Prestone Dexcool

When you go to the parts department at White Plains, tell Jack and Sonny I said "Hi" :)

Then come by the showroom and introduce yourself.

-Mark Salesman, Saturn of White Plains

Personally I stay away from DexCool type antifreeze of any brand. Although it could be rumor, I heard there is some kind of class action law suit against GM for this product.

I help maintain a fleet of 15 GM cars at work. We always flush the DexCool out before it is due. Our fleet mileage is always way ahead of the "time" recommendation.

Once the DexCool is totally flushed, we always refill with the regular green antifreeze. We change the coolant every 2 years regardless of what type is in the system. And there has been absolutely no trouble once we change it over.

I can tell you this, the DexCool stuff always gets the crude around the radiator cap gasket and inside the resevoir bottle. The green stuff is always much cleaner.

I am sure other will disagree, but this is my expierence. James

Before I was enlightened by the group, I asked the guy in the store which type my Saturn used. He said they were the same and the color was basically just to help the dealer get out of doing any warranty repair work.

That will teach me to ask a teenager anything, eh? (wink)

...you've probably seen this one:

Thanks Jonnie, that resource was new to me.

I also learned that most non-binaries NGs do not accept attachments. Couldn't figure out at first where the post had gone. I have a new computer and the 'sent' folder was created under a different account than I was accustomed to. That's why I wound up posting twice. Then the post didn't appear on the news account I read from. Tried using

to find another free news server to verify if the post went out. Several servers had rejected the post but news:news.ish.de did have both posts. Those crazy Germans... (did I mention my last name is Oppenheimer). Normally I read news through which has a one-time setup fee for up to 50meg/day. Good deal since my office connection has no news server associated with it so I had to get an external one.

Robert 'oppie' Oppenheimer

I agree with James. I work in a school district fleet services shop, and we just started flushing Dexcool out of 1 year old (gasoline engine) buses with only 15,000 to 20,000 miles on them. The factory sends them to us with overconcentration and on a spectrometer the protection level is off the scale. Within that year the system develops an unrecognizable green slime.

We also found that when it reaches this state, that a high level of electrolysis (1.8 volts) is present at the radiator.

Ok, whatever was the point of Dexcool, besides apparently being good for eating away cooling systems right after the warrenty's up?

Yeah, I quit posting pics after I discovered the same. I used to have a free account at

but then the new ISP has anewserver so I quite using the one in Berlin. Germans are amazing - I love John (Jack) Northrop's flying wing from the

40's and have since discovered the Horten brothers in Germany doing the same thing about the same time. Should have figured. Oppenheimer... Robert... ??? Bet you get kidded about the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos, etc.

formulation.

Claimed lifespan of 5 years of 150,000 miles between flushes. Less hassle for the user and less chems to dispose of (in theory)...

Do a google search for "will the real mr oppenheimer" and you will get the article that Design News Magazine did on me last year. I had submitted an entry to their 'Gadget Freak' contest for engineers that use their talents in a home project and the chief editor asked to do a human interest piece. The article I submitted can be seen at

as case #42. Whimsical picture they had taken of me and I hated the caption line they used but all in all it was fun.

Oppie

To view the magazine's archives, a free registration is required.

Here is the text minus the rather good picture: What would it be like to go through life as an engineer with a name that carries powerful associations with the era of nuclear weapons, McCarthyism, and mutual assured destruction? Ask Robert Oppenheimer, an electrical engineer in Hawthorne, NY. No relation to the J. Robert Oppenheimer, he's had to put up with the usual raised eyebrows, wisecracks, and outright disbelief over his name for much of his life. Probably more than his share, given his choice of engineering as a career. "In college I took a course in relativistic physics, and when I signed my name on the exam the professor assumed some student was having fun at his expense," he recalls. "Luckily, he still passed me." These days Robert, who is good humored about it all, says that he gets more questions about the Oppenheimer Funds (no relation there, either) than the A-bomb. Guess the Cold War really is over.

Very cool - great link. I think the other R. Oppenheimer was misunderstood in the end - but it's a new day (so to speak).

McCarthyism,

I don't think the makers of Imodium AD would appreciate a product on the market that would allow users to go 5 years between flushes :)

Sorry, couldn't resist Jonnie.

But think of all the water you'd save!!!

Good point!