Now when the coolant system was flushed, I am not completely sure that all that ‘mud’ was flushed out of the radiator. This caused the coolant to turn into ‘mud’ within the radiator and eventually the head gasket failed completely and I had to have that replaced along with putting in ethylene glycol to replace the DexCool. It originally had that crappy DexCool in it that then ate away at the cheap plastic head gasket causing oil to leak into the coolant system. These are less than a year old and are both operating as expected.Ī little history on the engine. I had the cooling fan assembly replaced last year after one of the fans failed. The coolant temperature seems to go up when the car is idling but when moving it starts to go back down to normal. It is still fluctuating however after the converter replacement. I recently had the check engine light on with the P0420 code which indicates a bad catalytic converter, I had that replaced and I was hoping that maybe the lack of exhaust flow through the converter was causing the overheating. Going from 200 degrees up to 240 sometimes 260 degrees. The coolant temperature started fluctuating recently. The car has 180K+ miles on the original engine. In fact, most owner's manuals put the change interval at 5 years or 100,000 miles or even longer for Dex-Cool.when I do the next change on my 168K 6.I have a 2002 Chevy Impala with the 3.4L engine. Tons more DATA out here on Dex-cool or OAT coolant most general applications recommend : The idea was simple really Dex-Cool lasts longer than traditional antifreeze. This coolant uses Organic Acid Technology (OAT) with additives extending the life of the coolant without the need for supplemental coolant additive (SCA). Dex-Cool® is trademarked by GM.Ībout all heavy diesel engine mfg's spec Dex-cool Including Cat :Cat ELC and ELI provide industry leading corrosion resistance and longer engine life. Another thing a cooling system with DexCool will not tolerate without creating sludge is low coolant levels over a period of time something that many people with 31 engines would definitely experience.ĭex-Cool® is an OAT, an ethylene glycol based antifreeze that is nitrite-, borate-, phosphate-, nitrate-, amine-, and silicate-free with the same metal wear protection as an IAT antifreeze. In fact, out of all the vehicles at my house with DexCool, the '01 Malibu was the only one ever had a problem - and I caused it by using an improper mix. Fel-Pro's 'problem solver' is made of aluminum, and completeley solves the problem.ĮDIT: That 'problem-solver' gasket set has carried the car to 250K miles (about 120K miles since installation as of 11/1/21) and I am still not seeing any problems with DexCool. My first replacement was with one like the original and lasted for about 70K miles. The rubber that sealed the engine would then shift and cause an oil or coolant leak to the outside or oil and coolant to mix inside the engine. The plastic would eventually fail as a result of being too thin in certain areas. The problem was that the gaskets were made of plastic with rubber molded in around the manifold ports. The gasket issues in 31 engines was caused solely by the gaskets - Dexcool had no effect on them. I had to switch back to a 50/50 mix, but now I add a bit of Red Line Water Wetter to it. I had been running 30 percent coolant and 70 percent water after discovering that a higher water concentration would provide lower system temperatures. I did research on Dexcool after seeing brown sludge in my '01 Malibu. It is important to get the air out of the system and do not go under 50% mixture.Ĭlick to expand.Plus one on your comment. It appears that GM has learned its lesson as we do not see Dexcool issues in their more modern engines. It is causing failures in engines that cost more than $20,000.00 in half a million dollar machinery. With diesel engines and more flavors of coolant components, we are seeing a lot of issues where farmers are not being careful in grabbing whatever coolant they have on the shelf and dumping it into their equipment. Too many places for old coolant to hide within the heat exchangers and jackets. Back then, you had to have ALL of the Dexcool out of the system before switching to the green stuff due to chemical incompatibilities. Did not keep the 99 Malibu long enough for it to fail that engine. It ruined the Corsica after several intake manifold gasket failures. The Impala made it to 100,000 miles without gasket failure but the Dexcool was replaced several times due to turning to sludge in the system. I had a 96 Corsica with the 3.1, 91 Pontiac 6000 with the 3.1, 99 Malibu with the 3.1, and a 2003 Impala with the 3.4. Dexcool and some gasket materials in the 90's and early 2000's V-6's did not get along very well.
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