1997 Olds with Dexcool

[GreeCguy]

Just bought a 1997 Oldsmobile Silhouette van. Has 118,000 miles on it, in pretty good shape, (some dings and scratches), good tires, clean interior - paid a grand for it.

Pretty sure it has the factory fill in the cooling system. Have been reading horror stories about "Dexcool."

Question: What should I do to the cooling system on this van? I'm assuming the original owner did nothing other than oil changes. I flushed the tranny today and replaced the filter and fluid was pretty dark. This leads me to believe that other than oil changes, he did nothing but drive it and fill up the gas tank, (he's 86 years old and the van has sat in his garage for three years - he gave up his liscense and sold me his van).

Should I do a cooling system flush? Should I simply drain and fill? Should I leave well enough alone? What should I do?

I got this van for my daughter and son in law who are going to have another baby, (this will make three) and their current ride is a Kia Rio so naturally they need a bigger car. Naturally as well, I don't want them to get stranded. Thanks in advance - Glenn.

 

[Cristobal]

Flush it. If it is the factory fill, it cannot be trusted after such a time.

 

[Barkleymut]

No doubt you need to flush it. It should be very easy to visually tell if the coolant is really old.

 

[S_Walmer]

When in doubt flush it out! I always say LOL

 

[Donald]

I would drain and fill the radiator. Put back DexCool. See how bad the old coolant looks in the drain pan. If it was pretty bad then maybe a 2nd drain and fill after a few days. Otherwise let it go until fall and do another drain and fill.

 

[beast3300]

I can't co-sign the refill with Dexkill. Defintely flush it and refill with G-05 formula minus 2-Eha.

 

[maybehabitformin]

Check the intake gaskets before you do anything I have seen them with 50,000 and need replaced.Youd be a fool to use dexsludge in anything.Nobody uses that unless they dont know any better.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: maybehabitformin
Check the intake gaskets before you do anything I have seen them with 50,000 and need replaced.Youd be a fool to use dexsludge in anything.Nobody uses that unless they dont know any better.


Absolute baloney. Dex is even used by Ford now. It's a bad gasket, not an inherently evil coolant.

Replace the gasket(s) and there are no more problems.

Pure Internet baloney at its finest...

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: maybehabitformin
Check the intake gaskets before you do anything I have seen them with 50,000 and need replaced.Youd be a fool to use dexsludge in anything.Nobody uses that unless they dont know any better.


HA. I don't even need to wait for the newspaper to enjoy the funny pages this morning.

 

[PhillyJoe]

The suspect gaskets were used in the '97-'03 3.4L and 3.8L engines. Not all failed, but a good number. If the coolant looks like chocolate pudding, or you suspect coolant in the oil, it might have one of those gaskets. Our '02 3.4L Grand Am had external leaking visible. It's a $600-800 repair done at a shop, but find out if it has a problem first. The problem was using the plastic gaskets with the dexcool chemistry. Dexcool is fine with other gasket materials.

 

[maybehabitformin]

Put it in your SRT then ! Do the gaskets cause the oily residue thats coated in the coolings systems and overflow bottles? There are some ignorant people on this site!BTW where are you a technician at ?

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: maybehabitformin
Put it in your SRT then ! Do the gaskets cause the oily residue thats coated in the coolings systems and overflow bottles? There are some ignorant people on this site!BTW where are you a technician at ?


Nope, the SRT gets HOAT only.

I would agree there are very ignorant folks here sometimes. Look in a mirror lately?

I was an NIASE certified tech at three different manufacturers dealerships in the 80's and moonlighted as a tech until my kids were grown. Now i care for a fleet of GM products.

Any more questions?

 

[maybehabitformin]

A stealership tech go figure.You honestly believe the gaskets cause the oily residue left behind and not the dexcool?

 

[surfstar]

I have no oily residue in my Saturn that has run Dexcool from the factory until I replaced it with Dexclone the other year.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Seeing as we have run tons of GMC vehicles to the ground for decades with Dex and never had a single issue we are unlikely to join you in your internet hysteria.

You sure know how to make friends, we are all very impressed with yet another keyboard commando coming on strong!

 

[mechanicx]

I agree it was a intake gasket issue not a Dexcool issue. Does the gaskets leak now? Maybe they have been replaced by this point. Changing coolant type is not going to help the gaskets. I don't believe Dexcool causes black oily residue.

The only thing I will say is if you have a leaky coolant system and cap on radiator and the system doesn't stay full Dexcool doesn't work properly, not that any coolant does when ran low. But fix any leaks and then run Havoline or Zerex license Dexcool and there should be no problems.

 

[Boss302fan]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I agree it was a intake gasket issue not a Dexcool issue. Does the gaskets leak now? Maybe they have been replaced by this point. Changing coolant type is not going to help the gaskets. I don't believe Dexcool causes black oily residue.

The only thing I will say is if you have a leaky coolant system and cap on radiator and the system doesn't stay full Dexcool doesn't work properly, not that any coolant does when ran low. But fix any leaks and then run Havoline or Zerex license Dexcool and there should be no problems.


Ditto... NAPA has Dexcool a few flavors.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Seeing as we have run tons of GMC vehicles to the ground for decades with Dex and never had a single issue we are unlikely to join you in your internet hysteria.

And, last time I checked, you ran them to failure, right? That doesn't indicate a problem with the coolant, at least to me.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Seeing as we have run tons of GMC vehicles to the ground for decades with Dex and never had a single issue we are unlikely to join you in your internet hysteria.

And, last time I checked, you ran them to failure, right? That doesn't indicate a problem with the coolant, at least to me.


Yep, after a long consultation with the G team engineer that works with our factory authorized upfitter we no longer service the cooling systems AT ALL until something fails. This is routinely 200k miles or more these days.

 

[FusilliJerry82]

If its a 3.4L DO NOT use Dexcool.