Prestone vs Peak vs Dexcool???

[Longhorn 70]

This may have been discussed before but I didn't find it in the searches I did.

Coolant/Antifreeze. I am amazed at the prices of Antifreeze these days. It used to be 2x as expensive as gas and now it's over 4 times as expensive. I'll turn the whining off now.

Who is the best bang for buck, best performing for corrosion prevention in aluminum and best all around?

I have read bad things about Dexcool. I will be putting this stuff in 4 different cars. My truck, of course, the Vette, Toyota and Nissan. Is there one type that works in all 4 and won't kill aluminum radiators, intakes and heads?

Thanks in advance guys.

[whitels1]

I use dexcool in all of my aluminium applications.

[LockDoc]

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Being the cheapskate I am I buy whatever is on sale that will work in all of my vehicles...

LockDoc

[Daner]

I've heard Evans waterless coolant is best for aluminum. Lasts forever and won't corrode. It's pricey so I've never used it. Been debating with myself whether or not to put it in my snowmobile.

[Longhorn 70]

I typically do too Leon. I am trying to avoid replacing parts/antifreeze in the future. The RDRR in the Vette was $600.... That one hurt.

I look at the bright side as far as coolant is concerned. I don't have an original 351 V6. Those things have a HUGE capacity. I am still a cheapskate though.

[Hawghauler]

I work with newer fleet vehicles, and they come with dexcool new. I immediately replace it with Prestone Green antifreeze. We were finding the radiators filling up with what looked like sand. After changing to the tried and true Prestone green, no more problems. I've used Prestone since highschool, and I've never had any problems. On the other hand, I've worked for some pretty bad penny pinchers, and they insist on saving a few bucks on the cheap stuff. One case was a F**d 300 six. After rebuilding the motor one year, he insisted on cheap antifreeze. Within a year, we had to weld plates onto the side of the block to keep the coolant inside as it had rusted through the water jacket to the point where you could stick your finger through the block. At $45 a stick for cast iron welding rod, he lost his savings on the antifreeze. Notice we didn't replace the engine! Cheap! In all the expenses for any vehicle, saving pennies on seemingly unimportant things like antifreeze, just doesn't make sense. I highly recommend Prestone. But don't buy the 50/50, why pay for water. Get the concentrate. And make sure it's green.

[WIDESIDE72]

The old school green coolant is t listed as being compatible in the newer engines. This may just be hokum but i am not going to be a guinea pig with a $5k engine. As far as concentrate bs 50/50, its fine to buy concentrate, just dont use tap water. Used distilled water. You are introducing too many impurities into the system. Especiall important in aluminum component engines. My understanding is the pre mixed uses distilled water.

[BigRed76]

What I've learned about coolant over the years is that it doesn't matter what kind you use if you don't maintain it. Most of the bad stories I've heard about dexcool were from lack of maintenance.

I run dexcool in my '71 with the 5.3, and the '96 k1500, and regular green in the Cutlass. It all works great because I replace it when it needs it. Not sure how new your Toyota and Nissan are, but they might require coolant other than green or dexcool. At my work we typically put coolant in vehicles that they originally came with just to simplify things, but never mix them. For instance, never mix green with dex, or dex with gold, and so on...

[hamjet]

I think they're all pretty good but if you have to add water make sure you use distilled water, I have a well here and the lime scale would realy play havic in the radiator and engine. I found out the hard way when I was young..

[70c10-08]

I use the prestone green stuff in all the older vehicles but in all the newer GM trucks my family uses I only use dexcool that's what the decal, manual, and GM themselves say to use never had any problems so far and my 98 k1500 z71 Silverado has 197,000 miles on it

[67_C-30]

The Advance Auto Parts store brand is made by Prestone, and is cheaper than the brand name stuff. Their oil is made by Havoline, and I use it it a lot too. I used to work at Advance, and I had a Divison manager tell me what companies made their house brand stuff.

