Looking to flush my coolant system tomorrow and was looking for a good coolant suggestion for my Be Cool aluminum radiator. Be Cool is asking $52 for 2 gallons and I have to wait for it to get shipped here. Would like to hit the local auto parts store tomorrow and get the job done tomorrow. Any quality coolant suggestions? Thanks guys

I've been running Prestone green in my alum head 383/BeCool alum radiator. No problems for 12 years now.

green in my champion rads and copper since......1966

the color of antifreeze means virtually nothing these days.

The chemistry does.

I use and like Evans but it can be a PITA to get the system ready if you've used conventional antifreeze already.

Worth looking into if you have the time to wait on shipping and pay a bit more for the kit to clean the system to use Evans.

I have a mix of old and new stuff, as they come due I have been converting to peak final charge and never looked back.

Prestone extended life universal has worked well in my AL radiator classic. No visible top tank corrosion or performance drop after 15 years.

I agree the one mixes with all works.have used it at home and at the shop for years.Never a problem.Only thing thats junk is dexcool.That was garbage.but lots of the problrms with it was lack of maintaince.My cars with aluminum rads I run the universal.has been run for years.Even with old brass rads.Rocky

What is so special about Be Cool’s antifreeze, besides the price?

Probably a pretty shade of blue like B&M Trickshift fluid.

Kevin

Here's a little more than 2-cents.
1. Supercuda is right & color means nothing anymore.
2. Don't mix anti-freeze types/brands... it's not the end of the world, but some ingredients don't mix well in various brands.
3. I believe the Dexcool problems have been solved by changes in cooling system gasket/seal material.
4. I "thought" BeCool just sold the water-wetter-type additive....guess I'm wrong.
5. Regular yellow colored Prestone works just fine. Generic Peak green long life works fine (green Dexcool actually), I personally don't like the G-5 or anything with nitrite in it (mainly used in semi truck diesel engines).
6. Make SURE to use either distilled or at least de-ionized water.
Hope This Helps!

DexCools problems was more than gasket.It pretty much turned into sludge mud.A lot because as I said lack of maintaince.Had plenty of GMs that were plugged because of sludge.IE flushing heater cores washer bottles that looed like they sat in a swamp.GM just had bad gaskets and design for the most part.Even before Dex they had gasket problems.Rocky

Sorry to get technical here. Dexcool is based on 2-ethylhexanoic acid + sebacic acid with a dash of tolytriazole. It is the same (or close) as the blend used in Peaks Long-Life & many heavy duty (semi truck/crane/ship) coolants. The pH of Dexcool is about 8.5 to 9 (very slightly basic. It is known as "OAT" coolant (organic acid technology).


Conventional (IAT-inorganic acid technology) coolant (what USED to be all green & the only coolant available for our cars when they were built) contains silicates, phosphates, borates, etc. and typically has a pH of about 10 to 10.5 (pretty basic). These ingredients form sludge when the pH gets below about 9.5, so if you topped off DexCool with conventional coolant, sludge would form.


Based on personally analyzing a lot of coolant from original owner cars whose owners swear nobody has ever worked on their cooling system, changed coolant, etc I can say that just about everybody's coolant has been "topped off" by somebody, somewhere....like Jiffy Lube or wherever.

And on a related note....2-ethylhexanoic acid can dissolve some gasket & o-ring materials. This seems to have been taken care of by the gasket manufacturers since "dexcool-type" technology is still widely used.

Side note...Prestone's "green" (actually yellow for Prestone) is also an "OAT" formula antifreeze, but is not based on 2-EHA. Prestone's yellow & Peak's green are compatible with each other too, fyi....and so is Dexcool. The closest thing I've seen to the OEM-type coolant is actually called "Peak Green" & comes in jugs which look very similar to their popular "long life". It's conventional, based primarily on phosphates (high pH, not compatible with Dexcool, Peak Long Life or Prestone green/yellow). I've seen it behind the counter (you have to ask) at some O'Reilly's