Using Dex-Cool, Dex Cool in old Tractors

I'm considering using the long life anti-freeze (Dex-Cool) in one of my tractors ('58 450) this winter since all my vehicles now use it. Anybody have any experience or two cents worth of advice regarding this? I did an archive search under both forms of the spelling and didn't find anything related to using the orange coolant versus the green. Thanks.

go for it, i run that in some of mine no problems.


Andrew

Most of the antifreeze in all brands is long life now. Prestone is still green.

When I changed the coolant in my F250 diesel and Chevy Impala last summer I ended up with about 10 gallons of pristine-looking Dexcool coolant still good for -40 deg. At $12/gallon for the replacement coolant I couldn’t bear to throw the old stuff out.

So I saved it and am now swapping it into my Farmalls and Minne-Mo.

Keep in mind these old machines were designed to use any pretty much any untreated coolant - well water, water scooped from pond, etc - with maybe a dose of methanol antifreeze added in cold weather.

I figure even 5 year old Dexcool is far superior to what my tractors had in 'em over their 50+ year working careers.

And the price is right(!)

If you are going to use it make sure you flush the system very good first, if you mix dex-cool and conventional coolant you get a nasty mess in a short time. Myself, I wouldn't put dex-cool in anything, it seems to end up a brown muddy mess worse than regular green stuff. Just my observation from 25 years in the auto industry, others may disagree. The new Ford coolant, premium gold, almost clear ,seems to hold up better than anything I have seen.

Dex cool eats gaskets, ask any chevy pickup owner who has 100,000 on their trucks. I"d stick with good ol green antifreeze

As one of my good friends works at a GM dealer I have heard alot of horror stories about Dex cool or as he calls it Death cool. As above, NEVER mix Dex cool and green/ conventional fluid. Sometimes even a flush with a garden hose is not enough. ANY leaks at all will cause the stuff to sludge up and push out/destroy gaskets it comes into contact with. ALWAYS use distilled water with Dex cool as contaminants can cause it to gel and sludge. There have been case were it turned acidic and actually ate away radiators. He suggests to change it at 2 years or 36k just like conventional. If you cooling system is up to snuff AND there are no leaks AND you flush correctly it is a decent coolant. I have removed it from all our autos, flushed and filled with the prestone any color coolant with excellent results. There is a class action lawsuit against GM because of Dex cool. Especially in the vehicles that had less than perfect cooling systems and/or problems with intake gaskets like the early vortecs. I personally lost 2 radiators and 2 sets of intake gaskets in my S10. They finally fixed it under warranty by power flushing the system and filling it with conventional fluid. I personally would not touch he stuff.

Dex Cool has to be run in a pressurized system, if you are running a good radiator cap you will be fine.

Zerex makes it for several brands, including Ford. Save some money and go to Autozone and get it cheaper. Or your local John Deere dealer has it but its green.

Most all auto parts stores, WalMart, Target etc. carry the universal anti-freeze that is made to use with either the green or red brands. My local auto parts store carries ONLY the universal, that is all they carry, they do not even stock the red or green.
I would recommend buying the universal then you have no worries about mixing. I have been using it for several years without any problems at all.
Dell

Run it, the horror stories come from those who dont know how to maintain their coolant, I dont care how long someone has been a mechanic. The problem wasnt the coolant, it was the gaskets! Any good GM mechanic would know that! I use to make some of the additives for Dexcool! (Im sure Ive stirred up a hornets nest now)There nothing on an old tractor that isnt compatible.

I agree with JohnM on the gasket issue.
GM knew the intake gasket on the 3.1L was bad long before they were forced to replace them free, no matter what the car mileage.
Unfortunately they fought the total recall and won.
Luckily I found the slight leak on my Lumina sedan before any engine damage was done. They changed it free without any question.
Dell

the summary first: Dexcool and long life coolants are not permanent fill products. Dexcool formula has been revised in the last 13 years. Problems with it have been addressed (but not always the way customers want) as they have occured. Some problems were caused by inferior or incompatible products used with dexcool and not the coolant itself (example: gaskets and cooling system sealant). Other brand universal long life formulas are different from dexcool brand and are as good and better than dexcool. A antique tractor was desingned to run with marginal quality "water" with routine maintenance and has no plastic or exotic parts in the cooling system. You should use distilled water with all coolant. Proper maintenance cannot be replaced with a "long life" product-that goes for oil, coolant, filters and anything else that has to do with maintenance.
I prefer the traditional stuff but i do not have anything requiring extended life. If you want, use dexcool or equivalent. You could also look into "fill for life" (semi-permanent) coolant technology for all your vehicles. http://www.fleetchargeantifreeze.com/faq.htm#7
wet sleeve and all modern heavy duty diesels require it anyway.

-karl f

In my opinion, DEX-COOL is a "useful-life fill" from a marketing perspective. a 5yr/100,000 mile service looks good if you market it from the traditional car purchasing paradigm (concept, set of rules, system, thought process) where a car is traded off by 3 years/50,000miles. the original owner and even the second owner have one less maintenance cost in the first 2 years of owership (reccommended change interval for green coolant). By the time the car hits 100k or 5 years elapse, the car is well out of warranty and is considered an old car that did what it was designed to. Any repair of failures or required maintenance at that point may exceed the value of the car, but it's time to replace it with a brand new one, you can afford it with monthly payments and a brand loyalty discount or if not, how about this 50kmile / 2yr old car that just came in? That whole system is flawed because it only considers the upper and middle classes: who else has that kind of buying power at $20,000 new, $10,000 used?!

