I'm looking for a Ford Ranger and I found a 2000 with low miles and very little rust (near impossible to find for this age in New England). Everything looked great on the engine, it has a minor oil leak somewhere (looks like the valve cover?) When I opened the radiator cap I noticed some gunk on it and it had an orange/reddish color which was odd because I was pretty pretty sure Ford uses green or yellow. He's owned the car for 8 months and put a few thousand miles on it. I took it for a 10 minute drive and it got up to temp and didn't start to overheat at all so it doesn't seem like it's having the typical overheating issues. I left to go look at another truck and the first guy sent me a picture of the other stuff he's giving me with the truck and in the picture there's a bottle of Prestone Dex Cool so I'm almost positive he's the one that added it. I haven't called him back yet and I have a few questions before I call him back. There's a lemon law in Massachusetts where I'm buying it so if it's a massive problem I can return it to him for a full refund.
1. How much/what kind of damage can 8 months of dex-cool mixed with green do to the system? I didn't see any coolant leaks anywhere and it doesn't look like there was any K-Seal or any sort of leak stop used.
2. Would it be any different if he flushed the system at the radiator before adding the dex cool rather than just topping off with green? I doubt if he flushed he flushed at the block I'll ask after I call
3. If I do a complete flush of the system from the block, radiator, and water pump and refill with distilled and Ford green, will I be able to mitigate the damage?
Thanks for the help.
Mixed dex-cool with green stuff in Ford Ranger
- Thread starter jac962
- Start date
Flush that crap out asap
Dex-cool = Dex-KILL
The lemon law in you're state covers a 20 yr old car?
I would do like you are saying.... Total flush with distilled water and use appropriate Ford approved full strength antifreeze... Also I would go ahead and replace thermostat and radiator hoses.... and possibly replace water pump too whole your at it...
Question-- 'cause I don't know.
Doesn't the universal "fits everything" kind of coolant resemble Dex-Cool? If it does, and "everything" means the green stuff, what's the problem?
Just do a few plain distilled water flushes first and make sure you have the temp to max hot. After 3 flushes and run ups to normal operating temp, replace with whatever Ford calls for. If it's me, I'd then run the Ford Coolant
for a while and then replace with fresh and be done. I'm assuming you mix this coolant so on the first mix of Ford Coolant, I'd mix it 70% coolant and 30% distilled water. On the last mix I would go a little heavier on the coolant
Say 60/40 coolant and water.
And I would make sure I drained the block if possible. Leave the heat on max hot.
Originally Posted by Chris142
The lemon law in you're state covers a 20 yr old car?
If it were mine I'ld flush with a radiator product, remove replace the thermostat (rather than just clean it since you're there) and fill with 50/50 ETHYLENE GLYCOL ANTIFREEZE.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Super-Tech-Antifreeze-Coolant/16645420
I highly doubt that 8 months or less of having Dex-cool in there is going to have caused any significant issues. If I were buying this car, I'd probably do a citric acid cleaning with full back flush followed by a couple of distilled water flushes to get most of the tap water out, then add half the capacity of the cooling system of conventional green coolant and top off with water. After that, a biannual drain and fill with will likely keep it happy.
Yeah, what's with the "full strength" statement? No engine that I know of ever called for full strength (100% Glycol) coolant. 50% mixture is your target.
Dexcool does not have silicates, so it does not prevent corrosion of internals. It was designed for aluminum heads and block, hence the OAT additive package on top of the glycol.
Dexcool, not having silicates, will offer longer life water pump seals, among other benefits such as 5 year life.
Once silicates (green stuff) is introduced into any engine, even those designed for dexcool, you can't get rid of them. That means a two year service life forever after that. No exceptions.
Flush it however you want, refill it with Ford Green stuff @ a 50% mixture, and change it every two years or so. Simple.
Originally Posted by Chris142
The lemon law in you're state covers a 20 yr old car?
Originally Posted by csandste
Question-- 'cause I don't know.
Doesn't the universal "fits everything" kind of coolant resemble Dex-Cool? If it does, and "everything" means the green stuff, what's the problem?
Originally Posted by JohnG
Dexcool does not have silicates, so it does not prevent corrosion of internals. It was designed for aluminum heads and block, hence the OAT additive package on top of the glycol.
Dexcool, not having silicates, will offer longer life water pump seals, among other benefits such as 5 year life.
Once silicates (green stuff) is introduced into any engine, even those designed for dexcool, you can't get rid of them. That means a two year service life forever after that. No exceptions.
Flush it however you want, refill it with Ford Green stuff @ a 50% mixture, and change it every two years or so. Simple.
Thanks for all the help. I ended up buying the truck. He said he flushed the system and refilled with orange and didn't know the difference. I'l be doing a complete flush of all the components and the block tomorrow followed by a few refils and flushes with distilled water until I feel like she's sufficiently clean. The guy tossed in a water pump and timing kit so I'll just replace those while I'm in there along with a thermostat and new rad hoses.
I swear there should be a law against the way they advertise coolants. People that don't know about cars walk in and see the green stuff and right next to it they see the "100,000 mile long life coolant" stickers on the jug and they go "oh that one must be better I'll buy that". I don't even want to think about how many engines have probably been bricked because of people mixing orange and green and not knowing the difference.
What engine is in this truck?
Jake_J and clinebarger are spot on correct. Nothing wrong at all using DEXCOOL. We use it at my work where it's required and have for the 14 years I've been there. This misinformation and hatred towards DEXCOOL has to stop already.
Originally Posted by 53' Stude
Jake_J and clinebarger are spot on correct. Nothing wrong at all using DEXCOOL. We use it at my work where it's required and have for the 14 years I've been there. This misinformation and hatred towards DEXCOOL has to stop already.
Originally Posted by jac962
If I do a complete flush of the system from the block, radiator, and water pump and refill with distilled and Ford green, will I be able to mitigate the damage?
Originally Posted by Driz
Originally Posted by 53' Stude
Jake_J and clinebarger are spot on correct. Nothing wrong at all using DEXCOOL. We use it at my work where it's required and have for the 14 years I've been there. This misinformation and hatred towards DEXCOOL has to stop already.