Quick coolant question.......

[Zesty]

Ok my car is a '92 Nissan 240sx. It requires the conventional green ethylene glycol stuff, as fas as I understand.

Today I noticed a TINY pinhole leak in the top of my radiator, and I took it to my dad's mechanic to soder up real quickly. He drained a bit of coolant to do the sodering. When he was done, he poured some orange coolant in there, from what I saw on the bottle it said "Shell Rotella".

Sorry for being a total idiot and not having any more info, but from all this, would it be wise for me to flush my radiator ASAP and replace with the green stuff?

Thanks.

 

[The Critic]

The orange "Shell Rotella" coolant you described is an extended life fluid made for diesel applications. Don't know too much about it. The green conventional EG coolant recommended for your Nissan was a high-silicate, "green-snot-of-death" coolant carrying a 2-3 yr service interval.

The small amount that the mechanic added to the system shouldn't be a problem.

If it makes your feel better, then by all means flush the system. Supertech Extended Life coolant is < $7/gal in its full strength form, and all you would need to do is drain the block and the radiator, refill with water, idle the engine for 15 min with the heater on, drain, repeat, and refill with enough antifreeze and water to achieve at 50/50 concentration.

Ray, thanks for the correction.

[ April 12, 2006, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: The Critic ]

 

[Ray H]

No. If it was indeed Rotella, it's coolant for heavy-duty diesel engine use - a premium product. It won't hurt a thing. If the mechanic uses an empty coolant jug for refill from bulk, orange might indicate DEX-COOL or Mopar's G-05. Again, no problem in the limited quantity involved. If you're still unsure, then, go for the flush and changeout so you can sleep at night the rest of the week.

 

[Zesty]

Man, I really appreciate it guys.

I would be pretty confident that it was in fact the Shell Rotella, this particular mechanic is pretty "anal" and organized about his stuff. I would feel safe in assuming it was the actual product.

Just because I'm an up-and-coming BITOGer, I wasn't patient enough to wait for an answer, so I took a turkey baster and pulled out as much of the red stuff as I could, and replaced with distillled water. Most of the red stuff was still on the top half of my radiator, because I hadn't really driven the car.

Also, the fluid was more red than I described.

Thanks for the help guys, I feel a million times better now!