DexCool coolant

The higher use of aluminum in engine block major parts sets stage for higher reactivity between them and the gaskets are in the middle of it. GM has it down to a science where they figure they can save 4 or 5 bucks a car by not increasing antifreeze consentration to 60% or so to further limit the water component in coolants reactivity with engine parts plus built in service requirements too. I have little doubt that if GM had shipped cars with a 50/50 mix of regualr antifreeze the end result would be the same or worse as the coolant has a lot bigger task than it did 10 or 15 years ago and higher than 50/50 is really the best way to deal with it.

Always use DISTILLED, not "filtered" or "drinking" water, in coolant and batteries.

coolant

Yes this is a given, you should never use tap water especaily in batteries!

If you think that increasing the concentration of dexcool to 60/40 is going to help anything, you are sadly mistaken. The normal strength for antifreeze has always been a

50/50 mixture...unless you happen to live somewhere where you encounter extreme cold temps. Bumping up the strength to 60/40 will neither help nor hurt. Of course....it may make you feel better and sometimes that's just as good as the real thing.

Ian

Ian

engine

You are the one sadly mistaken because I can show you two dexicool vehical 6 yerars old with original coolant (between 60 and 70%) and it is still bright and clean and so is overflow tank. I can show you a 16 year old burb that has always been around 70% and the core and overflow tank is still clean as day one and it has not been flushed for about 7 or 8 years either. I can oslo show you a 50 year old JD tractor that has not been flushed for 19 years and is runing between

70 and 80% (to protect old radiator) and coolant still looks like new and core is clean. I also have a 26 year old jeep that runs 70% and it is clean too. Detriot uses 50/50 for cost reasons only, not because it is okay and the best solution. They can save millions of dolars in a years time by using less anitfreeze plain and simple.

Right....another scientific and well informed "opinion". Like I said.....it's the "placebo" effect...you believe whatever makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. Never mind the facts.

Ian

between

because

And how many times have you run 60 or 70% antifreeze? (I remeber when cars did not even come with 50/50 and the coolant was toast in a few years) I will bet never but you sure slam something that you know nothing about first hand. Try it and you could learn something. Water is a very powerfull reactive agent in a engine with mixed metal types and the less water you use, the better.

Hello SnoMan,

Check this link out...

Even though I "know" DexCool is an ethylene glycol-based solution, I still use 60% of the stuff with 40% water. Haven't had any issues with it and although I would tend to agree with you on "the less water...better" approach, I have never gone over the 60% mark -- might try a little more for of the stuff for, say, a year...

The key to problem-free cooling systems using glycol-based solutions is to use distilled water, always.

Regards, Franko

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No, of course I know nothing about coolant, proper mixtures...etc. I've only been a licenced mechanic plying my trade for about 25 years. Are you a licenced mechanic working on cars every day for a living? Or do you just mix your coolant 70/30 and think that you have made some big breakthru in coolant technology because your coolant is "clean"?

Ian

While I do agree it is a important factor, I still do not think it is as much a key as higher consentations of antifreeze because the more there is, the less of a factor that the water content or makeup becomes.

Guess you better check your license then because you are wrong about there being less reactivity with high consentrations of antifreeze. (and if you are too good a mech you will have less work too if cooling systems last longer. I have not been a licensed mech just a engineer and a hobby mech and a labor of love for 35 years with several courses of basic and advanced chemistry in college when I got my degree. I also wrote a thesis paper on the theroies, principles and design of IC engines and how to improve them. I am one of those guys you love or hate because I can lay my hand on a engine and feel it while listening to it too and tell you what might be wrong with it mechanically. I would not want to do it for a living as it would bore me with lack of challange so it became the hobby it did. The part that sucks is as you get older you cannot take it with you so I try to past it on. There is not ego in it at all. BTW, when I was a kid my friends dad used to use nearly pure antifreeze in his old 61 falcon (back when Prestone came in a can too) and when we tore it down one day after it was wrecked I remember how clean the cooling system was in that car even though it had well over 100k miles on it. It started me thinking about that way back then. I have never had any cooling system problems other than waterpumps and thermostats in any car I have had in over 35 years ( no corrosion or clogs or sludge) and if you choose not to believe it and learn from it, it is your loss, not mine. I have also use lower pressure caps too and I still have original hoses on my 89 and no radiator or heater core leaks either and I have been up Pikes Peak 3 times with them too and been trough the great plains at 105 plus and I have never seen engine temps above 210, even when climbing roads in Black Canyon or Mesa Verde Colorado in 2003 when it was in the upper 90?s and my burb was fully loaded and AC was on too. The boiling temps you lose with a lower pressure cap is offset pretty much by the increase in temp that 70% gives you and if you get a hose leak, it is not explosive with a 7 or 9 PSI cap like it is with a 16 or 18 PSI one.

