for all those that attribute dexcool to causing their intake manifold gasket to fail, i blame gm. I have a 98 blazer with 122,000 miles on it. 100,000 of which have been without dex and the intake gasket still failed. this may have been mentioned previously, i did not take the time to read the entire post, but those are my thoughts. i dont believe that dexcool is the problem.... if you ever have a chance take a look at the gasket that is now used to replace the intake gasket on a 4.3 and you will understand

 

OK I have Dex-cool in my '95 Blazer and really hasn't given me a problem, however is it always flushed on a yearly basis. Now ... my Bonneville ... thats another story, had a very severe Lower Intake Gasket that was caused buy the Dex-cool or Dex-Kill as I like to call it. Apparently it loves to eat plastic parts and the LIMG on a 2000 Bonneville is plastic .... Needless to say after replacing the affected parts .. that vehicle does NOT have dex-kill in it anymore buy is running Prestone Any-type and next coolant flush the Blazer shall be running the same

 

i've had nothing but issues with dexcrap. i bought my blazer january of 07 and had to do 6 flushes from the lot i bought it from because they wouldn't get it through their heads that there was a issue with the coolant. i had heating issues because there was either air pockets or some kind of dexcrap that was going into the heating core. ended up throughing in the greenstuff and haven't had a problem since! i have always had that concern tho if anything would get messed up with the engine considering there are aluminium parts.... i've heard alot about things getting eatin up after switching to a different coolant than dexcrap for our vehicles. anyone have a answer for me on that info? i've done quite a bit of research on it and seen nothing to serious but it still bugs me a bit....

 

Nothing should get "eaten up" by any coolant. Almost all coolants now are the same OAT type that Dexcool is, just with different additive packages.

Sounds like you experienced what neglect can do to a vehicle.

 

Yes, I guess they missed the information that air in the coolant system is a known major contributor to problems with DexCool and that the plastic material in the manifold gaskets is known to break down with any type coolant.

 

Actually most heavy Trucks use extended life coolant. Of course if one of our drivers doesn't check the coolant level on the truck they get in crap, and we check the level of the additive packedge with a test strip and add a coolant additive or change the coolant filter if the levels aren't right. So it seems to work okay as long as it maintained.

 

This crap is what has plugged my rad and knocked out the manifold gasket from air in system and then you get the dreaded black powder residue. It also is the blame for premature right front wheel bearing failure due to overflow tube located there (I'm on my second one in less then 50k).

Good luck getting it out of the Radiator once it gets as bad as it has in mine and I get people telling me all the time they think my rig is brand new as I'm **** about taking care of it inside out and under the hood.

So I'm not one of those that abuse's the truck and unfortunately have had big problems with the Death-Cool.....

98 LT 4X4

 

Interesting the differences we've all had with Dex cool. I've had numerous GM vehicles, most went to 200,000 miles and I've never had a cooling system issue with any using Dex Cool.

 

i have never had a problem either. It all has to do with maintenance

 

It seems to depnd on he vehicle. I have a 98 trans am and a 2001 jimmy. Both vehicles have been taken care of similarly. The coolant system in my trans am looks fine, but the blazer has had terrible sludge and corrosion. I do now run the green stuff in the blazer and it seems to be cleaner. Who knows what factors contribute?