Vader

For those of you who are DexCool haterz, allow me to relate my experience.

I acquired my 1986 TA LB9/auto from the original owner many years ago (1994). It had 22,292 miles. I knew the owner and "ribbed" him since he bought it new that if he ever wanted to off-load it, he should consult me. I finally had to put up or shut up. At 6 years of age and 18,000 miles he had replaced the heater core due to leakage. After another 7 years I had to replace the heater core again, in March or 1999. I switched to DexCool as a hedge against metal ion leaching and more failures. The radiator is the original aluminum/plastic unit, and aluminum is particularly susceptible to etching from coolants. That includes the aluminum intake base, water outlet, and other non-ferrous parts.

Fast-forward to May 2017.

After another 18 years of summer use/winter storage, and running the odometer all the way up to 50,280 miles, I discovered yet another coolant leak. However, this time it was a leaking hose connection at the throttle body coolant manifold. I was forced to both tighten the hose clamp an entire one-half turn AND fill the radiator and coolant reservoir (I tell ya, it ain't fair!).

That's just my personal experience, but I am more than satisfied that I chose to switch to DexCool (OAT coolant) and maintain it properly for the last 18 years. I think I'll continue with my experiment for another couple decades.

Fast355

iTrader: (2)

I had the opposite experience with my 1997 Express van. Coolant was changed every 5 years per the service recomendation in the owners manual. It has gone through 2 front heater cores and a radiator along with heavily corroding the aluminum intake manifold. The Deathcool also gummed up the coolant jackets of the engine and required a chemical flush to clean it out. I flushed the Dexcool out about 4 years ago and went to Nissan green coolant. I work for a Nissan dealer and we very seldom see cooling system issues even on aluminum block engines. I had the intake, heads and water pump off for a head and cam swap last year and things looked great this time around.

GeneralDisorder

iTrader: (1)

My experience has been that if the system is maintained and kept leak free then it's fine. Something about this coolant doesn't play well with air in the system. Reacts with it and gels/gums up the works. I think the theory is that it would seal small leaks.... just a guess though.

This is a particularly frustrating "feature" when paired with GM's late 90's and early 2000's plastic intake gaskets. These notoriously fail to one extent or another and then you have some idiot pouring coolant into the system to keep it "topped up" but it's running most of the time with air pockets and it turns to sludge.

The green stuff just doesn't do that. It never gels or forms serious crusty garbage in the system unless it's been mixed with poor quality city water or something. If you run the green with distilled water and change it every few years it's fine. No it doesn't last as long. And yeah if you are ON TOP of leaks and maintenance the OAT stuff is fine too. But most consumers aren't and this stuff ain't forgiving in that respect.

On the subject of import coolant - Subaru has a blue variant used since about 2010 or so. It's good for 11 years on the initial fill. We have seen zero problems with this stuff. It's available from Worldpac now at about $11 a gallon pre-mixed. If your not aware, Subaru uses 100% aluminum engines - been that way since the 60's. This is pretty good stuff also.

GD

jmd

iTrader: (4)

Nice outline of the problem, GEnDis.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

I've never had good luck with pink juice in the old SBC/BBC motors. Mostly, it seems to find its way out of all the gaskets. The one on the back of the WP and the corners of the intake the most; head gaskets somewhat as well. Each of those places seem to always build up a crust of pink dusty stuff over time.

Which is ALOT different from "hating" on the stuff... it's every bit as "good", and long-lasting and all that, just... not as suitable for some applications as green juice.

Newer motors with O-rings and other modern sealing techniques are a whole other matter though. I have no "horror stories" whatsoever.

GeneralDisorder

iTrader: (1)

Isn't Deathcool "Orange" juice? LoL

Toyota is definitely the "pink" juice from my experience.

Some of the Euro stuff is pink or purple also.

Once I get my system flushed out enough I'm going to use the Subaru "Chevy Blue" stuff. Mostly cause I like the color.....

GD

Vader

I would agree that the key ingredient is maintenance.

I have 9 vehicles on DexCool with a total of over 1.1 million miles accumulated, with four of them pushing or over 200K. One has the Chevy 262 V-6 which had the classic intake flange leak. No problems since. Two are Buick 231s, both of which had the common coolant elbow problem (happens with any coolant) but never the LIM gasket problem, and the rest are SBCs, untouched other than the heater core issues on the TA a millennium ago. I know others have had differing experiences, but thought I'd offer an update after this morning's seasonal startup experience.

lewandom

I've had nothing but bad experiences with it, I used it in my 84 camaro when I put a 350 in it, 4 heater cores and a radiator layer I pulled the engine for a re-build (and stroked it to a 383)and all the coolant passages were half blocked by an orange sludge (my engine builder had fun with that) and now my wife's 5.3L Tahoe is loosing about a gallon of coolest a month, and we can't fig out where it's going, no milkshake oil, no wet spot on the floor, no wet carpet so when I'm home for drill in 2 weeks I have to pull her truck completely apart and see what's wrong, there's a GM tsb on Dexcool, and a special flush process for it, I'm debating on filling my wife's truck with Dexcool or the green stuff when I find the problem

lewandom

BTW I'm at work using the voice to text feature so don't beat me up on spelling and grammer it's my phones fault

Fast355

iTrader: (2)

Look into the Castech head issue on the 4.8/5.3 engines. Have seen many cracked aluminum heads on those engines. No coolant seems to get into the oil, it all just turns to steam and gets blown out the exhaust.

