Flushing coolant; worth a switch to Toy Red? (1 Viewer)

[Beej]

Hey folks,

Baselining coming along. I'm in the stressing about the small stuff phase of the game.

Which brings me to Red vs. Green.

There's green in it now, and I doubt, highly doubt, that PO would have done a good flush before switching from red to green.

Now, that necessitates a flush, ok. But after the flush (back flush per forum recommendation with Prestone kit), am I inviting more sludge by switching to Red?

Is there a way I can check for sludge before I do any flushing?

If there's no sludge, I would just assume keep it green for the time being. I've got enough other stuff on the baselining list to keep my time well occupied.

Truck is a 97 with 160K. She lives in New England where it gets cold in winter.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

-- Beej

 

[aae42]

as long as you don't mix them, i don't think it matters...

purists would put OEM red back in, but since PO may have mixed it... they would probably just pull the motor and rebuild it because you can never be too sure...

if there's already green in it, i'd say flush and refill with green....

 

[slow95z]

Green for me, I can't afford the red.

 

[bmwjnky]

I prefer the green because it's easier to find if you have an issue while out on a trip and need to perform a repair.

 

[Funner]

I have started using the "mixes with any coolant" in all my rigs, cars, trucks, motorcycles. It just seems easier to have something I can top up with whatever is available and not have 2-3 different types of coolant at the house?

 

[Beej]

Would I be at risk for sludge if I subbed in Zerex Asian vehicle coolant? It has no silicates; I used it in my '92 Kawasaki without any apparent issues.

Main thing is though, I want to avoid this sludge business. I'll stick with green or whatever just to stay away from "sludge". Sludge just sounds terrible.

 

[Beej]

How is one to discern whether one has sludge? Know what I mean?

 

[Mountainpassing]

My recent baseline odyssey yielded
these plain summaries through hours of reading.

red :for people who never travel more than a short cab ride from a toyota dealer, or who like to carry mass red bottles like a prized baseball card collection.

green : for people who value supreme availability and dont want to be that jerk who begs a ride off the mountain.

orange: for the illiterate

yello: who said yellow?

green and red perform exactly the same except red has some properties that are better if you only change your radiator out every 200,000 miles(please dont wait thAt long).

i had green and replaced it all with green and i cruise @ 186 cool degrees usually but i also replaced everything involved with the cooling system(except the radiator ,its tip top) .

Recommendation: If you wanna stay cool save your toyota red pennies and buy green then PM your cooling system cuz thats where your real bread and butter lies.

caveat: run whatever color it came with ,except.........................

 

[LS1FJ40]

Green

This has been discussed ad nausea. The Godfather has spoken and has stated that green is as good physically as red but gets the nod because of readily availability and inexpensiveness.

 

[LINUS]

If you have green now, I'd just go back with the same.

If you really want to get Mud-OCD over it, dump & run a full load of distilled (or what we call tapwater here in the PNW) - as long as you don't leave hard water inthe system over a week, I wouldn't sweat it.

Then dump the water since we're warm enough right now to run it, and go back with real proper mix of green & distilled water.

I'm still red in one 80, my other is green - it's all good as long as you just aren't mixing.

Check your PHH while you're dumping coolant - call that being Mud-OCD & crack a cold one for a job well done.

Remember to key on, open your heater/turn it to warm - so you get your valve open.

 

[ZA80]

Green go Green stay Green

 

[Hornd]

Stay Green unless your at Sea.

 

[bicycleagent003]

Green all the way. Universally available, high quality product (Prestone is), and you don't have to find a T dealership every time you want to do some maintenance and crack the cooling system open. There's no strong reason to go red IMHO, and there are many good reasons to stay or go green.
Plus The Hulk is green and he's bad ass.

 

[Beej]

Alright, inquiring minds, I'm staying green. I have seen many expouse the benefits of Red but I haven't seen anyone die from Green. With my luck, I will probably be the first.

 

[Funner]

Alright, inquiring minds, I'm staying green. I have seen many expouse the benefits of Red but I haven't seen anyone die from Green. With my luck, I will probably be the first.

No, the head gasket, phh, wiring harness, birfs, heater hoses, radiator, fuel filter, fuel sock, starter contacts, power steering pump, P0401, rear oil pan arch seal, rear main, front main, oil pump cover and dizzy o-ring will all kill your rig before the green coolant....

 

[bloc]

Ironically, I have trouble finding actual green coolant around here. Almost everything is yellow "compatible with everything" or orange. I ended up getting "zerex original green" on amazon.

If you do use a legacy green product, like what was originally used in the time frame of these trucks, my understanding is the ph balancing doesn't last as long as newer coolant types. Meaning you either need to replace it more frequently, or get a ph check kit (cheap on amazon) to determine exactly when it needs replacing.

I still saw all of this as easier than dealing with red stuff.

 

[IronCladLou]

I honestly think it doesn't make any difference. I bought a 2001 Tacoma DoubleCab brand new in 2000. Around 2004 or so I added a transmission cooler which required I drain about half of the coolant. When I did this, I refilled with green, so I had about a 50/50 mix of red and green (I didn't know it was "forbidden" to do this). Guess what? Nothing happened. I did coolant changes, etc., for years after that and never saw the first hint of "sludge". A buddy of mine at work now owns the truck so I still see it all the time. 15 year-old vehicle with 160k miles on it and it's just fine.

 

[bloc]

When I did the cooling system overhaul in my truck the back of the water pump and the aluminum coolant bypass pipe on the exhaust side of the engine had significant corrosion inside them. 1/16+" grooves corroded into the aluminum. Nothing to the point of compromising a seal (close on the pipe) or structural integrity, but a sure sign that something wasn't right about the coolant the PO was running. It had yellow in it when I got it at 20 years and 270k miles old. Not that the yellow was at fault.. Who knows what the PO did with it? Or how diligent their mechanic was about the flush they did at some point?

Point is.. it may not sludge, but that doesn't mean other problems can't come up long term.

Personally I don't like how harsh the chemicals are in the cooling system "flush" products. I usually just open everything up as well as possible (including the heater valve) and use a garden hose to flush everything out, then fill and drain a couple times with distilled or reverse osmosis water, then fill it with the product I choose. on a 96+ it helps to get an extra section of soft heater hose and unhook the heater from the metal pipe above the exhaust manifold. Then you can push water directly into the heater core, as well as back into the water pump via the metal pipe. on 93-94 you can do the same with the existing rubber hose above the water pump.

 

[85badger]

FYI, I saw a version of the "red" coolant at my local O'reilly Auto Store, so it's becoming more readily available now.

 

[aae42]

FYI, I saw a version of the "red" coolant at my local O'reilly Auto Store, so it's becoming more readily available now.

that's where i get my Zerex "Asian" coolant i used after my HG job but before i realized it didn't matter... which is pink/compatible with red (i think)...