Engine coolant recommendations

my info may be outdated but as I was told, if you have some green in your system test and treat on a regular basis.

 

Man I wouldn’t be messing around with permanent antifreeze. Put premix ELC in it and be done.

 

I'm no expert, for sure. But the coolant test strips should ensure against electrolysis, and liner putting. I've used regular coolant forever. But I buy Alliance brand that is pretreated with SCAs (molybdate and nitrate). So it is red (but they put on pink cap on the gallon container to maybe confuse buyers). I've heard more than a couple of times it's the same as green, but pretreated. Hence it's red. Pink is organic ELC. Over the years I had the bad luck of developing a coolant leak-and not because of poor maintenance. I had a brass Detroit valve used for coolant filter shut off lines go bad only after a few years. And I had a silicone lined hose leak when it had only been 2-3 years since it was changed (along with all hoses after a rebuild). I suppose the shop could have overtightened in the beginning, damaging the hose. Both times I had ELC and only regular coolant was available in the emergency. Once they are mixed, the extended life is gone. I'm not even sure if it's really ok or not to mix them anyhow. So I prefer regular just in case I lose my coolant. And then I change all coolant lines when I change coolant every 225-250 k miles.

 

Oh, and I'd test your coolant about every 15 k

 

You gotta really stay on top of the green with treatment. Test it every oil change or we did in the days before ELC. We never had any trouble. But we stayed on top of it.

I tore a truck down not long ago 100k on documented inframe. Number 4 was pitted all way through had green coolant. Was it treated I can’t say I can only say the damage I found and how fast it seemed to go to crap.


As posted I would do a complete drain oil cooler, heater cores etc flush and refill with ELC on all my older stuff if it were me. I also believe in grounding my radiator and block well. That’s probably more superstition than fact but hey never hurts to be cautious

 

Coolants have come a long way the last 30 years. Colours really aren't a reliable way to tell coolant types apart anymore.

 

Straying off point of the topic, I think the industry has always tried to confuse non-mechanics who know the subject with colors. Take Daimler/Freightliner's Alliance brand: they use a pink cap for pre-treated regular coolant that is red; and they use a red cap for ELC, which is pink (presumably-I've never opened one). Alliance used to use a red cap for regular, and a pink cap for ELC. Go figure! I would read the label before buying just to be sure.

I read an article a long time ago with the headline that went something like "Unravelling the mystery behind different coolants". The gist of it was that ELC used organic ingredients-whatever that exactly means-and regular didn't. The organic part is what makes it unnecessary to treat the coolant (if I remember right), and allows it to last longer. I don't remember if the article got into whether or not some ELCs & regular coolants are incompatible. I want to say yes because it can cause some gelling. However, a shop I've gone to for long time uses an ELC-that's clear btw-that is compatible with any coolant.

 

Mechanics who don't know much about the subject.