Prestone or hunt for Green Coolant

[ford46guy]

For the Lincoln, which specs Green, every place I talked to said Prestone is fine and an improvement over Green.
I called Prestone and they said plenty of Ford dealers use it for all cars. They said the green is a 2-3 year and theirs is 5(or maybe a bit more). Other that that no difference.

Less and less stores stock the Green. I guess the motorcraft distributor has them.

I removed the stat on the bottom and almost all the coolant is out, ran some distilled water thru it and its clear now. Coolant looked clean and perfect, all metal surfaces looked like new inside. Had M/C green before, was in 3 years.

 

[Olas]

With a proper flush you can use anything you like. It's only when mixing dissimilar types that you should be careful.

 

[eljefino]

I look for and still buy traditional green, typically to top off beaters mid-winter so I don't have to do a water flush.

Recochem seems to make it under the "turbo power" name.

You can also look for something that specifically doesn't claim it's good for 5 years.

 

[bdcardinal]

Use green. Ford dealers have a bunch of different coolants we can get from Ford so we do not have to use and are not supposed to use a universal coolant.

 

[Sayjac]

Agree with the conventional green recommendations, though I'd have no issue using readily available G05 concentrate with complete flush as a close second choice. PepBoys sells the Turbo Power All Season Green concentrate mentioned before.

Found the comment by Prestone that many Ford dealers use it for all their cars, interesting. 'If' true, not a Ford dealer I'd recommend or use for cooling system service.

 

[ford46guy]

This looks good...or the Motorcraft one.

https://www.napaonline.com/napa/en/p/NAF1GAL/NAF1GAL_0210624547

 

[ford46guy]

Originally Posted By: Sayjac

Found the comment by Prestone that many Ford dealers use it for all their cars, interesting. 'If' true, not a Ford dealer I'd recommend or use for cooling system service.



They aiso service used cars from other brands, maybe they use their product for other vehicles?

 

[Sayjac]

Originally Posted By: ford46guy
Originally Posted By: Sayjac

.....Found the comment by Prestone that many Ford dealers use it for all their cars, interesting. 'If' true, not a Ford dealer I'd recommend or use for cooling system service.

They aiso service used cars from other brands, maybe they use their product for other vehicles?

Maybe, but the operative word to me was ALL, implying all Ford products which I assume is the majority of their business. Ford specs many types AF including G05 and some Asian PHOAT, I wouldn't use Prestone or any other Dexclone in them.

And bdcardinal is a Ford dealer parts guy, you can read his comment about universal AF use.

 

[Bgallagher]

Most NAPAs should still have either their green or Zerex green. You can also try places like dollar stores. They can be sneaky good for finding good old green from a brand name.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Autozone has a house green too. That's what I use.

 

[Torrid]

Prestone's standard yellow/green is an extended drain like Dexcool. It's not the older glycol green stuff. I did full flushes and used it in both my cars. It's chemically similar to Jaguar coolant, but the Lincoln used the G-05 gold Motorcraft from the factory.

 

[bullwinkle]

Zerex original low-silicate green states it is good for 5 years, but I would be sure to use a good flush & distilled/deionized water with it.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Napa, Pep Boys, and Autozone carry the old green coolant

 

[SlamFire]

When Texaco Havoline first came out with their orange coolant, I was impressed by the claims on the bottle, and used the stuff in a mid nineties Dodge Dakota. Very soon afterwards I had coolant leaks and a cracked cylinder head. Combustion gases leaked through that crack and pressurized the coolant system, popping the radiator, popping other sealed components, including the intake manifold. An air gap between the intake manifold and the passenger side cylinder allowed dirt to get into cylinder number one and ruin the compression in that cylinder. That orange coolant (which was an organic acid base) ate seals, coolant leaked out, an air pocket formed in the engine, and the cylinder head cracked. I remember taking the thermostat off and finding the thermostat gasket to have the consistency of wet and deteriorated cardboard; with my finger I could wipe the thermostat gasket into a smudge.

It is my opinion that the organic acid coolants will eat seals on older vehicles, if you search on the web there was a class action lawsuit for Dex Cool and early 2000 GM vehicles. Dex Cool, which is the orange coolant sold by Prestone, ate seals on these cars and caused lots of expense for the owners. You are better off using the original silicate based antifreeze that came with, and was compatible with, the seals in your mid nineties vehicle, then chasing after the latest and greatest antifreeze. Maybe the drain period is shorter, but, it is less costly than replacing an engine.

 

[ted s]

use the green from napa as you found in the link

 

[ford46guy]

Used the NAPA one, all flushed and installed now. Guy there said it is rebranded Peak. They no longer carry Zerex.
Got it in a small town one and the guy there said he was a mechanic for 40 years and it is the only thing to use in older cars unless you are asking for trouble. He said 98% of the time you may be ok with universal but his claim was even identical cars can vary in metallurgy or whatever and the wrong coolant can do some gasket in. There could also be existing damage and the wrong coolant will take advantage of it.

He said that is why some problematic models can make it to 200K and others fail at 60K. It don't take much. The only problem with green coolant is it has to be changed 2-3years, he said if you do that you likely don't have to worry about flushing if it comes out clean. Just add back 50/50 of the green. He also went on to say some cars can be fine with decade old coolant, but don't try it! Others can be trashed after 2 years. Again, YMMV.