Prestone 5/150 safe for honda's?

[SMG]

Hey whats up guys,

I was changing my coolant today. I was using "dex-cool" prestone 5/150.

I mix it with water 50/50. And pour it in the radiator. is that right?

and the same to the resevoir. any input would be great. thanks

 

[digitaldrifter91]

i usually put 100 % in the resavor cause if u keep adding water its dilluting it. do a search on DEX COOL. i havent heard too much on it but i do recall it being on this site. i use prestone which is green color and i mix it either 50/50 or 60/40 depending on the conditions of summer or winter...then 100% in the resavor for my honda =).

 

[Drew99GT]

If you in fact put dexcool in your Honda, you may loose the 5 year 150,000 mile advantage (which is BS to begin with) if you didn't flush 100% of the old coolent out. The only way to do it right is to remove the thermostat and reinstall the thermostat housing and then flush the system with the engine idling with the heater on high. If you just drained the radiator and refilled with dexcool, you now have a 50/50 mixture of old green coolent (or whatever Honda uses) and dexcool.

 

[Ken2]

I'm never able to get the cooling system completely drained. After several flushes I figure that there's only a homeopathic amount of old coolant remaining. I add straight antifreeze of the quantity I need to get the percentage I want, then top with distilled water. (If my owner's manual says that my system is 8 quarts, and I'll be traveling to skiing in the northern Rockies in this truck, then I'll add a gallon of antifreeze and top with, probably, two or three quarts of distilled water.)

I use the minimum antifreeze for the winter freeze protection, with 33% or 40% as a minimum. Antifreeze carries about half the heat that water carries, so I want as much water in the mixture as I can without freeze worries. If I lived in the southern desert area and never got into freezing weather, I'd use pure water with a bottle of Redline WaterWetter for corrosion protection--no antifreeze.

I don't know how well Dex-Cool will work in a Honda. It is the recommended product from Prestone for a Honda, being their only product that is both silicate free and phosphate free.


Ken

[ March 16, 2003, 10:49 PM: Message edited by: Ken2 ]

 

[digitaldrifter91]

u cant take out all the fluid out of the cooling system? try the drain bolt on the engine block...

here is what i do...i run a hose through the system with the car on...this will flush out all the coolant...well i do this after i drain out the initial coolant and add water and drain again =). then it should be completly water. then i get the drain bolt out of the engine block and let it drain what is left near the cylinders and if thats cleaned and watery then im set. hope i helped...

 

[Ken2]

Yep, block drains open, radiator drains open, heater valve open (as always), and I'm never able to replace the amount the book says the system holds.


Ken

 

[digitaldrifter91]

i know the area of the waterpump holds alot...haha stick a wet vac in there...u ever try letting the car run with water several times? whats ur process

 

[Accordman]

It is highly UNLIKELY that Dexcool is similar in chemistry to genuine Honda Coolant.

While I don't have a virgin lab analysis on OEM Honda coolant, I do on OEM Toyota coolant vs Havoline Extended Life (Dexcool) coolant..

As you can see, the Toyota OEM coolant is alot different than Dexcool
http://home.earthlink.net/~accordman/titan.jpg

 

[digitaldrifter91]

i wonder what is the differnce between hondas coolant and normal prestone...hehe i know price is...for 1 gallon it is 11 dollars!

 

[mph]

quote:

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Originally posted by digitaldrifter91:
i wonder what is the differnce between hondas coolant and normal prestone...hehe i know price is...for 1 gallon it is 11 dollars!

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I've read on Usenet that the main difference is that the Honda coolant is silicate-free, and silicates are bad for Honda water pumps. George MacDonald (a frequent contributor to rec.autos.makers.honda) has blamed ordinary coolant for some water pump failures he's seen. Who knows?

To be safe, replacing the random coolant from the radiator shop with Honda coolant is on my to-do list.