Supertech aka Peak

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Cold January reached -24 F. My radiator turned slush ice, last flush 6,000 miles back, 1 year ago. Should have done alright, but it looked like brown slime. No ability to even read the glycol in a clear site gauge. 2 day potent anti rust wash, I was fully cleaned and rinsed. In goes new Supertech, cut 50% distilled water. I run engine, re top off. Then test, get + 6 F. Not happy. Check 2 new gallon concentrate jugs, both about same result undiluted. After calling Walmart corporate, then visiting store, getting refunded and hunting down Prestone after about 4 tries, I am ready to swap fluid again. The Prestone does far better, about -20F at 50% dilute.

I hunt down a contact at Peak after reading on here where it appears to be the same supplier as Supertech. They reply on the + 6 F and claim that is what their product tests at undiluted. They don't address why the color was totally clear, zero hint of yellow or green. I think I got 2 gallons 30 days apart from a faulty quality control issue.

Chime in, could use some feedback. I have a bad radiator, the freeze busted a plastic fitting, so this task drags on and on..
 
When you flush the system with water - - - a LOT (like more than a gallon, often a lot more) gets "left behind"

YOU MUST ACCOUNT for all this water to dilute what you refill the system with.

You can add 50/50 mix into the system, but because so much water got left behind - - - you only end up with 20/80 or 70/30 or whatever.

That is why the FIRST jug that goes in MUST be 100%!!!

NOT mixed, or pre-mixed, or diluted.
 
Does Supertech even sell a non-diluted antifreeze? I always have to go to Advanced Auto to buy 100% concentrate and it's usually Zerex and never Prestone or Peak.
 
Just because you drained the radiator does not mean that you drained the block. Usually you can't get the water out. You put the premixed stuff on top of the water and that dilutes it even more.

You need some concentrate then add your premixed on top of that. What kind of car?
 
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Originally Posted by Linctex
When you flush the system with water - - - a LOT (like more than a gallon, often a lot more) gets "left behind"

YOU MUST ACCOUNT for all this water to dilute what you refill the system with.

You can add 50/50 mix into the system, but because so much water got left behind - - - you only end up with 20/80 or 70/30 or whatever.

That is why the FIRST jug that goes in MUST be 100%!!!

NOT mixed, or pre-mixed, or diluted.


^This. I did a post earlier today where I used dilution to fill the system with distilled water. On my engine, with the radiator empty there was still one gallon inside the engine. The first thing I added was one gallon of 100% concentrated antifreeze . Then I topped up with. 50-50 mixture of anti freeze and distilled water.
If it didn't get this cold, no one would have noticed your issue.
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Not only the block as mentioned, but your heater core was full of straight water. All that water added to 50/50 means a pretty weak mixture.

When I'm done flushing a system, I add half the system capacity of straight antifreeze. So, if the book says 16 qt capacity, I add 8 quarts of concentrate, and the rest distilled water. That way I know I'll end up with 50/50.

BTW, it's absolutely normal for straight antifreeze to have a higher freezing point than 50/50.
 
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Pure ethylene glycol has a freezing point of +9, so it makes perfect sense for a concentrated coolant (which is mostly ethylene glycol with a small percentage of additives) to test at +6

The color you would see (yellow, green, etc) is a dye. It is possible they don't put a special color dye in their generic coolant. Most "all makes all models" coolant is very light in color in order to not change the color of the coolant that's already in your radiator.

If you had by chance used the 50/50 ST coolant and then cut that with 50% water, you had 25% coolant and 75% water. And the freezing point of 25% coolant is around +6

Attached is the phase diagram for ethylene glycol and water, though it is in degrees C and not F

What kind of car is it? How much water/coolant does the block hold? Some hold hardly anything, while some hold a lot.

Originally Posted by Reddy45
Does Supertech even sell a non-diluted antifreeze? I always have to go to Advanced Auto to buy 100% concentrate and it's usually Zerex and never Prestone or Peak.


Yes, Walmart does sell a Supertech non-diluted coolant. There's a blue jug and a white jug. One is the concentrate, one is the 50/50


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A semi scientific way to calculate how much trapped volume your cooling system has is to do a test refill of the system with relatively cheap distilled water and note the difference between the published cooling system capacity and the actual refill amount required. The difference is the amount of trapped water being held up in the cooling system. When you do the actual antifreeze refill, start by adding an amount of pure antifreeze equal to the trapped volume, then finish up with 50/50.

As others have noted, it is not uncommon for about half the cooling system capacity to be undrainable. That has been the case on all my cars and kid's cars I've worked on during the past 20 years - regardless of engine size.
 
I'm having some difficulty deciphering exactly what happened, but as others note, seems most like an AF concentration issue than an AF brand issue. If you know your system capacity and you use a concentrated AF to 50% of system capacity, you should be protected to -34F. If you completely flushed the system with water and used a premix (half water) you wouldn't be there with one AF radiator fill. While wasteful, you would have to do more radiator d&fs with the premix and check with an AF tester till you get the desired concentration. You could use a concentrate, but you would still need check with AF tester for concentration after mixing.

With system flush, using a concentrated AF is pretty much a must.

If you can't find system capacity, should be in owners manual, link to Amsoil Online Guide will give it to you. Fill in year, then click build list. Once complete, capacity will be listed.

https://www.amsoil.com/AmsoilGarage/internal/vehiclelookuppage.aspx
 
According to my deep MSDS search, Prestone is the maker of Supertech coolants. In fact, Prestone is the sole maker of Walmart private labeled coolants sold in Mexico, the United States and Canada.
This isin't like Supertech motor oil which has a few suppliers. Most likely the OP made a mistake or someone returned coolant to Walmart and refilled the jugs with water. But the OP should have noticed that since the jugs are sealed. And he should have noticed if he was pouring something clear out of a jug.
 
The supertech jugs are foil sealed from the factory; I always make sure to check. I absolutely wouldn't put it past someone to return water or some sort of used coolant to Walmart.

I'm sure it's just as bad as having less water, but I always try to go 60:40 coolant:water ... that way, if I am on the side of the road and need to top up or something, I won't have to worry about not having enough antifreeze/coolant in the system. The lower radiator hose on my truck leaks (I'll never buy another continental hose) and I usually end up topping it off with straight coolant.

I've seen people flush a system with straight water and then only fill the reservoir/degas bottle with 50:50 and have issues.
 
I used supertech in my jeep, also noticed it not being very colored either. Its funny that it makes you think its "Not as potent" when im sure the product is fine.

In my XJs cooling system I know it takes ~12qts, Ill do a distilled water flush a couple times and then note how much it takes to bring it back to full of water. Then I know how roughly much water is inside the block to account for.
 
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His first and only post.
Sorry it happened, but at -24 that's no time to find you aren't covered.
That would /should have been known 6000 miles ago when the flush was done.
 
Originally Posted by thescreensavers
I used supertech in my jeep, also noticed it not being very colored either. Its funny that it makes you think its "Not as potent" when im sure the product is fine.

In my XJs cooling system I know it takes ~12qts, Ill do a distilled water flush a couple times and then note how much it takes to bring it back to full of water. Then I know how roughly much water is inside the block to account for.


I always have 50/50 ready to go back in my Cherokee. I lose the upper radiator hose at least once a year. The coolant gets frequent changes / flushes because of that.
 
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