Antifreeze and rust

[98gpgt]

It's said not only is antifreeze a rust inhibitor, but also alleviates/removes present rust. I swapped out a radiator a while back and have neglected to replace the "pure: water with 50/50. Ok, let some water out, dump bottle of Walmart pure af in. But assuming what I was told above is true, will the cheap stuff do as good a job as say Prestone? I had planned to leave a gallon of whatever in there for a time, then renew the coolant in the system once again. No sense 8n wasting if you know what I mean the good stuff. But will the cheap stuff do what I expect it to do?

[Nas Escobar]

I think that supertech isn't as concentrated as say Prestone (when I add water, it's light green instead of deep green that prestone 50/50 is), but other than that, it does the same thing. I've ran that supertech stuff in my cars no problem. 

[digitaloutsider]

You really can't go off of color. You need to go by what the jug says. If it says 50/50, do 50/50. 

 

I'm going to assume since you said SuperTech, you're using green coolant. The car should really have Dexcool in it. If you do switch to non-Dexcool, you need to do a complete flush of the system as the organic corrosion inhibitors in Dexcool are not compatible with standard coolant.

 

If you've already flushed and are on green, then whatever is fine. I've run cheap coolant in plenty of beater cars over the years. As long as it's the right ratio, you're good to go.

[Imp558]

I'm not sure where you live and whether or not it's important to have coolant that doesn't freeze but there's more to coolant than that. For one it's all pretty much the same but as Nas said a "Better" brand may have a higher concentration of Ethylene Glycol. The cooling system is made to run with alcohol in it so it boils at a higher temperature. Pressurized systems will also help keep from boiling. Water is a bad idea. On a personal note I don't run Dex-Cool, or expensive coolant for that matter. I do have a little tool that I test the cars with before winter.

 

[98gpgt]

I switched from dex a long while ago. Had a van with it who's lim gasket failed and that waa it for me.

[White93z34]

GM people are weird about coolant.

 

Literally every single manufacturer is using some form of Dexcool-like coolant be it Dark Green, Pink, Blue or Yellow

 

Modern coolants are far better served at protecting aluminum parts then oldschool Green.

 

However in a car with a lot of copper in the cooling system green is still the best for protecting those parts.

 

Yes GM had fuckups with it early on, they neglected to test their plastic intake gaskets with the new coolant with disastrous results.

 

If it was crap, GM wouldn't still be using it 21 years later in everything they sell.

 

Yes it gets nasty real fast if its combined with other coolants.

 

If you do want to get rid of it, drain ALL OF IT, flush ALL OF IT, make sure its all gone. And while you're at it do a waterpump. I've had waterpumps start leaking after being converted one way or the other.

 

Truth be told as long as the coolant is good and properly mixed it should cool just as well no matter the color, Just old Green Coolant requires to be changed far more often.

[Schurkey]

This is the first time ever that I've had someone tell me that anti-freeze will remove existing rust.  Good luck with that.

 

Dex-Cool is in millions upon millions of vehicles.  Not a problem any longer.  That said, I use "universal" coolant in most vehicles.

 

"Pure" anti-freeze made from ethylene glycol is going to have the same anti-freeze/anti-boil properties as any other coolant made from ethylene glycol.  Don't confuse already-diluted 50/50 ethylene glycol with "pure" anti-freeze.  No promises on what dye they put in the various brands, however.

[Imp558]

I don't see a reality where it removes rust, inhibits to an extent but not remove.

[Nas Escobar]

GM people are weird about coolant.

 

Literally every single manufacturer is using some form of Dexcool-like coolant be it Dark Green, Pink, Blue or Yellow

 

Modern coolants are far better served at protecting aluminum parts then oldschool Green.

 

However in a car with a lot of copper in the cooling system green is still the best for protecting those parts.

 

Yes GM had fuckups with it early on, they neglected to test their plastic intake gaskets with the new coolant with disastrous results.

 

If it was crap, GM wouldn't still be using it 21 years later in everything they sell.

 

Yes it gets nasty real fast if its combined with other coolants.

 

If you do want to get rid of it, drain ALL OF IT, flush ALL OF IT, make sure its all gone. And while you're at it do a waterpump. I've had waterpumps start leaking after being converted one way or the other.

 

Truth be told as long as the coolant is good and properly mixed it should cool just as well no matter the color, Just old Green Coolant requires to be changed far more often.

 

That's because those stories about dexcool messing up an engine built in 1997 are still circulating around 20 years after the fact despite that Dexcool may or may have not been reformulated since then or the fact that GM hasn't built a 3x00 engine with the plastic intake gaskets since 2005. I personally have never liked Dexcool because of the way it gunks up if you don't flush it within a couple years, since it seems for some odd reason people think coolant is a lifelong fluid. Every car I've messed around with that had Dexcool has had the original Dexcool in the radiator. It's a pain in the ass to flush, especially those sealed radiators, which seems to be the default radiator of choice today. 

 

Anyways, my personal opinion on this is if the engine was developed with green in mind, it's okay to revert it back... I say this since stuff like the 3100 SFI, the LQ1, the 3800 and some other engines came factory with green coolant in some years, then changed to Dexcool in 96. Anything newer, say a high value or high feature engine, it's better to run the Dexcool. It's kinda pointless to convert it to green at that point since those engines aren't known to have the plastic/nylon gaskets that the 3x00 and 3800 engines are somewhat famous for. I reverted a car to green coolant once... as I look back at it now, it was kinda pointless. There's no real benefit to either or. At the time, it was simply easier to have a spare bottle of 50/50 original green coolant, but it's funny because what used to be "green coolant" is now considered "universal coolant". That's what Prestone markets their formulation as. Is it true? Who knows, but I do know that most new GM engines have good gaskets and fixing a fuck up from factory isn't consider "maintenance" anymore on the new engines. 

[98gpgt]

ok to add to what I've said (things I've heard, in actuality I may not have heard AF removes rust) the ability of AF to inhibit rust is neutralized if there's too much rust present. So...flush it out with water the best you can, add antifreeze, let it sit for a while (because the rust that ain't going nowhere is going to "ruin" the AF you just added), then renew the whole shebang. If it's even necessary, but why not. As long as the car is running good, take care of it.

 

 

But is there anyway to remove rust from your system? 50/50 molasses works well. What do you think? Should I park it for a couple of weeks and see how what it does? Imagine having to flush all that out.

[Schurkey]

"Flushing" the cooling system is not complete unless you remove the block drains (if they exist) to drain the dreck that collects in the bottom of the water jacket.

 

Some Buick engines have no block drains.  Good luck with them.  The best you can hope for is to flush with the engine running, and rev the snot out of 'em from time to time so the water pump scours the cooling system (so the water that remains in the block is sure to be clean, not contaminated.)

 

Some engines have block drains, but there's a knock sensor screwed into the hole.  Now you get to remove and then re-torque the knock sensor.  It's fairly common to remove the plug (or sensor) and have nothing come out until you break the "crust" with a screwdriver or awl.  Then the block water will drain out the hole.

 

If the engine is really corroded-up, you may be popping out a core plug or three, then stuffing a pressure-washer wand into the hole to blow the dreck out.

 

At the end of the day, removing the flush water means removing block drains.  Once the block is empty, and the plugs/sensor are back in, you're ready to install fresh coolant.  Again, good luck with Buicks that have no block drains.  If there's water left in the block from flushing, you'd better be sure to install pure antifreeze first, because it going to be diluted by the remaining water in the block.