I just did a complete rad flush on a '97 Taurus with the Vulcan 12V motor. They don't tell you what the coolant was on the thing, but it was a horrrible dark brown color, so I think it was dexcool. Anyway, I flushed the system with water, used presone flush, then flushed with water again. I then filled with 50% green anti-freeze. Am I causing future problems or was my flushing enough to get the crap out of the system. I don't want to have to flush it all out again and put rustcool in it, but...
Rad flush, then dexcool to regular green
- Thread starter carrera79
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As far as I know.......Dexcool was only used in GM vehicles.
99 F150
My owners' manual calls for either green, or dex-cool(orange).
The Auto Zone mgr said dex-cool was required on all makes, 97 and newer. Don't know why he said that, though.
My old coolant was the same color you described and I thought it looked brown and green AND orange???
I think it's ok if you left a little super flush in there. If it wasn't safe, prestone could sell it only to repair shops.
Joe
My owners' manual calls for either green, or dex-cool(orange).
The Auto Zone mgr said dex-cool was required on all makes, 97 and newer. Don't know why he said that, though.
My old coolant was the same color you described and I thought it looked brown and green AND orange???
I think it's ok if you left a little super flush in there. If it wasn't safe, prestone could sell it only to repair shops.
Joe
Joe, I'm pretty sure that I didn't leave anything in there. After I did the flush I drained, filled, ran for ten minutes, drained and then ran the hose in the overflow tank with the drain open for about fifteen minutes with the heater on full till the water was completely clear. The overflow tank still has some nasty brown stains in it. The owners manual said "dexcool if your car came with orange coolant and regular if it's green" Well, I couldn't really tell, and furthermore I hate dexcool. I just hope that I'm not going to cause any major issues with the system if it was dexcool in there and I replaced with green. BTW-it's my girlfriends car, so I wouldn't ever hear the end of it if it blew up.
Wow....I learn something new everyday.
I thought ford used the G-05 stuff.........must be why I don't get paid for thinkin.
I changed my truck from dexcool to the green stuff 2 years ago, and no problems so far.
sbc350gearhead,
I'm not all that into the coolant thing, so maybe it is G-05, if that is considered to be "Dexcool Equivalent" After looking again that's exactly what it said in the manual. I'm glad to hear that changing wasn't a bad idea. I really just can't understand the whole necessity of dexcool in the first place. Just clean out the radiator every two years...
I'm not all that into the coolant thing, so maybe it is G-05, if that is considered to be "Dexcool Equivalent" After looking again that's exactly what it said in the manual. I'm glad to hear that changing wasn't a bad idea. I really just can't understand the whole necessity of dexcool in the first place. Just clean out the radiator every two years...
G-05 is quite a bit different than Dexcool. That said, neither of these products were used in a 97 Ford.It originally probably had ordinary green stuff in it. The nasty brown color described was no doubt nothing more than rust. A lot of people top off their cooling systems with plain water when the level gets low. After several years of doing this the anti corrosion chemicals become depleted and rust starts happening.
Ford now uses G-05. G-05 is reasonably compatible with most other anti-freeze types but it's best not to mix types.
Ford now uses G-05. G-05 is reasonably compatible with most other anti-freeze types but it's best not to mix types.
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