That darn Dex-cool...

[Subdued]

I mean dexcool is basically Lucifer in liquid form

 

[Ignatz]

I put Dex-Cool (by accident) in my 1993 MB at 91,000 miles during a water pump change. Last week at 279,500 miles I changed that water pump in it. Dex-Cool always comes out looking new every 3 years. Owned this thing for 19 years, and still running good.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Next time, use Peak Global Lifetime

 

[69GTX]

Dexcool in my '99 Camaro since day 1. Radiator still looks perfect. Keep air out of the system, change it every 3-5 yrs and you'll be fine.

 

[sw99]

Deathcool didn't destroy your radiator? Unbelievable...

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: sw99

Deathcool didn't destroy your radiator? Unbelievable...

It did NOT destroy mine either, and I have a 2000 MY version of his car, albeit with 11 times+ the mileage of his f body.

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2

I didn't have that mentality... Rather between 6-8 cars, and an infant in that timeframe, plus a lot of stuff going on at work... I need to make a better reminder system for the less used cars...

hang a maintenance chart in the garage. Everytime you do maintenance on a frequently used car you will see the state of affairs of all.

 

[TiredTrucker]

Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog

Next time, use Peak Global Lifetime

I use the red color Peak Global Final Charge ELC coolant in every engine I own that uses coolant. From my JD Gator on up thru my commercial semi truck. My Chevy pickup and my Cadillac gets the same coolant. Nitrite Free, Silicate Free, Borate Free, Phosphate Free, OAT coolant. 1 million mile / 8 yr service life, though that is well beyond anything that fits in my comfort zone. 500,000 miles is all I can get my mind around for my commercial trucks.

 

[dlundblad]

Looks very good. I have no issues with Dex Cool. Assuming it wasnt mixed with anything else and properly maintained, it should be good.. even then, its hard to blame the fluid in this case. Obviously, you don't have the PO neglect issues to deal with.

 

[Gasbuggy]

My Cavalier is looking great at 282,000 miles. DexCool not maintained as well as yours. It was changed at 90,000 miles. Then again around 210,000. 1 water pump, changed preemptively.

 

[69GTX]

Originally Posted By: dailydriver

Originally Posted By: sw99

Deathcool didn't destroy your radiator? Unbelievable...

It did NOT destroy mine either, and I have a 2000 MY version of his car, albeit with 11 times+ the mileage of his f body.

The 1st owner of my car didn't change the coolant for the first 12K miles/12 years. I'd say that's pretty extreme even for a car that mostly sits. The fluid looked a dirty brown but nothing bad happened. Now on 4 year exchanges. The 4 yr old fluid that came out this weekend looked essentially new.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2

98 S-10 ZR2... Owned since new. Last time I did coolant, 2009 (!), no signs of discoloration that I can recall. I know the picture/compression is poor but I reviewed the original, and there's not really any sign though there is a little darkening in some of the fins.

That's pretty good since the extended life Dex-Cool is advertised to protect for 5 years/150K coolant. I sure they must have some 'safety factor' in their protection guarantee. Yes, time flys by fast, and I just pulled maintenance log notes on my Hayabusa motorcycle and the last time I changed the coolant with Prestone brand Dex-Cool (and added water wetter) was in 2006 ... 10 years ago!! I swore I changed it about 5 years ago. I plan on doing a coolant change tomorrow and I'm crossing my fingers the coolant system is still in good shape. Will see just how good the anti-corrosion ability of Dex-Cool is.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Did the coolant change on the Hayabusa today and was presently surprised when I didn't see any sign of corrosion what so ever inside the radiator. The Dex-Cool was in there little over 10 years (yeah, crazy), but the mileage on it wasn't very much, ~2000 miles. I did however see a few little chunks of what looked like black rubber in the bottom of the drain pan, so something that's rubber in contact with the coolant is degrading. I'm thinking it might be rubber coating on the edges of the head gasket ... don't really know for sure. The rubber on the radiator cap looked good, so it wasn't that. Or maybe it's some RTV type of sealant that was used during assembly at the factory? Not really concern at this point. Also saw what looked like tiny shavings of aluminum. Not sure what that could be except maybe the water pump is shaving its housing a little bit? The water pump bearings shouldn't be bad, the bike only has 15K miles on it.

 

[02SE]

Post some pics of the rubber bits. I might be able to help identify them.

 

[eddy21]

There's no valid reason to run Dex cool in a motorcycle. Nothing to gain lots to lose , The head gasket is layered metal , No rubber used in headgasket .

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: 02SE

Post some pics of the rubber bits. I might be able to help identify them.

The little bits of black rubbery material would be hard to capture in a photo. Based on looking at it closely under magnification, the only place I think this material could be coming from inside the cooling system is the thin rubbery layer that's on the head gasket. The base gasket on the cylinder has the same rubber coating and can be seen from outside the engine if you look at the seam of the gasket. Of course, there is no coolant contact on the base gasket, but there is on the head gasket. Photo of an OEM Busa head gasket below.

Originally Posted By: eddy21

There's no valid reason to run Dex cool in a motorcycle. Nothing to gain lots to lose , The head gasket is layered metal , No rubber used in headgasket .

What's there to lose by running Dex-Cool in a motorcycle if it uses a metal head gasket? The only reason I ran Dex-Cool was so I didn't have to change coolant as often. On this bike the head gasket is layered metal (4 layers), but there seems also be a rubber type material used on the gasket top and bottom surfaces. I didn't even know this until now after researching it further. See attached photos I found of the OEM head gasket. The coolant goes through all the holes around the cylinders, but makes contact with the rubbery material. I'm not totally sure if the material right around each cylinder hole is rubber or some other material, seems like rubber wouldn't last long in that location with combustion going on in the cylinders. Hard to say if the Dex-Cool is causing this rubbery layer to degrade, or if it was the Water Wetter, or if it's just normal degradation of the material with time. There wasn't a whole bunch of material in the drain pan, but it was something I definitely noticed. I was thinking of dropping the fresh Dex-Cool I installed yesterday and flushing the system well and going to a regular anti-freeze.

 

[Michael_P]

It seems a large portion of intake manifold gasket failures with Dex-Cool stem from the 3.4L V6 pushrod engine. I think this engine has done more damage to the Dex-Cool name than Dex-Cool itself.

 

[Sayjac]

Quote:

It seems a large portion of intake manifold gasket failures with Dex-Cool stem from the 3.4L V6 pushrod engine. I think this engine has done more damage to the Dex-Cool name than Dex-Cool itself.

The 3.8L had it's share of LIM issues too. Add in the angle neck fill holes and non pressurized recovery tanks making it extremely difficult to completely fill the system, and all the issues associated with Dex including gelling (Dex crud) could and did occur. And even the OP pristine looking 4.3L system, had LIM gaskets done as preventative measure.

 

[Michael_P]

I hear ya Sayjac. I did a LIM on a 2001 LeSabre last year. It was a non expansion tank.