Using Food Coloring to Dye your Coolant

[The Critic]

Given Zerex G-05's "weak" dye, would it be safe to add a small amount of food coloring for easier identification of the fluid?

quote:

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What color are you shooting for?

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A solid yellow color.

[ May 16, 2006, 10:23 PM: Message edited by: The Critic ]

 

[Buford T. Justice]

What color are you shooting for?

 

[Iain]

quote:

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Given Zerex G-05's "weak" dye, would it be safe to add a small amount of food coloring for easier identification of the fluid?

quote:

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What color are you shooting for?

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A solid yellow color.

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Weak dye

Something must have gone awry during your installation of G-05 then.

I recently installed a 60/40 mix of Zerex G-05/distilled water in my cooling system. Colour of that mix show a very solid yellow in my clear overflow tank.

Food colouring not needed and would be counter-productive to add.

 

[Ray H]

I doubt adding food coloring would be counter-productive at all. There've been numerous posts on this site that, once diluted, it's difficult to judge the level of Zerex G-05* in the puke tank. I can't believe everyone is nuts who claims that Zerex G-05 is difficult to see. (Some common plastics will transmit UV, so seeing the level under daylight if it shines directly on the puke tank is easy. However some plastics don't transmit UV very well at all and if they're mounted, as in my Sonata where very little sunlight can illuminate the puke tank directly, reading the level is a challenge. There're online autoparts emporiums that sell specific coolant dye concentrates in various colors. Just Google "coolant dyes". Their advantage over common food coloring is that they also contain a fluorescent component , "fluorescein" - used for medical diagnostic and contact lens lens fitting procedures on the eye, too - that helps identify the source of a leak when illuminated with a portable UV source. (glows bright yellow-green under UV)

*On its website Zerex defends its choice of a minimally visible marker dye color on the basis that when added to any of the OEM G-05s, Zerex' version won't compete (meaning tipoff dealership techs that the OEM juice was "adulterated" during a topoff...). In my opinion, Zerex overreacted and left too many users in a lurch trying to read their coolant level - especially for users who've flushed and totally refilled with Zerex G-05 as periodic cooling system maintenance.

 

[G-MAN]

Ray, do you think adding ordinary food coloring to G05 would cause any problems as far as changes to the chemistry or damage to the cooling system?

I've got the "can't see it in the tank" problem with my Chrysler and I've thought about adding food coloring but didn't want to cause any problems.

 

[The Critic]

The overclocking community uses this stuff to dye their coolants in water-cooled PC systems:

http://www.caseetc.com/cgi-bin/caseetc/WC-324.html

Even without florescent lighting, that dye is VERY strong and only a very small amount is needed it turn it green.

Here's a review:
http://www.dansdata.com/uv.htm

The only disadvantage is cost. About $20. For that price, I'm willing to test food coloring.

PS- Xoxide sellings something similar:
http://www.xoxide.com/blueuvdye.html

This costs about $13 including shipping. Theoretically, I don't see any reason why a "UV Coolant Dye" used for automotive coolant leak detection purposes wouldn't suffice.

 

[gfcrane]

After I flushed my Ranger and refilled with Zerox GO5, I couldn't see anything in the overflow tank. Maybe it was too clean. Anyhow I discovered my wife had some old food dye, five colors. I used red and got a nice pink overflow tank. Cannot beleive that maybe eight drops (8 cc) of whatever would effect over nine quarts of water-AF mixture.

 

[jmacmaster]

I also have a Ford Ranger, a 2003. I can never see the level in the overflow tank, unless it happens to be way up. What I do is take the hose that runs from the radiator to the overflow tank and enters the overflow tank at the top, and slowly pull that hose upward out of the overflow tank, while looking through the hole the cap fits on, until I see liquid on the hose (kind of like reading a dipstick). Then I keep pulling the hose out until I see the bottom of the hose. The part of the hose that's wet tells you how many inches of coolant are in the overflow tank.