The importance of coolant flushes (1 Viewer)

[White80]

Where are you guys getting your temp readings at? I have an infrared thermometer and camera for work. Just need to know where to pull an accurate reading from. Guessing a radiator hose...?

 

[The Raven]

scangauge, or any OBD reader that displays Temp

 

[JaketheSSnake]

Where are you guys getting your temp readings at? I have an infrared thermometer and camera for work. Just need to know where to pull an accurate reading from. Guessing a radiator hose...?

Those type of devices wouldn't really give you an accurate coolant temp. You really need something in the coolant to get an accurate reading.

 

[Hornd]

Testing Coolant with Multi-Meter

 

[mervo]

What happens when you mix red and green, anyhow?

Bazillion threads around here mention the effects. In short, mixing green and red might turn to sludge.

Here's the one where @IdahoDoug and @beno talk about it. Long thread but very informative and convinced me that Toyota knows best.

Green coolant vs. Red coolant

 

[zapatius]

Where are you guys getting your temp readings at? I have an infrared thermometer and camera for work. Just need to know where to pull an accurate reading from. Guessing a radiator hose...?

If you have an OBDII 80 series, get a Bluetooth scan tool like OBDLink MX and the $4.99 Torque app for your smart phone. If you have the OBDI version like me, you have to actually put a temp sensor in an adapter in the upper radiator hose (what I did) and hook the sensor up to a Koso or similar temp gauge.

 

[tarbe]

Both of my old 80s (and my 281k mile Sienna) are running the Prestone Universal stuff ...but I did flush the bejeebers out of them before switching - just in case the sludge stories are true!

I'll be baselining a new-to-me 100 soon...will probably keep running the Toyota stuff in my "new" 16 year old truck.

 

[Clint0511]

Bazillion threads around here mention the effects. In short, mixing green and red might turn to sludge.

Here's the one where @IdahoDoug and @beno talk about it. Long thread but very informative and convinced me that Toyota knows best.

Green coolant vs. Red coolant

Thanks, I did look around... The silicates/non-silicates makes some sense... Had been searching on mixing green and red, thanks for the link.

 

[mervo]

Thanks, I did look around... The silicates/non-silicates makes some sense... Had been searching on mixing green and red, thanks for the link.

Not a problem bro. I actually have better luck searching google for the topic I'm looking for than the mud search.

So to in order to find that thread I used, 'Mixing coolant, ih8mud' and it was the fourth on down.

 

[The Raven]

But as always...red is for the weekend warriors, green is for those of us that actually go places the red is unavailable.

 

[suadero]

Where are you guys getting your temp readings at? I have an infrared thermometer and camera for work. Just need to know where to pull an accurate reading from. Guessing a radiator hose...?

Shooting my infra thermometer at the point where the top radiator hose hits my metal '94 radiator gives me a good idea of trends if not exact coolant temp.

 

[mervo]

But as always...red is for the weekend warriors, green is for those of us that actually go places the red is unavailable.

Didn't read the thread I posted did ya???

I think I'll stick with beno, cruiserdan, and idahodougs thoughts on the matter.

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

Bazillion threads around here mention the effects. In short, mixing green and red might turn to sludge.

Here's the one where @IdahoDoug and @beno talk about it. Long thread but very informative and convinced me that Toyota knows best.

Green coolant vs. Red coolant

Yeah, any time you see a label say that the coolant is compatible with other types, you can pretty much assume that it's a lie.

One of the vendors of farming / mining / earth moving equipment has a coolant that probably is compatible with everything because it's neither silicate nor acidic, but i forget who they are and it's not exactly cheap anyway.

It's likely that all the asian reds are compatible. It's probable that asian reds and dexcool and european pinks are compatible. Green only mixes with green no matter what the bottle says. I don't even know what the red RV coolant is about.

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

But as always...red is for the weekend warriors, green is for those of us that actually go places the red is unavailable.

