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Coolant Types: 97 SL-2

Okay, I've read this stuff for years, but never bought any nor gave it much thought.

I think I understand there's two kinds of antifreeze for S-Series. Ethylene glycol (green) and Dexcool (orange) which is some tweaked version** of ethylene glycol. (**contains a mixture of ethylene glycol inhibited with

2-ethyl hexanoic acid, sebacic acid and tolyltriazole. It contains no benzoate, nitrite, nitrate, silicate, or phosphate.)

So my 97 SL-2 has the pink sticker on the reservoir and I'm thinking I need to buy the Dexcool product (like Prestone's Extended Life 5/150). Would that be correct?

The reason I need to add antifreeze is that every now and then the Saturn throws-up after I park and shut down the engine. When the low coolant indicators flash after a couple times of throwing-up, I add plain water (a

16 oz bottle of drinking water). I've done this two or three times and I need to get the antifreeze to water ratio back to about 50/50.

Here's a link I just skimmed:

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Reply to
Jonnie Santos
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Yup. That's right, Jonnie. The pink dot was orange before it faded.

Same thing on my two 97 SL2s. (I've sold them, but to family members, so I see them around.)

I've found the best thing to do is to buy a gallon of Dexcool and a gallon of distilled water. Wait until the wife is out shopping or something like it. Then, throw both the coolant and the water into one of her huge cooking pots. Mix well, pour it back into the two bottles and lable accordingly. Then, when I need some of the coolant, I simply use the pre-mixed stuff.

Oh, I wash the pot REAL GOOD before she gets back. She's not noticed yet...

Reply to
Kirk Kohnen

Kirk:

Good point on the distilled water..

Clean bottled water like Jonnie mentioned it better than tap water, distilled water is better again. Of course, some bottled water is distilled.

On using your wifes pot....you are a brave, brave man, my friend!! ;-) I hope you continue to get away with it. I'd miss your advise on this ng if she killed you. :-)

Cheers!

Glomis

Kirk Kohnen wrote:

Reply to
Glomis

You actually put the stuff in a pot? Jesus......

Don't you think it would be much easier to just use an old 1 ga jug you're bound to have kicking around? Fill it up with half water half antifreeze and shake real well......

Reply to
BANDIT2941

Great - thanks Kirk. The person at Autozone told me the colors didn't mean anything... I thanked him and left.

I'm going to top it off a couple of times with the strait stuff and do the premix trick afterwards, however I won't be using any containers related to food preparation. I've been exposed to way too many chems already. My brother used to hijack my Mom's pots and pans too - she was not a happy camper (her anger and yelling could melt roof shingles!)... (wink)

Reply to
Jonnie Santos

From what I read in the owner's manual, putting green coolant into a system designed for dexcool eats up the hoses.

I always keep a bottle of 50% coolant around for refill. I pour half the gallon into another empty gallon bottle and top each one off with good 'ol new york city tap water. Fairly low mineral content so shouldn't be a problem.

More important question, why does it overflow at all? Have you drained and backflushed the cooling system? Sediment may be impeding convection cooling flow after the engine shuts down. At least, that's the least costly scenario.

Oppie

Reply to
Oppie

...and I read if you mix the two, you have to drain/flush and are stuck using the ethylene glycol from there on out (unless you can get every last drop out and then in theory you could go back to dexcool).

I don't know why it's doing this. I thought maybe the low-coolant sensor is off (out of whack) and I'm putting too much water back into the reservoir to make the light go off. Anyway, it's infrequent and the amount is small. I've had the coolant changed a couple of times (don't know if they did a flush or just drained and refilled). The car has 88k on it, is getting tired and for most of its life I've run the heck out of it. (smile)

Reply to
Jonnie Santos

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