careful, Ian

his claim to 'knowing about how an AOD works' is that he has a salvaged unit in his barn...........

TS

I really knew how one works and have since they came out over 20 years ago. I used to street rod in late 60?s through early 80?s and I tricked up quite a few trannies back then on my cars and others. The

700R4 which came out about the same time had issue too when it first came out but they fixed them after a few years and any 700R4 made can be brought to current design easily. Ford never really fixed the AOD, the just abandoned it and came out with a different design.

No, I would suggest you better recheck the thread and show me where I said anything about whether there would be more/less reactivity with high concentrations of antifreeze. I simply said that you have no proof of your assertion that running higher concentrations of antifreeze will somehow keep the cooling system running cleaner. And you still don't, you just go on about how you've run higher concentrations in the few cars that you've owned and everything has been hunky dory. I'd suggest that it has far more to do with the fact that you are probably totally anal about your vehicles and so you keep tabs on maintaining them properly.

It's not necessary to worry about this. There are enough people that buy into the auto manufacturer's "no maintenance necessary" line that I'll always be busy.

Right! I doubt that I'd either lover "or" hate you....just have a good chuckle as you laid hands on some engine and tell me what was wrong with it! I doubt you would be bored working on cars for a living, more like frustrated as you would have a tough time actually making any money doing it. It takes more then "laying on of hands" and writing thesis papers to make a good mechanic.

And even the least knowledgable of us could tell you the problems of using pure antifreeze!

By the way, I've run antifreeze concentrations up to 70% coolant, 30% water. I've run 50/50% concentrations...I've never seen anything yet that would suggest one will keep the cooling system cleaner then the other. Proper maintenance is the key, not the concentration. Higher concentration can be useful for extreme cold..but that's about it.

Hell, we even had a recent recall on some Chev/Daewoo vehicles that came from the factory with high concentrations of coolant. The coolant would gell, block the heater cores and customers would have no heat. The fix? Flush out the factory coolant, install new coolant at the proper 50/50 ratio.

Ian

Nothing to do with Dex-cool here, Ian, but just getting around to answering your question about the 4T80E trans. from hell on my wife's Aurora. Been away. Car still gets 26.2 miles to the gallon, no shift problems at all. Just keeps the SES light on all the time. I've got the latest software in the ECM it seems. Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and get another trans. A buddy has the drivetrain support tools that the manual calls for. Since the problem can be caused by shaft seals, VCC solenoid valves, torque converter problems, etc., it seems to me that an overhauled trans. is the best way to sort it out. Thanks for the link to the ECM update site.

Garrett Fulton

Which simply means you have no real understanding of chemistry or the reactive potenail of water with dissimular metals in a cooling system. The less water you have (and the more glycol) the less or lower the consentation of the reactive agent (water), the lower the electrolysis levels and the less corrrosion and sludge (by products of reactivity) you will have. I have seen the difference first hand and if you do not want to believe it it is your loss not mine. And you want me to prove it does not help yet how about you "proving" it does not? I suggest you refrain for knocking something that you have no experiance with at all simply because you do not understand it.

oh, bullshit

the amount of 'lower concentration of the reactive agent' between 50% water and 40 (or 30) won't make a damned bit of difference

ANY water will react whatever it's gonna react with

your 'experience' with 'lesscorrosion and sludge' is probably because you change coolant regularly, which is a good thing

Yea, that must be it...... You're the only one who understands and the rest of the world has it wrong. Bob