No more Dex-Cool hysteria?

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Has the formula for Dex-Cool been changed? The horror stories about "Death-Cool" seems to have abated.
Also, the most ubiquitous coolants are Dex clones AM, AM, deemed safe to use in any application. The app-specific coolants for the fanatics are essentially boutique coolants.

A little bit of obsessive thinking went into my selection of coolant for my Nissan, but in the end, I just grabbed Super-Tech; the "proper" choice would have been a so-called Asian formula.
 
Most if not all of the GM cars now have a dry intake. Sometime around 04 the gaskets material was changed and problem went away. I do believe, at some point, the formula also under went a change.

I run it in all my stuff with no problems.
 
Dexcool is an excellent coolant. I have it in my Silverado and there is no "dex-sludge" anywhere. Change at the recommended intervals and keep the system topped off and there will be no problems.
 
works fine with a pressurized bottle. i wont warranty my work if dex is used in a copper radiator or heater. i dont care what the naysayers say...dex will eat solder and cause a leak.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
works fine with a pressurized bottle. i wont warranty my work if dex is used in a copper radiator or heater. i dont care what the naysayers say...dex will eat solder and cause a leak.


Well now you've got me worried. I have a brass and soldered transmission cooler in my radiator.
Can you elaborate?
 
I ran nothing but Dex-Cool in my '04 Chevy (Malibu) Classic and now only Dex-Cool in my 2000 Saturn SL1. The coolant itself is fine; it really does last longer, in my experience, though it's too soon to tell with the Saturn.

The problem was the combination of Dex and the plastic intake manifold gaskets on GM V-6s in the '90s till about 2003. Without the plastic gaskets, the "pink (or red) stuff" is fine. Some owners of affected vehicles will never use Dex again, and I don't blame them, based on GM's refusal-at-first to issue a recall. But Dex-cool with an engine/coolant system that can handle it is good stuff.
 
Originally Posted By: xxch4osxx
Dexcool is an excellent coolant. I have it in my Silverado and there is no "dex-sludge" anywhere. Change at the recommended intervals and keep the system topped off and there will be no problems.


Yep, topped-off is key. In fact, GM claimed that affected vehicles were neglected by owners who let the coolant run low---i.e. did not know via telepathy that the Full mark on the coolant surge bottle was like the E on the gas gauge....
 
IIRC the latest and best aluminum frame intake gaskets for the Gen ii were released around 08 or 09.
Before that was plastic frame inc FelPro replacements. Gen II engines repaired with the plastic frame gaskets continued to fail.
Gen III was introduced in 2004 with aluminum upper intake and different gasket it didn't suffer the issue as bad as the Gen II. The issue was put to be once and for all in 08.

The 3.1 and 3.4 suffered this ailment up to the end although the aftermarket offered a better problem solver intake gasket that seemed to be very effective.
 
dex cool sludges engines so badly sometimes that we have to replace the radiators when we rebuild the engine if we are going to warranty it
 
I think people quit buying into "it mixes with anything" hype, change it a bit more regularly and use it (mainly) in compatible systems. Early on, people ignored these things and didn't change over their cooling systems properly so they paid the horrendous "cost" of eaten radiators, leaks and death of other cooling system parts.
 
Honestly I will never use it after the junk I see at work. G-05 based coolant has been flawless for me. I peeled the intakes off of 3 cars in a row that I owned and the intake was immaculate using the "Kameleon" G-05 from Safety Kleen we stock. Thanks but no thanks on the Dexcool.
 
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2-eha, don't need it, don't want it.

I can barely tell the level in the Pontiac's pressure bottle because of a thick opaque layer of pink scum from the original Dexcool
 
Originally Posted By: Nayov
Originally Posted By: Chris142
works fine with a pressurized bottle. i wont warranty my work if dex is used in a copper radiator or heater. i dont care what the naysayers say...dex will eat solder and cause a leak.


Well now you've got me worried. I have a brass and soldered transmission cooler in my radiator.
Can you elaborate?
your trans cooler is silver soldered together. it should be ok. its our 60\40 radiator solder which is very soft that dex eats.
 
It is amazing how the myths persist. But the whole Dex thing was a GASKET issue.

Funny we have more than a few GM vehicles in fleet use and have run Dex in them all the way to half a million miles with absolutely no issues. Even our newest vans have an open overflow tank. Only our Silverados have a pressurized one.
 
I use DexCool in my Alero and it's perfectly fine. The intake gasket wasn't torqued properly from the factory and that's why it was "bad". I may switch my 1995 Escort to DexCool just so I don't have to keep 2 types of coolant around.
 
My focus uses Dexcool too. You wouldn't know it from reading the manual, it says like "Ford Premium Orange" or whatever. But apparently it's dex cool. The jug of Dex in advance said it meets the particular ford specification required.
 
Yeah, give me a coolant with a built-in stop-leak that ironically eats soldered joints and disintegrates siliconized polymers, because there's nothing better out there and I like 'busting myths' at my own risk. lol

Good for all the fellas that have had 'no issues' with their 2-eha coolants, way to go. Personally? I'll just continue to use non-offensive, phosphated, silicate-free 'asian' style coolants in EVERYTHING!
 
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