i also forgot, do you think i should buy the flush kit with the radiator cleaner or just the flush kit with the flush stuff?

 

That is only true if it is not maintained. We had Aluminum intakes and used Ethylene glycol for decades before the newer style coolants came out in the 90's. There where some almost all aluminum engine that where around in the 70's.

 

the huge thing with all of them is to maintain your coolant and not let it get acidic it will eat things and all types get acidic and will start eating things

 

Interesting! I have ask the people at the national chain parts stores about this very thing and all of them tell me that their antifreeze is compatiable with dex cool. As far as I know, all of my vehicles have the green except my suburban. It is time for a flush on it. Reading on the chevy truck forum, they claim dex will allow algae to grow. I guess the best practice is to keep coolant flushed and changed on a regular basis.

 

Yeah, that stuff should work fine. I usually get the full concentrate and mix it myself, but then again I've done enough flushes/refills that I've got extra containers LOL. It's cheaper by far. If you do it this way, though, you need to clearly label the jugs that have and haven't been mixed.

As far as capacity, I don't know if the '02 is the same as the '96 that I have, but last time I did a flush/fill, I used almost two full jugs. Some people just throw in a full jug of concentrate and then fill with water, but I like precision so I mix the stuff before I fill.

 

Wow it would freeze in Colorado or any cold place with 1 jug then Fill it with water

 

I might not have been specific enough. I meant one jug of full concentrate, then filled with water. At least for my car, that would give a slightly higher than 50/50 ratio, since it uses slightly less than 2 jugs of the 50/50 mix to fill the whole thing.

 

ok thanks to all of you, do you guys have a preferance on the coolant brand or are they all the same?

 

I've never noticed a difference between brands... As far as I've seen, as long as it's the same base (Dex-Cool, propylene glycol, or ethylene glycol), there's no difference. If anybody has different experience, feel free to correct me on that. I always get what's cheapest, which is usually the AutoZone brand, except when there's a sale on something else.

I know that some brands say they have additives to keep your cooling system from clogging, etc. I've never had trouble with plain el-cheapo antifreeze, and I see no reason why these additives would be needed. If there's a problem with your cooling system, no additive will fix it, IMHO.

 

you can use the yellow antifreeze it mixes w/ any antifreeze just be sure to drain all the dex out! thats what i did with my 96 blazer works fine now