Flushed coolant today.
 

I flushed the coolant today in my 2004 Dale Jr car. I had noticed that when I bought the car, it had been changed to the green stuff and the original owner said that she had had it done in late 2008. When I had my intake gaskets replaced in March, the mechanic put new green coolant in the radiator.

I went to clean out the overflow tank because it had the red crusty stuff left over from dexcool and noticed the coolant inside was rusty red color when it had been green before. I opened the radiator cap and it was the same color.

I drained the radiator and refilled it several times with water and then put some prestone flush in it and let it run until it got hot and then let it cool and I drained again. I then filled it up with water again and ran it until it was hot and again drained it out. I then drained and refilled the radiator several times.

I then filled it up with coolant. The problem here was that my service manual says that the coolant capacity is over 11qrts and only about a gallon of coolant would go back in. I guess the block and heater core hold quite a bit. I'm going to have to drain the radiator again before winter because I wasn't thinking and put the 50/50 pre-mix coolant back in instead of straight coolant so I probably still have mostly water in the system.

Sometimes I just don't think. Hopefully I got most of the crud out even though I can still see some red stuff on top of the core inside the radiator. Dexcool is some nasty stuff.

Wayne

I hate Dex-Crap. You'll be finding chunks of it for years to come. :(

Smart Cars
 

Actually, these cars are smart enough to help you out a bit. I flushed my system as well, and went to put in my 50/50 mix. It ended up only taking a gallon right in the radiator, not two like I was suppose to add. So I filled up the reservoir to full and drove around. The excess water boils off and drains coolant from the reservoir tank accordingly. So just keep adding 50/50 to the tank and in no time it will stay at full. This has happened/worked on three of my cars including two Toyota Camrys (bleh, parents cars). In order to get all the fluid out, you need to run the car with the bleed valves opened up and the heater on max with the rad cap off, after you flushed/cleaned the system. It ends up having a gallon of distilled water left in it if you dont, in which case you can just add the undiluted coolant. If you flush it the way I just said (also check out google for way more in depth info) I had it flush out all two gallons this way and was able to fill up with 50/50. Down with DEXCOOL!

I will try that out. Thanks.

Wayne

Since I am supercharged, shouldn't I stick with dex-cool? What is the issue with it??? Can I see some articles or something? My Monte only has 52,000 miles and I want to do anything I can to keep her running clean and smooth and for a long time... Also, when I got my Monte, mine was mixed color fluid too, but flushed it and got a new coolant bottle to replace the nasty one.

See some articles? I guess you haven't learned how to use the "Google machine" yet. Blades of Glory anyone? Either way DEXCOOL ends up turning into sludge. Imagine 150,000 miles of metal debris build up with ethylene glycol. Toxic syrup. So many GM cars have had nightmares with this buildup due to people expecting the coolant to last it's full life. It's organic acids are the problem and when it is combined with newer coolant, it just kills both the new and old coolant's life. Ill post some articles later, I have a Honda accord calling me to do it's coolant as we speak, as well as my power steering. If you don't believe the articles, I am a Biomedical Engineer and can tell you first hand, stay away from the DEX CRAP. It is more expensive, uglier and not safe. Just get some Prestone undiluted at walmart, wont cost more than 12$. Plus they are running a rebate now, 7$ off. Also, my uncle has had to pull apart blocks due to head gasket issues from DEX ****. If you want to use it, because you are supercharged (which it sounds like you shouldn't even own one with your knowledge) then by all means, destroy your car.

INSULTS NOT NECESSARY! CHECK YOUR EGO IN AT THE DOOR! Was just asking a question Captain Obvious! Try being a little more nice and friendly on here instead of trying to put down people's intelligence! I am sure you do not know everything, so don't act like it. Many people are on here to learn about their Montes. Being rude and disrespectful gets you nowhere......and I wouldn't care if you were even a rocket scientist, it gives you no right to belittle people. Try working on your "being human" skills....

My car is also Supercharged and if you would have seen what the inside of my overflow tank looked like and the underside of my radiator cap looked like, you would change yours too.

According to the original owner of my car, the coolant was flushed by Jiffy Lube at around 80,000 miles and green was put in. I called Jiffy Lube and asked what kind of green coolant they used and supposedly its the stuff compatible with all coolants. Looking at the coolant before I flushed it, obviously they did not do a good job of it. The new radiator cap that I had installed after I bought the car, already had a buildup of red stuff.

I think I flushed the system pretty good but I won't really know until I start driving the car for a while.

I also just flushed the Dexcool out of my 98 K1500 chevy truck with the 5.7L and the coolant still looked pretty good but was starting to gell inside the radiator neck. There was no red paste though. The coolant had been changed a few times over the years during the three intake manifold gasket repairs the truck has had since new so that may be the reason it didn't get too bad. I also put the green compatible stuff in it.

Wayne