[bpatrol]

Just run prestone. it works great always had and still does.
Dexcool I wouldn't recommend unless everything is aluminum, and I mean everything, block, intake radiator. It eats anything else.
Too be honest I wouldn't put it in a new car.
also if your heater core isn't aluminum it will foul everything else.
Did I mention dexcool sucks

Don't overthink it and get the green stuff

[RustyBucket]

I recently replaced the water pump on my '02 GMC 1500hd crewcab 6.0. I'm ashamed to admit that I'd never flushed the cooling system in 12 years & 160,000 mi. For a few months I'd been adding a little distilled water because the pump was leaking and replaced it when it got noisy. The engine has alum. heads and an iron block. I'd heard & read bad stuff about the DEXCOOL if it's left in too long and was dreading what I was gonna find in my poor ol' truck. The cooling system was amazingly clean inside considering the neglect. I flushed it good and put DEXCOOL back in it.

[Troy Sr]

Originally Posted by Hawghauler

I highly recommend Prestone. But don't buy the 50/50, why pay for water. Get the concentrate. And make sure it's green.

I live by this as well. I don't understand buying 50/50 premix for the same price as concentrate. Doesn't make sense!!! I've never used distilled water either I've never had a coolant related problem. If I was to used distilled water I'd by the 1 gal bottle at Walmart for 1.29 and mix my own.

[capev86]

dexcool is crap and will eat gaskets over time. never had a problem with green stuff. for water i pour it out of old coolant jugs filled from the dehumidifier in my parents basement (cheap way to get low mineral content water). no matter what you do, radiators, heater cores and any other metal part of a cooling system will go bad eventually.....especially up here in the rust belt. keeping a log of repairs (like i do) makes things easy, but if you coolant looks kinda old or dirty, flush and replace!

[BigRed76]

I understand that some people hate dexcool and refuse to use it, so if you're going to switch from dexcool to the green stuff make sure you completely flush it out. If you just mix the two types of coolant that's when bad stuff happens. It will basically turn into mud over time.

[Stocker]

Originally Posted by Hawghauler

I highly recommend Prestone. But don't buy the 50/50, why pay for water. Get the concentrate.

That's what I've been doing since I started driving in the mid-sixties.

[lha1992]

I run the O'Reillys 50/50 green stuff in all my old trucks an dexcool in my mom's suburban.

[Tinkermc]

if changes every 5 years dexcool works well, but after that it turns into the monster from heck and will eat the gaskets up.

[Jraeyre]

We use Prestone (green) on everything except the 2002 Bobcat and the 2005 Duramax as they recommend other.

One other thing we do is add Schaeffer "Clean and Cool" to condition the older antifreeze. My understanding is it keeps the acid level in balance. Whatever it does, we get around 20 years on tractor radiators and I just sold my 1995 Chevy p/u with it's original cooling system intact.

Jra

[mcbassin]

Dexcool will turn into mud after about 150K miles. You need to change it before it turns to mud, (ask me how I know). Your heater will completely stop working and it will over heat.
I think Dexcool is for aluminum systems as stated above.

With that said, it's expensive but heck if you only do it say every 100k miles. Not too bad of an investment.

If your truck came out with the green stuff I would stick with it.

[special-K]

I've never had any issues in anything using antifreeze and never flushing. I have only flushed a couple trucks ever,and only once. We changed out the Dexcool to antifreeze in the '99 ZR2 we bought new,after having "mud" problems in 2 years/50k. Sold to son,and now his friend owns it. We had over 100k on it when we sold it in '05. Water pumps and radiators only last but so long no matter what. I have bought only a few radiators due to leaks in all the trucks I've had and that was caused by age and a lot of sitting. Whatever problems Dexcool is supposed to prevent it replaces with it's own problems,IMO.
Like batteries and tires,there are only a few companies that make antifreeze. I just buy what's cheapest. Never 50/50!