dexcool antifreeze

[JEFFRPM]

Ok now I'm getting a bit miffed with all the trouble GM has had with this stuff over the last 15 years WHY are they still using it?? My latest failure Is my 2004 duramax the waterpump started leaking after a cooling system flush the old stuff only had 35000 miles on it and i thought Its time to flush it out well as per usual no good deed goes unpunished. Can I loose the propoline glycol and use the good old ethelen glycol [the green stuff] in EVERYTHING I own. My dodges and all of my equipment have the green stuff and some of my equipment has aluminum blocks and aluminum radiators so what's the skinny? sorry about the spelling

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[gfyrasng]

I'm a firm believer that dexcool sucks ass, thankfully I've never had to deal with the problems associated with it. From what I've heard if you stay 100% dexcool it's supposed to work just fine, the problems arise when you mix it with other brands.

[scottm]

I worked for 12 years at an auto research lab that helped test dexcool during its development. It is ethylene glycol based, but it uses an acidic corrosion inhibitor, while green coolants are alkyline. That is why they are totally incompatable. GM had good results in some areas, like pump seal life, but worse in other areas, like corrosion with iron blocks. There was a huge rash of problems with v6 engines in the mid 90's, where block rust would actually plug the radiator and cause overheating. Personally I never liked dexcool, but it is also risky to convert to conventional because any partial contamination causes severe corrosion. Flushing is also risky, because its hard to get all the cleaner out and any residual is bad. My advice is to drain and refill every two years, use purified water, and stay with whatever type coolant it had originally. If you cant drain the block, drain the radiator, refill, drive it, and drain the rad again. It sucks, but flushing is worse.

[bigtex]

The only down side if you switch is your motor has a 10year 100,000 mile warrenty and if you put "green" coolant in it you could void your warrenty. I hate dex cool but if you want to keep the factory warrenty then you'll have to deal with thatcrap for a couple more years

[FABRICATOR]

At work we do a static flush and 2 drive/flushes, all with water, then refill.

In my own car I mixed coolants from the get-go. It got all gooey for a very long time but always ran cool. That was well over 100k miles ago. There's isn't much dexcool left. Whatever the mix was, the water pump and other parts seem to be happy with it.