Prestone All Make All Model Antifreeze

I need to change the coolant in my 99 Caravan 3.8L. It came with the
green coolant. Prestone now makes a new long life coolant they say is
good for all makes and model. Also can mix with the old green coolant
they say.

Is it safe to use in my radiator for my van? Has anyone tried it in
their vehicle?

Mike

 

I have an opinion, but I can't substantiate it. I have confidence in
the G-05 (HOAT) coolant that DC and Ford both have standardized on
(available as Mopar and Motorcraft, and in Shell and Zerex in the
aftermarket). I think Prestone learned some hard lessons on the GM
DexCool™/Prestone Extended Life™ OAT fiasco (GM still has yet to figure
a way to bow out of that gracefully). I have a sneaky suspicion that
the Prestone "All Makes All Models" new green stuff is good and is their
graceful way to pull customers away from the DexCool™. I just can't
imagine their public relations beging able to tolerate another huge
mistake on its heels. I am trying it in one of my cars as an early
experiment.

Like I said - I can't substantiate my opinion - so far it's just a hunch
based on what I said above, and I'm willing to take the risk on the one
vehicle (a 10 year old vehicle on which I just replaced the head gasket,
water pump, and all coolant hoses).

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

I got a bottle of about half of that from a friend when I gave him a
bottle to help him home when he lost coolant (turned out to be a loose
hose clamp) I didn't realize what it was when I got it until I had used
part of it. Fortunately in a vehicle I need to change coolant in anyway.

The way I feel about it is I'm rather p.o. d at Prestone for doing this.
Prestone is about the only antifreeze around here that the low-ball
chain store auto parts places carry and is usually discounted and
put on sale during the fall. Kind of like milk in the grocery store,
they sell it in volume and sell it cheap.

I can buy private label antifreeze that is the old 'green stuff' for
cheaper than the Prestone so that is what I am going to be doing from
now on.

Ted

 

Well, you can still buy silicone/silicate inhibitor coolant in several
forms, but you have to look harder and harder for it. Look for "heavy
duty" or "diesel" coolants and then check the MSDS or product spec
sheets for silicate inhibitors- this is the old "green" Prestone type
formula.

If you want to make life easier, it appears that G-05 (the coolant Ford
and Chrysler have standardized on) is just fine in older vehicles. Its a
hybrid coolant, using both conventional inhibitors and organic-acid
technology (OAT) inhibitors, and is thus categorized as a "HOAT"
inhibitor package. Its very different from Dex-Cool which is an OAT
inhibitor package, and is deadly to pretty much everything you put it in
except a few GM cars.

Prestone "all makes" looks like its also a HOAT coolant, and so should
be about equivalent to G-05. But given how vague Prestone is about
what's really in there, I'd be tempted to go with Zerex's
clearly-labelled G-05 coolant.

 

Yep, what he said.

 

FWIW...

The G-05 claims to be approved by Cat and other manufacturers for their
diesels. Not sure what that means exactly - possibly that
silicone/silicate inhibitor thing you mentioned.

A friend of mine who just bought a used turbo diesel Beetle e-mailed
Prestone at my suggestion. The answer he got back was to use the All
Makes All Models in it. I suspect that Zerex would have told him to use
G-05 if he had asked them. Just some more factoids.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Does Shell list their G-05 online anywhere? I've never seen it in stores and
I couldn't find it online either, but Shell has as about as many websites as
they have subsidiaries and holding companies.

 

I haven't actually seen or looked for it on line, Greg. All I know is
one of the local parts stores carries the Shell, which is what I have in
my Concorde now.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Its got SOME silicate. But the thing that really drives most of the
"Diesel requirements" on coolants is the big wet-sleeve diesels which
need nitrite additives to prevent micro-boiling and cavitation damage.
Not needed for most automotive diesels at all (and WOULD be needed for
any wet-sleeve gasoline engine, were there many in mass production), but
not a bad thing to have ini a coolant since cavitation damage can happen
in any engine... it just won't eat all the way through to the combustion
chamber except in wet-sleeve designs.... or as Dan will probably point
out, early Ford 5.4 Triton cylinder heads

 

No time to worry about Ford's garbage; I'm thinking about the wet-sleeve
aluminum 225 in my '62 Lancer.

 

IIRC (waiting for Dutra's article to load) yep, I was right- the Al 225
isn't a "wet sleeve" design. Its got free-standing aluminum bores, an
open deck head, and *dry* liners inside the freestanding bores, just
like almost all modern aluminum engines do. Making it a "parent bore"
engine.

True wet sleeve engines run the coolant directly on the back side of the
replaceable liner. That requires some fancier sealing at the top and
bottom of the liner, but allows for maximum heat transfer, which is why
its usually only done on BFDiesels that run at max output most of their
lives.

IOW- if you removed all of the liners from an Aluminum 225, there would
still be "cylinders" in the block. You could fill the block with coolant
and it wouldn't run out. But if you remove all the liners from a
wet-sleeve engine, there is no physical cylinder remaining at all- just
the sealing ledges at the bottom of the cylinder bank and at the block
deck. The cooling passages would be directly open to the crankcase.

See also:

http://www.internationaldelivers.com/government/spec/specbyspec2.asp

paragraph 2.

Or better yet: http://www.ic-corp.com/assets/pdf/DT466vsMBE-bus.pdf
Pictures and everything, but you have to tolerate a bit of blather about
how "inherently" better wet-sleeving is. Truth be told, the DT466 is
about the cut-in size for which it is a benefit. Anything smaller
doesn't really benefit as much and costs less when built as a
parent-bore engine- eg. Navistar's own T444e, Cummins B-series, etc.

 

Oh! Never heard the term. But I guess I get to go sit in the corner for
having failed to memorise Dutra's article ;-)

Think the Viper V10 was one of these (maybe only the gen1 engine?).

 

Nah, its just the photo of the top of one bore showing the liner and the
casting that I was remembering

 

Since I can still easily find the "old green" antifreeze at my auto
parts store so that's what I bought. I bought the Canadian Tire
antifreeze that says it's good for 2 years or 40,000 kms.

I'll probably do I complete flush and fill with the G05 when I can no
longer find the old green antifreeze.

Thanks for all the input.

Mike