concerns with red antifreeze

Sorry but I never heard of red antifreeze causing issues. Turned wrenches for many years. Actually, I believe that red antifreeze is less acidic then the green glyco is after a certain period of time. I know that the green glyco will eat through an aluminum engine block if it is not changed out regularly.

 

There is no difference between red and green antifreeze. It is ORANGE antifreeze that used to be a concern. It is now safe to mix the colors.

Most of the antifreeze bottles now have printed on the labels "safe to mix with any color"

 

I switched to the red a couple of years ago. Have never had any problems. Never heard of it causing a blown head gasket either.

 

Dexcool (orange) has been known to cause issues with gaskets, radiators and other cooling related components.

 

NOOOOO! Don't mix. You will most likely change the effectiveness of your coolant when you start pouring anything in the radiator.

READ the label. It will tell you what compatibility is with other types. Or check mfr's website.

I use the read OAT and you cannot put green or any other color in without it losing it's long term protection.

Maybe Kansas means mixing won't ruin your motor but it will ruin your antifreeze, which means bad for the engine.

If you are in a bind just put in distilled water if small amount is needed until you can get the right stuff. If you need a lot and you're in Grizzly Scat, Alberta, you need freeze protection so put in whatever for freeze protection until you have a chance to drain the whole pot-luck mess and fill with one type.

 

so what ur saying semi crazy is i cant put creek water in and run it all the time??? ####...now i have to work on the truck lol

 

True. The red ELC coolant (OAT or HOAT) will last for over 500,000 miles, with a boost of extender at around 300,000 miles. If green or other is mixed in, all extended protection is reduced. The red ELC coolant does not need SCA's like the regular coolant does, and provides better cylinder liner cavitation protection. It is a far better coolant overall. Do not mix except in emergency situation. It will not damage engine parts, gaskets, etc compared to regular coolant. The Dexcool stuff at Walmart is NOT the right stuff. That is designed for regular gas engines. It provides NO wet sleeve cavitation (pitting due to water molecules exploding on the surface of the liner) protection like the red ELC coolants from Shell, Delo, Global, Cat, etc do.

 

In regards to my first post, it was assuming a few things:

1. Your engine is in good shape, and your just topping off the coolant system. In that case as stated in the Matrix (see link below) its ok to top off with any color as long as you dont go over 10% of total volume. I would revise that and say it would be safer (in a pinch) to top off "any color antifreeze" with green.

1a. Assumes a healthy engine. Topping off is not the same as refilling. A radiator should never need refilled unless done intentional as an act of regular service maintenance. If not, the coolant system is not healthy and should be serviced. Topping off is only necessary once or twice a year, and it would not affect SCA or other additives in a negative way.

2. Your engine is not in good shape. In that case you are headed to a heavy truck dealer for parts or a repair shop that "knows" what coolant is compatible with your heavy truck engine. Hopefully they stock that exact coolant. For a non healthy engine, any antifreeze will do as youll probably be draining, flushing and replacing the entire volume ASAP. Any color antifreeze is ALWAYS going to be a much better bet than letting it go dry or filling with water. Water only will ALWAYS lead to catastrophic engine failure if operated for an extended period.

3. You regularly use test strips to monitor conditions of your cooling system, and use pre-charged coolant cartridges as required.

I found a pretty good link from WIKI on this subject. Scroll to the footnotes at the very bottom. Footnote 13 contains a link "Coolant Matrix"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze

or

http://www.eetcorp.com/antifreeze/Coolants_matrix.pdf

While reading through the Coolant Matrix chart, and everything becoming clear as mud. One thing I did notice is pretty much all the Heavy Engine Manufactures Coolant's will work in the next engine. Where as the Ford, Chevy and Dodge Antifreeze isnt nearly as backwards compatible with Cat, Cummins and Detroit engines.

Orange antifreeze (Dex-Cool) has historically been used by GM in aluminum radiators only. It was death to copper radiators, and that's where half the confusion lies. Currently, orange has been made safe for all radiator types. You might also note Cummins, Cat and Detroit do not recommend orange antifreeze at all. They do however recommend multiple brands of green and red types of antifreeze.

 

What about this Evans coolant I see being advertised and promoted at shows....any feed back on that as a coolant?