Cheap coolant ($3.99 Pre-mix)

[Popinski]

I went to a hole-in-the-wall farm store and they were selling 50/50 premixed coolant for $3.99 a jug. There's no brand name and it says it was made locally in my city. Also, it says (2 years/30,000 miles formula). The color is extremely green; almost radioactive green and it's very visible on my overflow tank.

Anyone have trouble with super cheap coolant?

 

[PeteTheFarmer]

Anything on it about corrosion protection? Some cheap coolants contain glycol but not rust inhibitors.

 

[Jimmy9190]

If you need regular green coolant, good luck finding it in straight or 50/50 premix. I recently R&R'd my water pump and everywhere I looked they only had the universal, "mix with any color" type coolant for sale. I read on here that the universal stuff is bad news.

Autozone sells regular green coolant though. It's the Autozone brand in a white bottle, it cost me about $10.00 per gallon. I used that and bought a couple gallons of distilled water from the grocery store.

 

[FusilliJerry82]

Closest thing to a true universal is G-05. You should probably be using it in your Dodge.

 

[SuperFast]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
If you need regular green coolant, good luck finding it in straight or 50/50 premix. I recently R&R'd my water pump and everywhere I looked they only had the universal, "mix with any color" type coolant for sale. I read on here that the universal stuff is bad news.

Autozone sells regular green coolant though. It's the Autozone brand in a white bottle, it cost me about $10.00 per gallon. I used that and bought a couple gallons of distilled water from the grocery store.


Ive been there, ive done that
I -ALWAYS- used to think that -EVERY- bottle of "Extended life" antifreeze was ORANGE

BUT

a few times ina parts store, i got the guts up to go up to a bottle o Prestone.. and POKE THE CAP to see the color inside!

Turns out, the color on the label of the bottle of Prestone? -IS- the color of the coolant inside!

I verified this the "Call LP department" way

So, whenever you see "Prestone" Extended Life antifreeze.. that neon green color IS the color of the antifreeze! And it is ethylene glycol (green) based, and it is NOT Orange!

I also always thought the only "Orange" coolant was DexCool, and that DexCool was a HORROWR story.

Parts stores = cant see the color of the coolant
Peak = Cant see
Autozone = Cant see
O'Reillys = Cant see
Advance = Cant see
Department store = Cant see
Gas station = Cant see

.. Prestone? .. color oIS on the label (Abnnd yes, np less than three tiem si have needed antifreeze for whatever reason, and went into the store, and looked at the three, four, "five" types of coolant bottles. "Unlversal." "50/50 Do not add water." "Extended ife." "Global." Dexcool." "Eco-Friendly" - ??? .. and did NOT get it, due to the FER of gettign an antifreeze that was NOT GREEN! It took me nerve to poke the cap of antifreeze and move it to the back.. Prestone i verified is reen. Ive gotten only that since.)

Coolant can be Blue, purple, red, orange.. or even green these days.

GO GREEN! Ethylene Glycol for LIFE! Extended life, 5 year 150,000 mile Ethylene Glycol INCLUDED!

EDIT: yeah Gallons of DISTILLED water cost $1. The hard part is mixing it EXACTLY 50/50, since the gallons ARE shaped different, and pouring the water into an empty AF 50/50

container (so you dont confuse yourself as to what is what, or have it taped over two and three times and wonder, lol) .. you wonder where exacty the halfway point is. Then same with the antifreeze.. you end up with maybe a 42/58 mix in favor of water, since you tend to pour the straight antifreeze more careful, i got mine up to about 80% and about 45/55 before i said ok this is enough, lol.)

Weird, the 50/50 usually costs about $7.99 and the straight stuff $12.99. Once maybe i saw 50/50 at $9.99, but distilled water costing $1, call me nuts but its not the drastic savings youd thingk. ALSMOT makes me just want to get pre-mixed. ALMOST. Depends, i guess.)

 

[doitmyself]

To the OP, I would have no problem with super cheap coolant IF I was confident of the quality and type of chemistry it was. I would guess that your stuff is conventional, low silicate IAT type.

And, superfast,your thread implies that you are only concerned about the green color. Do you realize that Prestone is just a variation of Dexcool, dyed green instead of orange? And, that orange Dexcool and yellow G05 are ethylene glycol coolants, just like conventional, "old type"/now low silicate green IAT coolant?

 

[bullwinkle]

Unless it's Sierra or another non-toxic formula, they're ALL EG based. It's the inhibitor pack that's different-and 2-EHA is the one that "can" cause trouble-and Prestone has it. At $3.99/gallon, even for 50/50, it might be worth having an analysis done to see what's in it-that's a STEAL!

 

[mjoekingz28]

Your ruined a gallon of AF just to see what color it was, SuperFast?

 

[rpn453]

Coolant is important. Name-brand coolant is cheap. I would stick with a known brand except maybe for use in a real beater.

 

[Herz]

Zerex green is available at NAPA in pure for about 10 bucks.