Also from a marketing standpoint, you can throw in an evironmental spin: no coolant changes for 5 years, that's 7 gallons of coolant per car times a million that doesn't get disposed of during 5 years, saving the earth from nearly 10 million gallons of used coolant... they convieniently omit that most coolant is recycled and reconditioned.


One of the online car communities (for 94-96 chevy caprice/impala ss) I am part of has discussed dexcool so much I shudder at the mention of it. These cars were cast block and cast heads (like a tractor). The 94 and 95 models used green and 1996 got the Dexcool fill. Dexcool cars were having cooling system issues the prior model years did not have. The basic problem was sludge forming in the first 18 months, blocking the heater core and other smaller passages. Owners complained as much as if they had the gasket problems of the 3100. Many flushed and went to green when the warranty was up or before if they were brave.
As time went on, the more technically inclined members said they talked to a few gm people and they all concluded the issue was the sealing tablets added on the assembly line were reacting with the dexcool additives. By that time, pretty much everyone went to green that had concerns. supposedly there was a change in assembly line procedure, but the group quit monitoring the situation when our model was discontinued in fall of 1996. They still seem to advise flushing, replacing heater core, and going to green; although some are using dexcool with no more problems.

I have seen what looks like mud in gm vehicles using dexcool and chryslers with extended life turn to mud in 2-3 years, sold all kinds of felpro 3.1 intake gaskets at work. I am leery of extended life cooling products for those reasons, but believe that there are also untold stories behind those experiences. Felpro says gm's original gasket design for 3.1 was inferior material, and the new style gm is marginally better. The observations of mud could be caused by lack of proper maintenance (including poor quality water), low level, overheating, or the use of an additive that reacted with the coolant. many people should be following severe service intervals and do not, and many don't even follow the minimum basic intervals!

bottom line is your stuff your call.

by the way, factory fill extended life coolants are not compatible with each other between ford chevy chrysler imports.
dexcool is organic acid technology (OAT).
some others are hybrid-OAT (HOAT)
there are a few more types too, how many four letter words can you spell ending with OAT?
the same color doesn't mean the same chemical make up either. it's kind of crooked in a way.

the universal types like prestone promise full compatibility with all factory fills when used to top off and work just as good or better when used to fill completely. i'd rather change it all than mix types though.

karl f

(quoted from post at 11:26:36 11/14/09) by the way, factory fill extended life coolants are not compatible with each other between ford chevy chrysler imports.

Click to expand...

Oh really? The same yellow coolant in Fords is the exact same coolant Chrysler uses in the auotmobiles, except its orange! The same exact coolant can be had from John Deere in their extened life formula, but its green.There are several others as well that is the exact same thing, just different colors. What it all comes down to is its all Zerex GO5 coolant. Unfortunatly, though, G05 isnt a heavy duty coolant as Ford and Mother Deere would like for you to beleive, and Dodge doesnt use it in the Cummins equiped diesels best I can recall. I wont say on imports as I dont know what comes in them. 9this was information given to me by Zerex 7 years ago, so it may be outdated, and manufactueres could be using something else by now.

the best to do with Dex-Cool is never use start using it,don't mix it with other types unless compatiable, we had problems with Dex-Cool sludging up the cooling system on several different vehicles, regardless of all the hype about antifreeze it can be used without being dulited or changed on a regular basisis,i have a tractor that was rebuilt in 1986 filled with antifreeze straight from the jug still looks as good as when it was put in,has tested ok every year.

John M, I over simplified my statement about factory fill compatability. sorry bout that. Just making sure people know there are a few other formulations of extended life that are different. for the compatibilities between OEM brands, a person would have to research him/herself just as you have.
OEMs have made antifreeze needlessly complicated in the light duty sector.

karl f

I tend to get a little "upset" I guess is the word for it over antifreezes. I use to work for a company that made additives, dies, corrosion packages, etc, for antifreeze "companies", so I appologize for my "Oh really?". Theres alot of misinformation out there and if people would take the time to research their coolant choices, they would find the perfect coolant for their needs. Dexcool has gotten a bad rap, even from the so-called GM mechanics simply because they dont understand coolants and how they work. Some would be shocked if they only knew the truth about the high dollar coolants they insist on buying.

I have a 2001 K1500 with Dex-Cool. 8 years and 139,000 miles later it sill has Dex-Cool, never been changed. Am I flirting with distater as Molly Hatchet sings... Maybe. I have towed 12,000 lb loads in the middle of a Louisisna summer (105 deg) and never saw the temp gauge get over 190 deg, no leaks.

I am not trying to defend the "orange stuff" I am simply making a statement. All my "traditional" equipment still gets the green anti-freeze and gets changed every so often... When I think I need to or I work on the cooling system. My wife's 2008 MINI COOPER S Turbo might even have the green coolant. Ya know those Brits!

Enjoy,

CT

worked in auto garage 25+ years. man that repaired radiators probably worked at his job longer than that. he replied that antifreeze never wore out unless it was deluted by water, only the addatives. he said if every one would add waterpump lube and rust inhibiter yearly he would never have had a job. ZECOL was one of the best we had in the shop.