I bought Zerex Asian Car Formula at NAPA, off the shelf. If you look a little harder, red is available most everywhere.

It's also perfectly ok to top up with water in an emergency.

Green coolant should be replaced every 2 years or whenever it tests done.

The other formulations last a lot longer.

 

[richardlillard1]

Flushed it the other night. No big deal.

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

So I just got my LC back from my mechanic. I would have done the work myself but he is a knowledgeable Toyota guy and given my LC is a rust country sweetheart, I'll let him deal with the rust.... not to mention I am in the process of selling my place and all my possessions.

ANYWAYS.... When I dropped the LC off the coolant was brown. The overflow bottle was brown, the overflow hose was clogged with sand resulting in coolant overflowing the pressure cap. It was bad....REALLY BAD. According to my scan gauge I was running about 195-205F

Now, thanks to IH8Mud and the paranoia set in about poorly maintained coolant systems, headgaskets etc I figure that if the HG was going to blow...It would have with the heat and added pressure.

I replaced the waterpump, fan clutch to blue, new tstat, PHH, all other hoses, and switched to green coolant. Apparently when the block was flushed it took 8 full flushes with cleaner to come out clear. The mechanic said he had never seen a coolant system so absolutely nasty in 30 years. I asked him about the radiator and he said it was spotless....odd.

It's now running at 185-190

So...planning on an annual or bi-annual flushing now...

What did he flush with? while I'm a great proponent of the "it's all the same stuff" theory of comparison shopping it turns out that radiator cleaner products vary widely. Prestone's product is just a tablespoon or so of disodium citrate in water. At least one product is hydrochloric acid in water and shouldn't be used on cooling systems that include aluminum. I think at least one of them is borax in water. liqui-moly radiator cleaner is an acid and a detergent and really pretty great though you have to follow it with a few water rinses.

2 years is the expected lifespan of green coolant. if you are using a modern HOAT or OAT coolant i don't see why you should change out more than a gallon of it per year.

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

Nothing in my case. I added a transmission cooler to my Tacoma not long after I bought it new in 2001 which resulted in a bunch of the coolant (red) draining. I added green back to fill it back up (not knowing any better). You know what happened? Nothing. I sold that truck in 2013 (about 10 years after I mixed red and green) and the cooling system/radiator/etc. was perfectly fine.

Green coolant uses a silica derivative chemical as it's corrosion inhibitor. It is slightly basic (ph above 7). Red, pink, purple, blue, orange coolant use an organic acid as a corrosion inhibitor. Ph below 7.

When you mix green coolant with any of the acidic coolants you have an acid/base reaction that results in the acidic corrosion inhibitor causing the silica to drop out of solution as a fine silt and degraded corrosion inhibitor performance.

Flushed it the other night. No big deal.

Did all the boys come to the yard?

 

[The Raven]

This past summer when I spent a month in labrador/newfoundland....nope not available. Was good enough for me not to use it.

I bought Zerex Asian Car Formula at NAPA, off the shelf. If you look a little harder, red is available most everywhere.

It's also perfectly ok to top up with water in an emergency.

Green coolant should be replaced every 2 years or whenever it tests done.

The other formulations last a lot longer.

 

[IronCladLou]

Green coolant uses a silica derivative chemical as it's corrosion inhibitor. It is slightly basic (ph above 7). Red, pink, purple, blue, orange coolant use an organic acid as a corrosion inhibitor. Ph below 7.

When you mix green coolant with any of the acidic coolants you have an acid/base reaction that results in the acidic corrosion inhibitor causing the silica to drop out of solution as a fine silt and degraded corrosion inhibitor performance.

Yeah, I've heard that, but it didn't happen. I drained and filled coolant in that truck every 2-3 years after mixing and never saw any evidence of sediment, etc.

 

[excessive]

Does anyone know what causes the brown coolant color and sludge in the 80 series ? Is it the silica suspended in the solution that falls out or is it debris from the radiator or is it rust particles????