For those of you on my other page, I thought this issues deserved it's own thread so others can chime in.

I mixed orange (Dex-Cool) with green antifreeze. I filled the radiator with the green stuff and put only 1 gallon of the DexCool in the engine reserve.

The DexCool was in my engine reserve for about a week till there was nothing left in there, so i just added a gallon of water.

The Dex-Cool is from Prestone from an Advance Auto.

I've read that it can cause a chemical reaction by mixing these 2 coolants. Creating a "gel" like substance. Causing engine problems.

I've also read that these 2 coolants are interchangeable now.

How should I go about getting this "gel" out of my engine.

Ingredients on the Dex-Cool is: Contains water, ethylene glycol, diethlyene glycol, sodium 2-ethyl hexanoate, sodium neodecanoate.

Isn't that the same as the green stuff? The Ethylene Glycol is whats in green coolant.

 

Dex Cool (the original orange colored stuff) can't be mixed with the green stuff. Turns to sludge and plugs stuff up like heater cores and radiators. More modern "universal" coolants can, however. They are typically pale yellow in color.

If you mixed orange and green- dump everything immediately, flush thoroughly with plain water and start over.

 

Yes, but it's Prestone, they don't use the acidic substance that GM uses. They use ethylene glycol, just like other "green" coolants.

 

if you mixed orange with green than u will have a problem UNLESS the green was the new universal coolent ....... as said before id dump it all flush fill with green

 

That orange SH** caused havoc on my cooling system. It turned to sludge and had to flush my engine and coolant system several times. And there is still some residue left. Stick to green. Maybe good for the newer cars.

 

Well i've been runnin' it like that for 3 weeks with no issues. I'll flush it anyways. My mechanic said as long as I have ethylene glycol, i should be fine. After I flush it, what coolant do you recommend, and how much of it?

 

Well once you flush out completely all of the Dex-Cool, Prestone is a good choice, Peak. Try to get the one that is not the pre-mixed 50/50 kind. And don't forget to use distilled water.

 

Coolant to water ratio depends on your region as far as ambient temperature and coolant system capacity. The back of the coolant bottle will give you the correct coolant to water ratio.

 

Have you had any problems with overheating? I would flush the crap out of it, and run with straight water for a while since it is still summer. Then go with the conventional green.

 

No problems with overheating. I run it every day to school (about 10 miles) and make it there just fine.

 

When I flush my cooling system I take out the t-stat, disconnect the bottom rad hose and wrap a clean rag around the hose. Then I just spray and watch the junk come out. I've been using the green stuff since I got my car, no problems. water jackets looked good when I took my heads off a couple weeks ago so I'm pretty okay with this stuff. I just used the cheap stuff from Advance auto.

 

3 weeks didn't do any damage. But because I'm paranoid, I would flush it more then once.

First flush it with water. Dump a can of rad flush in there and run the engine before you flush it again. Then refill with 50/50 mix of green antifreeze and distilled water no matter what your latitude is.

Straight water will cool the engine adequately, but run the 50/50 mix. The water pump needs to be lubed by the antifreeze.

 

Straight water will not hurt for a short while.

 

This has been bothering me for a while now. I've been running the car for 2 months since I mixed the 2 coolants, no temperature issues. There is however a green goo substance in he engine reserve box and on the rim of the radiator cap hole. It's not really a jello but more of a paste. A little thicker then the coolant itself. Unless it's just debris from over the years. I know my dad has never cleaned that thing out. Although, neither have I.

Not sure what this could be. I have not had time to do a coolant flush because of school and work every day.

Sundays are my only free-days. I will probably drain the coolant this weekend. I'm having a little trouble finding the radiator drain plug though. Could I just take off the water hose? And remove one of the sensors from the block to get the coolant from out of the block?

 

That goo is the coolant's starting to "GEL"...

The old GM green and new GM orange dextron are the two incompatable ones. If you put the prestone stuff that says "any color" in, you're fine if you mix that, but you cannot mix the other two, it will destroy your motor if you leave it long enough.

 

It doesn't say anything about "any color". It's Prestone 50/50 antifreeze prediluted from Advance Discount Auto

I'm just gonna drain the entire thing. Where is the radiator drain plug located? I still can't seem to find it. My Haynes manual doesn't help either.

 

Bottom passenger side of the radiator, it's called a petcock. It's a turn dial, looks like a "T" handle.

 

Is it a black plastic piece? I think I was trying to turn the 'petcock' when I was under there a few minutes ago but it wouldn't budge.

Due to a huge storm coming i'll have to do this tomorrow.

