Coolant Type

[shnerby]

I Was wonderring what kind of coolant to put in to my 91 sho

 

[ohfosho]

green... the only coolant that was ever put it in. dont go with any other color. dexcool is GMs orange crap... it actually causes more problems than it helps...

 

[shnerby]

any brand specificaly?

 

[ultimatesho]

i always use prestone 50/50

 

[itwonder]

I concur .... the green stuff. Supertech from Walmart is as good as any. Or Peak. Or Prestone. Buy the 50/50 premix, or buy the full strength and use distilled water to dilute it.

 

[sdpatt]

I'd stay with the 5yr/150,000 mile green anti-freeze. It has improved a great deal and is compatible with everything in the system.

I installed the Dex-Cool orange about 200,000 miles ago and found the water pump seals to last longer (100,000+ miles) without the silicones in the fluid (knocking on wood). That was the benefit i was looking for that I changed over the to orange.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

w/e you get make sure yes its the green stuff but more importantly is compatible with cast iron and aluminum, some coolant isnt supposed to be used with aluminum and can cause problems Oh and FWIW buying the 50/50 mix is about twice the price as buying the stuff you dilute yourself

 

[ohfosho]

ever since hearing about dexcool problems in GM's 60* V6 engines (3100, 3400 mainly- intake manifold gaskets), and now dealing with these issues with my grand am, i wouldnt trust dexcool. i had to flush the system out again... pulled the overflow reservoir to try to clean all i could out of it... lots of particles. had to flush my heatercore... boy am i glad that is working again! i dont want to even think about trying to replace one.

 

[Storm-Chaser]

Avoid Super Tech - many of their products (including their oil) are RECYCLED!

50/50 premix is the most expensive. Buy straight antifreeze and mix with distilled water. Ford/Motorcraft antifreeze is specifically formulated for Ford vehicles, but is not required.

Flush the system before you change antifreeze.

Do a google-search, there are several veryt good websites that explain the benefits and short-comings of the various types of antifreeze.

sdpatt - are you still using Dexcool?

I concur .... the green stuff. Supertech from Walmart is as good as any. Or Peak. Or Prestone. Buy the 50/50 premix, or buy the full strength and use distilled water to dilute it.

 

[ManySHOs]

w/e you get make sure yes its the green stuff but more importantly is compatible with cast iron and aluminum, some coolant isnt supposed to be used with aluminum and can cause problems Oh and FWIW buying the 50/50 mix is about twice the price as buying the stuff you dilute yourself

Yes but the cost of distilled water makes buying the 100% mix and the water more expensive. Of course you get more but I prefer the 50/50. It's much easier and I don't need to worry that I put too much of one or the other in...

Ian

 

[Storm-Chaser]

You can buy distilled water for less than $.60 per gallon.

That makes a $9.99 gallon of Preston (AutoZone/Advance) into two gallons of 50/50 mix for $10.57 . . . . and total cost at ChinaMart is about $9.45 for a gallon of Preston and distilled water. You cannot get two gallons of 50/50 pre-mix for anywhere near that.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

yeah the cost of distilled water is nothing, i like the fact that I can mix what i want 40/60 or 50/50 or 60/40 depending on the time of year or what type of conditions the specific vehicle will be used under

 

[ohfosho]

dont you just boil water and then let it sit to make distilled water??? i recall hearing something like this.

i also worked at a jiffy **** (ontario, canada here) and we just mixed with tap water... same for the flushing machine. guys from head office came down to check everything out, and do a bit of training. and never mentioned it at all.

i just used tap water in my grand am (mixed 50/50 with coolant of course)

honestly, making an absolute 50% to 50% mixture is not of much concern... are you gonna take the mix to a lab and get it checked out??? close is close. they have antifreeze range tester just for that reason!

 

[wojo1989]

Most quick **** places use recycled antifreeze. The gycol doesnt go bad all that is done is the replacement of the additives specific to the type of fluid being mixed.

The companies that mix it use a spectrometer. When I was an assistant manager at a quick **** I had the antifreeze company test it in front of me and it tested -34. I had them then test straight tap water and it came out at 32*.

The recycled stuff should be fine but you should pay a little less for it because of that. If not buy the new for peace of mind.

As far as the distilled water goes, the steam is what is distilled. You have to collect that since the molecules that have evaporated are pure water. The water in the *** is still tap.

 

[NWGRN94MTX]

dont you just boil water and then let it sit to make distilled water??? i recall hearing something like this.

Ya, something like that. Google "distilling".

i also worked at a jiffy **** (ontario, canada here) and we just mixed with tap water... same for the flushing machine. guys from head office came down to check everything out, and do a bit of training. and never mentioned it at all.

i just used tap water in my grand am (mixed 50/50 with coolant of course)

honestly, making an absolute 50% to 50% mixture is not of much concern... are you gonna take the mix to a lab and get it checked out??? close is close. they have antifreeze range tester just for that reason!

Reinforces why I never go to Jiffy ****.
There are places where the tap water would be OK to use in a pinch. Portland's tap water is surface snow melt. Very soft, not allot of trace minerals, they only add chlorine to **** the bugs. OK in a pinch. Over the river here in Vancouver they use municipal well water for the taps. Allot harder, lots of volcanic silica, they add fluoride and chlorine. I wouldn't use it.

 

[ManySHOs]

You can buy distilled water for less than $.60 per gallon.

That makes a $9.99 gallon of Preston (AutoZone/Advance) into two gallons of 50/50 mix for $10.57 . . . . and total cost at ChinaMart is about $9.45 for a gallon of Preston and distilled water. You cannot get two gallons of 50/50 pre-mix for anywhere near that.

That is pretty cheap. I've purchased distilled water at CVS and NAPA and each time it was a few dollars/gallon. I understand that it's not 100% critical to have an exact 50/50 mix but it's easier for me to just dump it in pre-mixed and go. FWIW I would not use tap water; there's too much stuff in it that's not good for cooling systems.

Ian

 

[93rev2sev]

I would not be surprised if the factory used tap water

 

[NWGRN94MTX]

I would not be surprised if the factory used tap water

It wouldn't me either.

Another thing to check for on coolant besides the freeze point/boil point. Do a Ph test also.

http://www.acustrip.com/afcoolprod.html

 

[firstgen89sho]

I'm running Ford Premium Gold coolant in both my SHO's, now before you go roasting me over an open fire, I added the gold after both engines were rebuilt.

It seems to like it and run fine so far.

 

[itwonder]

Avoid Super Tech - many of their products (including their oil) are RECYCLED!

That really seems like a stretch but I'm all ears. Why would you think they are recycled??