I drained the coolant and will be flushing before I add more. This will be the first time I've changed/added/messed with anti-freeze to my car. I've heard (won't say from where) to use straight anti-freeze because there is not a downside and you'll never have to worry about rust. What do you all think?
BTW, I don't have to worry about the cold here.

 

Well if you dont' have to worry about the cold then don't run straight anti-freeze. Unless you have a really REALLY good cooling system then it's a waste of money.
Water is better at transfering heat than anti-freeze. The only reason you would want to run anti-freeze is if you have sub 32 degree temps overnite and don't want your block to freeze.
Hence the name, anti-"freeze" and not anti-"rust".
Since you live in TX just fill 2/3 with water and 1/3 anti-freeze. That's usually plenty. Up hear in Ohio and NJ I wouldn't run less than 50/50 mixture.
Another good thing about anti-freeze is that it has a higher boiling temp (becaust it sucks at loosing heat). This is good if you're car gets hot like above 240 degrees. If your engine gets that hot then the water and a higher pressure radiator cap might help a LOT to keep things cooler. Don't worry about the rust so much, if it makes you feel better use some of that water wetter stuff (pink color). I've heard great things about it.

 

no straight antifreeze
it will not flow through your system with any decent flow rate.
also you will run hot as hell with just that stuff by itself in there



mix is best

though there is one kind of anti-freeze that I would use all by itself but it is about 25 a gallon

http://evanscooling.com/index2.html

from what I heard this is about the best stuff out there though
never have to change your coolant again, no rust, not water or anything


though takes a bit of work to set it up since you do NOT wany ANY water in the system


this stuff has been used on rotary motors for a while and those things really tax the cooling system and there have been no problems with it

take a look though

 

Straight antifreeze will freeze, an apparently little known fact. You must mix it with water. 60% antifreeze and 40% water is a good, robust mixture effective to 40 degrees below zero.

 

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Straight anti-freeze will ruin the radiator and rust everything up. This is because it becomes acidic, also water cools much better than almost anything.

 

you don't want to run straight water. because that will get in there and corrode (sp?) everythign in there UNLESS you use Red Line Water Wetter or something that has corrosion prohibiters or in it., i live in tx, and in the summer time we never get below 90* so i either run 100% water with Red Line, or 90% water with 10% antifreeze to keep everything happy. distilled water is suggested also