Should I get a coolant flush liquid to get rid of the goo? If it will even get rid of it.

Or any other ideas? I heard a garden hose works. Not really sure how to use it to my advantage though.

I'm basically doing this so i'm not concerned all the time about blowing my engine or it overheating. I don't know who to believe, you guys or my mechanic. My mechanic says it will cause the coolant to become acidic, only becoming corrosive over the years. I also have looked this up and people say the same thing. You guys say that it creates a 'jell' substance that blocks off hoses and coolant flow and soon enough destroys the engine. My mechanic has not been wrong about my car yet and he knows his stuff. But to be safe I want to flush the **** out of this radiator and everything else.

Any tips to get rid of this possible "goo" would be greatly appreciated.

 

Buy a mild flush additive at a parts store, that you pour in your radiator and run for a little. It'll break down the nasty junk. Then to get a GOOD flush, disconnect your bottom radiator hose from the rad. Take off the thermostat housing and take out the thermostat. Get a hose with a nozzle and spray down into the space where you took out the thermostat. Stuff a rag in to stop the water from over flowing. By doing this you are letting all the big chunks come out. They would otherwise get stuck at the thermostat and not flush out. And while you have the hose disconnected from the rad, spray down into the rad and watch the goo and brown coolant come out.


It's pretty fun.

 

Sounds fun and interesting. So I can use a hose with high pressure water through the radiator and block? Or is that a no no? Cause If I can then i'll go all out with the hose.

 

Yes you can. Just don't let it get too warm and then introduce cold water to the block.

 

Awesome. I'll have this thing cleaned out thoroughly. Now to get the coolant out of the block. Remove the sensor thats on the driver side? Let it drain out then flush it with the garden hose?

 

I've never removed a sensor doing it. Remove the bottom rad hose from the rad. When you spray the hose into the pocket where the thermo usually sits, it'll come out of the disconnected hose. So you're basically flowing from top to bottom.

 

No sensors need to be removed. Just take out the thermostat, and reconnect the housing. Doesn't matter if it leaks a little.

 

I mean to clean out the block. There is a sensor on the side of the block, when you remove it coolant comes flowing out.

Would using a pressure washer NOT be a good idea?

 

Garden hose.


And if anything taking out that sensor would stop any water jackets past that sensor from getting flushed appropriately because the water would be leaving the head before it washed all the way through the block.

 

Ive always been curious as to what is being used as a catch container for the flushed anti-freeze. Sounds as if there's a lot of byproduct. Then what is done with the flushed anti-freeze ? I have one place that's about 20 miles from my house that will dispose of the chemical but it has to be in sealed used anti-freeze containers. According to some research Ive done there seems to be 15 qts. of fluid in a system with ac.

 

I let it go on the ground.

 

I would probably have to take it in to a shop then. They "hang" you for that in CA.

 

Who is watching?

 

Enough water and it looks like water! If you're that concerned get some catch cans from autozone and either take it to a place to dispose of it or dump it down your toilet.

 

I removed the water pump ( 4 easy bolts ) and garden hosed the sediment and flushed out all sorts of brown gunk. Runs much cooler now on a stock 195* thermostat.

 

How did you get the garden hose to fit so well?

 

It fit well so it had to be of a standard size and the hose was bought from Home Depot. I almost gagged over the gunk that spewed out lol.

I thought that only got rid of the gunk on the bottom so I took the hose to the top thermostat opening and more gunk came out. I'm sure there's more to be found but now my entire cooling system was replaced I won't know til the next overheat.

 

Are you saying the garden hose threaded in?

 

Engine flush is going great! I have not found any green 'goo' but a lot of dirt and debris. I ran water through the radiator twice and ran it with water once so far to move the coolant around a bit. Then I'm going to flush one more time, fill with water and PEAK rad flush treatment, run for 3 to 6 ours (intermittently) and then flush once more and fill with new coolant and water.

I checked all of the hoses going from the radiator to the engine block and didn't find any blockage or build up of any kind, just a little rust from the water pump.

The green gunk in the engine reservoir is just debris from over 20 years and probably because of the 4 years that it sat in the sun. It smells like ****! I even asked my dad if he ever cleaned it out and he said he only filled it a few times a year but never looked at it otherwise, so no basically. I shoved a garden hose in there to try to spray that **** out but it didn't get a lot of it. I'll have to take it off of the mount somehow and try to fill the box with a solvent to break up the gunk when it's out of the car then flush the hell out of it. Or buy a new one. If they're dirt cheap i'll buy a new one. Mine has a crack in the top so it's gotta be replaced someday.