the garage for the past couple years and figured I'd give it a shot. Cut my heater core intake to slide in the flush fitting. No gunk there. Popped off the rad cap and stuffed in the diverter, no gunk there. Flush the system with my garden hose, it was only35 degrees outside, thankfully it wasnt froozen. I watched all my coolant come out the rad. Looked great. Drained out some water via the flush fitting and added the flush chemicals, let it run for 10 minutes, ate dinner, and flushed the whole system again with the garden hose. Sytill looked great. No gunk. Removed the lower rad hose and watched the gusher, no gunk anywhere. Replaced the thermostat, it had a little residue on it. Added my Dexcool, topped off with water and let here warm up and run for another 10 minutes.

Maybe I am one of the lucky ones, however I have never had any trouble with Dex-Cool, in any of the vehicles I maintain, and its a small fleet. Its all in routine maintenance, or rather the lack thereof.

 

Prestone All Makes All Models is formulated exactly like Dex-Cool. It is just dyed green to bypass licensing fees for printing Dex-Cool on the jug. Since it is Dex-Cool, it is not anywhere close to being like green coolant. The same holds true for Wal-Mart SuperTech coolant and Peak Global coolant.

Never use the old-type green coolant in a Dex-Cool system. It had a high level of phosphates and silicates. You probably can't even get the old-type green in stores anymore which is a good thing.

Instead, go with the new-type Zerex green coolant. It has a lower level of silicates and works well in both gas and diesel engines...

http://www.valvoline.com/pages/produ....asp?product=8

Also be sure to use DISTILLED WATER ONLY!!! It is OK to install a backflushing tee and backflush with city water from a garden hose, but be sure to drain the overflow tank, radiator, and engine block of the city water when you are done backflushing and flush it out with distilled water a few times. You can drain about 95% of the city water out of the engine block by removing the lower radiator hose from the bottom of the engine. Flushing with distilled water dilutes the remainder of the city water to a level so low that all of the water is almost completely distilled water. After you do that, drain the distilled water from the overflow tank and radiator and pour in the new coolant. It will mix with the distilled water still in the engine block and usually give you a 50/50 to 60/40 ratio of coolant to distilled water.

 

Dexcool isn't a bad product AS LONG AS you follow the recommendations. It's only good for 5 years or 150K miles WHICHEVER occurs first. You reach 5 years and only have 50K on it and you still change it out. That's the boat I'm in right now. Really low miles but at the 5 year mark.

 

No problems here either......replaced alot of my cooling and heating system.......but i dont think dexcool is at fault.

these stupid rads have plastic ends....like wtf is the point of that.......to give weak spots for it to crack and blow.......I just think thats retarded.