Dexcool woes

[elc32955]

I just purchased a 97 Firebird w/3.8 about two weeks ago and I've been trying to clean a few things up... The last owner had used Dexcool but had changed it when he lost a heater core & had his radiator rodded & cored. The coolant shows green with some small red runners in the radiator, however the recovery bottle looks like crud... I power flushed that sucker for like 20 minutes the other day, thought I had it clean, and as soon as I stick the cap & dipstick back on the bottle, the stick comes out looking like it was covered with reddish sludge.... unbelieveable! No wonder there's a class action lawsuit going on right now against GM over Dexcool!! But anyway, any solution other then completely replacing the bottle? Something has to clean that junk out of the system without dissolving the hoses & the parts in the process!!

Thanks!
Eric

[Dominic]

continuously flush it with water if you're trying to convert to green.

Dexcool is a fine coolant, until any contaminants ever get mixed with it. You start adding minerals, using tap water, adding green to it, anything... and you're just asking for problems.

If you flush it, keep flushing it until there is nothing left. Be sure the heater is on and flush the whole system. It takes a good while to do and a lot of water, but its worth it if thats what it needs.

[merlinsrealm]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Dominic:
continuously flush it with water if you're trying to convert to green.

Dexcool is a fine coolant, until any contaminants ever get mixed with it. You start adding minerals, using tap water, adding green to it, anything... and you're just asking for problems.

If you flush it, keep flushing it until there is nothing left. Be sure the heater is on and flush the whole system. It takes a good while to do and a lot of water, but its worth it if thats what it needs.<hr></blockquote>

Dominic is exactly right.....I just went through this with mine....

Eric

[HankHill]

Dexcool and air do not mix, a very small coolant leak can introduce air in the system and lead to a horrific chain reaction if not corrected. Also, untill the chemistry is worked out it's safest to use only distilled water with Dexcool. Always check your coolant level and if you suspect a leak, find it right away! This leak senerio seems to be why some people never have trouble with Dexcool even after five years of use and others have problems in just a couple years or less :eek: ....beware!

HH

[PewterBird]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Dominic:
continuously flush it with water if you're trying to convert to green.

Dexcool is a fine coolant, until any contaminants ever get mixed with it. You start adding minerals, using tap water, adding green to it, anything... and you're just asking for problems.

If you flush it, keep flushing it until there is nothing left. Be sure the heater is on and flush the whole system. It takes a good while to do and a lot of water, but its worth it if thats what it needs.<hr></blockquote>


So how do you flush it out? Where do you insert the garden hose and where do you unplug to drain it?

[camaroincal]

To completely flush the cooling system you need to disconnect the radiator hose and find the plug on the block. I just unplugged the radiator hose and stuck a garden hose in and flushed it til it was clear. However, that meant that a lot of undistilled water was now in my block and I didn't know where the plug was so I said forget it and proceeded to add half distilled water and half dexcool. Well, at the time I wasn't thinking but now I have 50% hose water 25% distilled water and 25% Dexcool in my radiator.....not good...Just yesterday I took my car for a drive and I stopped at a friends house and was talking to him with the car running for about 10 minutes...slowly but surely the heat gauge starts to rise and I didn't have AC on nor was it hot outside....so NOW I'm going to buy another thing of dexcool and take off the radiator hose and let it drain til it stops and then just put in straight Dexcool to get the mix closer to 50/50...Whew that was too long lol. One more thing, make sure you put the hose in radiator overflow (Where you check the fluid level of the radiator) A TON of brown clumpy crap came out of there...

[HankHill]

Some good tips I found on another site when working with 'Death-Cool'

An important thing to remember, is knowing how to purge the system of air when you get done. You can do serious damage if you have an air pocket and the motor overheats. When you first fill the system, let it run with the cap off until it heats up, the thermostat opens, then keep filling it, the level will drop. You will need to run it for 20-30 minutes watching the temp. and topping it off. Some of our cars have a bleeder valve on the thermostat housing, open it until water starts to trickle out, which means all the air is out.
Make sure that the coolant is at a 50-50 mix. Often, the flush water was not being removed from the engine block. Consequently, when a 50-50 mix is added to the system the resultant mixture could approach 30-70. Like any fluid that has been diluted beyond its recommended levels, the lowered level of inhibitors will not be able to protect the coolant system effectively. Low levels of inhibitors can cause pitting on aluminum surfaces and general corrosion of cooling system metals.
A safe method of achieving a true 50-50 mix is to first determine the actual capacity of the system (use the owner’s manual). Then add 50% of “that” amount of undiluted DEX-COOL (or any coolant), and top it off with water.

HH

[zlexiss]

Maybe after a good flush, try blowing some compressed air through the system to get out as much tap water as possible before adding the distilled / dexcool mixture.

[Dominic]

if you need a quick engine flush, run a 1:4 mixture of water:vinegar and flush the engine with it.

Then flush with distilled H20.

Then, for the summer, if its hot outside, fill with 70% water, 30% Dex.

[*K*night Rider]

Anyone know the volume of water/coolant that the cooling system holds?

[Dominic]

Approx 1.3 gallons when you include the heater core, it isn't much. The radiator is 1/2 gallon approx.

[camaroincal]

Hi Dominic, so you're saying that a 30% Dexcool 70% water mix is good for hot weather? Because I live in Northern California and it routinely gets over 100 degrees in the summer. Lol.. the funny thing is I got this mix as an accident because when I flushed my coolant recently I didnt unplug the block so anyway to make a long story short, I should keep my current mix of 30/70 Dexcool/water? Thanks..