We own one of those few FOMOCO products (a 1998 Lincoln Town Car 4.6 V8) that the original owner's manual calls for coolant meeting Ford specification WSS-M97B44-D. One such coolant is the Prestone DEXCool in the silver jug. This car had red coolant in it when we bought it 4 years ago, and I flushed and put in the Prestone DEXCool back then. A few month back the plastic intake manifold cracked so I replaced it (car was about 11 years old and 118,000 miles). I put the Prestone DEXCool back in the system. Gotta wonder if the DEXCool played a part in the failure, or was it just in service time and poor intake manifold design/material. The 4.6 engine was used in allot of Ford products, and allot of these vehicles did not use DEXCool but still had the plastic intake manifold failures (in less time/miles than my car). I think Ford had a recall for the plastic intake manifolds. So, can we really assume DEXCool (or any other coolant) is the most likley cause of a cooling system failure?
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Gotta Wonder About DEXCool
- Thread starter mooboy
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I believe I heard it depends if it has some sort of system or not. I'm not sure. Nice car! I have a 1992.
Off topic, but where in TN. do you live? I live there to.
Off topic, but where in TN. do you live? I live there to.
Well GM invested too much to ever call it a failure I mean they kept the PT Looser aka Buick Aztec in production what 2-3 extra years after it was proclaimed a failure by almost all of the earth just to not look bad.....If they ever admited it was a bad product they would get hit with so many law suites from people that had issues caused by it. So they will run it far longer then they should and when they do phase it out they will just quitely say something to the affect if asked that the "new stuff" is just building on what they learned from Dexcool and a continious product evelotion or something like that ......They will spin it!
I think it is funy that no one not directly associated witht hem use's it and many that tried it like Ford droped it like a hot potato!A lot of companies will adopt a proven quality product to save R&D look at how many companies have used Dex productsin their transmissions and power steering systems for years......
I think it is funy that no one not directly associated witht hem use's it and many that tried it like Ford droped it like a hot potato!A lot of companies will adopt a proven quality product to save R&D look at how many companies have used Dex productsin their transmissions and power steering systems for years......
Oh and when I worked for GM keep in mind that while I regularly was in and out of plants and around hourly employee's I did not work with them! In fact to get in where I worked you had to have a 4 year college degree minimum and extensive back ground in the automotive world either paraprofessional or as a hobbyist. IN fact 95% of the staff where either ex-mechanics or tool and die or machinist that went back to college usually on GM's dime. I do not recall anyone keeping Dexcool in their car! Even my Executive who was well above 9th level would not keep the stuff in anything he owned!
I think the real answers about Dexcool and namely 2EHA are in some SAE and ASTM papers. Problem is you have to pay for them and/or be a member to get the inside scoop. Then you'd have to almost have a chemistry degree and technical info on the exact materials used in a particular applications gaskets and plastic coolant parts. Of course GM by now probably has all the info on Dexcool, and maybe the anti-freeze and gasket manufactures do as well, but none of them will tell you anything. And probably none of them really care that your gaskets and parts only last ~100K while leaking coolant into your engine along the way, instead of keep it dry for 200-300K.
My guess is that most early model cars '95-'05 are not fully compatible with Dexcool, but GM later models are. And even later models from other manufactures might not be fully compatible. The thing is when there's so much controversy around 2EHA in Dexcool and folks in the know like Ford and others rejected it, why would you use it in anything besides a late model GM car?
My guess is that most early model cars '95-'05 are not fully compatible with Dexcool, but GM later models are. And even later models from other manufactures might not be fully compatible. The thing is when there's so much controversy around 2EHA in Dexcool and folks in the know like Ford and others rejected it, why would you use it in anything besides a late model GM car?
I used DEXCool because the owner's manual calls for coolant meeting Ford specification WSS-M97B44-D, and Prestone Dexcool meets that spec. Would I be better off with G05? If the owner's manual is not correct, what is a person to do? Who to believe?
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I'm not real sure what Ford recommends but if you look at their coolant chart the recommendation for the Crown Vic (or any other Ford, Mercury and Lincoln) is , pre-99 Green and after 99 you can switch to yellow (G-05). I'm not sure why you couldn't use G-05 in a pre-99. I'd think you could, just that Ford didn't go back that far to absolutely verify it. I just realized you said Licoln Town car but the recommendations are the same.
Ford coolant chart
I can't say for sure if the Dexcool would cause any problem with your engine. But it seems like if Ford put it in for '98, they decided to stop using dexcool later. So that's not much of an endorsement and for whatever reason the coolant chart says to use Green.
If you don't mind changing it every 2 years, it wouldn't be a bad idea to play it safe and flush the Dexcool out and put Green in. I think you could use G-05 as well but Green is probably the safest bet.
I heard that Zerex supplies Ford's Yellow but I wonder if Zerex or who supplies the Green?
Ford coolant chart
I can't say for sure if the Dexcool would cause any problem with your engine. But it seems like if Ford put it in for '98, they decided to stop using dexcool later. So that's not much of an endorsement and for whatever reason the coolant chart says to use Green.
If you don't mind changing it every 2 years, it wouldn't be a bad idea to play it safe and flush the Dexcool out and put Green in. I think you could use G-05 as well but Green is probably the safest bet.
I heard that Zerex supplies Ford's Yellow but I wonder if Zerex or who supplies the Green?
the coolant has nothing to do with the intake manifold crack. The 4.6 modular is notorious for these failures.
If the coolant crossover passage was all plastic and not aluminum, it failed b/c of Ford's faulty design.
Google "4.6 Intake manifold Crack"
The revised intake manifold replacements has aluminum crossover passages for the coolant.
i replaced two in my '96 CrownVic before selling it.
POS design.
If the coolant crossover passage was all plastic and not aluminum, it failed b/c of Ford's faulty design.
Google "4.6 Intake manifold Crack"
The revised intake manifold replacements has aluminum crossover passages for the coolant.
i replaced two in my '96 CrownVic before selling it.
POS design.
Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
Well GM invested too much to ever call it a failure I mean they kept the PT Looser aka Buick Aztec in production what 2-3 extra years after it was proclaimed a failure by almost all of the earth just to not look bad.....
PT Looser aka Buick Aztek? How about putting down the bottle and trying that again.
Well GM invested too much to ever call it a failure I mean they kept the PT Looser aka Buick Aztec in production what 2-3 extra years after it was proclaimed a failure by almost all of the earth just to not look bad.....
PT Looser aka Buick Aztek? How about putting down the bottle and trying that again.
Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
Even my Executive who was well above 9th level would not keep the stuff in anything he owned!
did they use the old green? can't even find that anymore. Peak Global Lifetime?
Even my Executive who was well above 9th level would not keep the stuff in anything he owned!
did they use the old green? can't even find that anymore. Peak Global Lifetime?
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