I cracked a pair of 062s on my Express van a few years ago and never got coolant/oil milkshake either. I drove it for 6 months losing a gallon a month of coolant. Pulled the heads thinking a head gasket issue, the machine shop found both heads had cracks through the exhaust seats. I put Edelbrock Etecs 170s on it. Later I lost coolant again and warped them and did get a little sign of milkshake. Moral to the story there. Change all the heater hoses on a 20 year old conversion van and to make sure one does not split open un-noticed on the highway.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

My 5.3 LM7 has the Castech problem right now... it DEFINITELY affects the oil. There's pink/orange foamy crap on the oil cap of course, but the oil gets kinda thick and not as slippery as it was originally in a few k miles; plus the filter gets clogged up with something. Yuck. Not the same thing as what happens with green juice but still not good at all. I'm thinking a LQ9 might be the best repair for the long term.

Fast355

iTrader: (2)

They don't all get coolant in the oil and driving habits seem to effect that as well. I was driving the Express 30 miles one way on the highway to and from work with the cracked vortecs and other than a slight startup misfire occasionally it never had any signs of a coolant leak into the engine.

LQ9 6.0L would be a great setup especially if you put some rectangle port LS3/LY6 heads and intake manifold with the 90mm throttle body on it

redneckjoe

people either love it or hate it. i've never seen anything but problems with it building sludge in my experience. would never even consider putting it any of my vehicles. but thats just me.

what are we to think of the class action lawsuit against GM for dexcool? i would imagine there was evidence in the ruling?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

062 and 706 heads crack in different ways at different places for different reasons and produce different results.

Castech 706s crack right next to certain of the head bolts, under the rocker shafts, where there's a good bit of stress from the bolts, and the casting is real thin right there. Puts coolant right straight into the crankcase. Nowhere else. No effect on driveability since it doesn't go into the cyls or intake tract or any such. Driving habits don't have anything to do with it, other than maybe, doing things that heat up the motor more than some others.

I've never had any trouble with Dexcool or equivalents in any motor I've ever had that was designed for it. And of course, properly maintained... above all, no green juice or "universal" stuff, and no tap water.

NoEmissions84TA

iTrader: (1)

DO NOT USE TAP WATER! Use DISTILLED - buy it at WalMart in the grocery aisle.
Real green Prestone has always worked for me. My cooling systems look like new even after 15 years. I bought my aunt's 2003 Toyota Camry LE V6 recently with 92K miles on it. NO maintenance was ever done, except oil changes using WalMart oil. I changed ALL the fluids. The red coolant was still like new and I had to make a repair to this EGR cooler thing on the back of the block. It is a removable plate. So I got to look right inside the block at the cylinder liners. They looked like day 1, AMAZING! So I'm thinking of trying the red Toyota coolant when I get the TransAm going again.

2 things that were not mentioned:
Flushing - an old radiator shop told me they use Lestoil - get it at Lowes.
USE Zinc anodes - they combat galvonic action. They work. Got mine from JCWhitney many years ago.

84 Z-28 350

i thought it was the castech head issue too, So I bought a new set of heads, gaskets and bolts, and I plan on changing them out when I go home for drill in 2 weeks, hopefully there is no other damage done or ells were screwed, as I'm only home from the 26th to the 6th and I'm on drill from the 30th to the 4th (my plane leaves the 5th and gets back here on the 6th) and my wife need to use the Tahoe to go to her parents house in north Cali in the middle of June (2 kids 2 dogs and luggage don't fit very well in a '08 trailblazer)...things look pretty straightforward, I've never done any major work on a LS engine, are there any surprises I should know about?

84 Z-28 350

BTW....I have 2 profiles on here...I lost my 84 Z-28 350 password awhile ago, so I made the lewandom one...now I was able to reset my 84 Z-28 350 password, but the lewandom one is saved in my phone....is there any way to merge the 2?

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

https://www.law360.com/articles/5113...engine-coolant

GM was accused of neglecting to adequately warn motorists that its engines' “composite plenum gasket” interacted with the accompanying organic acid technology coolant in such a way as to lead to abnormal disintegration.

This premature wear did not occur in cars equipped with metal gaskets that used traditional antifreeze coolants, the suits claimed.

Dex-Cool allegedly works differently than conventional antifreezes by allowing corrosion to form, then halting its growth by chemical reaction. But the coolant, in conjunction with the composite gasket, caused accelerated corrosion that would not be expected by a reasonable consumer, the motorists alleged.

Despite receiving complaints from motorists, engineers, dealers, fleet accountants and service technicians, the company failed to honor a federally mandated warranty that promised to repair or correct defective parts at no cost to motorists, they said.