Dexcool Problems read this it might help!!!

[blacks10]

06/13/07)
*WE'VE FIXED THE PROBLEM(S)!! And while it's irritating to look back and see how much $$ I've needlessly thrown at my '99 Chevy Blazer Extreme, several radiators, head gasket, heater core, trans cooler lines, intake gaskets, pretty much everything that has come into contact with cooling fluids has either corroded or slowly disintegrated, All due to what turns out to be a basic electrical design flaw at GM And Dexcool.
My New radiator guy hates Dexcool, suspects that perhaps it's the electrolysis that causes the Dexcool to turn to a jelly goop and brown sludge and then eats the gaskets. Says the higher the amp reading in the radiator, the more goopy Dexcool seems to become. My story: The original radiator in my '99 Extreme Blazer only lasted a lil while 40.000 (hint: older radiators had A LOT more copper in them). The trouble really all started and in a big way, after replacing the original radiator. I did pay the $290.00 for the new GM radiator at the dealer. (Big Bow Tie Fan And Try To Stay All GM) (hint: the newer made radiators have little to no copper in them. They are mostly aluminum and steel) Within a couple months, I started having to dump money into my Extreme Again , LOTS of it!
When radiator #3 started leaking, I got fed up with my mechanic and wanted to choke him, who kept saying, it's a high mileage vehicle 60.000. I should expect this What!!. Not thinking it was even slightly odd that everything seemed to be connected to the cooling system or somehow come into contact with it. Dumb ass, even though nearly All The repairs seemed to require draining the radiator?? It was Crazy, So I looked for the oldest, greasiest, busiest, radiator shop in my area. First thing the guy did, after hearing the list of repairs I'd made, was to drop a probe in the radiator to check for a charge, in other words, electrolysis. An acceptable reading is .03 amps. I was running at .38 amps!! Turning the engine off it would only drop it to .27 amps.
So, he replaced leaking radiator #3, and rechecked it,.. .58 amps!! It went up! He shrugged and said, new one must have even less copper than the last one. I've seen a lot of these GM's with this crap going on. I've been doing this thing that seems to fix this problem. Then an off-duty local cop pulled in with his Blazer, newer than mine. We got to talking,(just to make sure i didnt have any warrants? he he) he'd had almost all of the same problems and this radiator guy fixed it for him 3 years ago, and He hasn't had a problem since.
Here's what old guy did...
#1 - Attached three, braided copper ground cables, randomly to the radiator and the block, and grounded them.
#2 - Then took a piece of copper piping approx 3 long, with the same hollow as the heater core hose, soldered a 12 gauge copper ground wire to the side of it. Midpoint on the hose running from the radiator to the heater core, he spliced this small copper pipe into the line using hose clamps. Then using the ground wire he had soldered to it, grounded it to the engine block.
#3 - Drained and refilled the cooling system with DISTILLED water and GREEN coolant. Dexcool in his experience is CRAP, and I quote him. He did all this very quickly, then dropped the probe into the radiator and poof .02 amps! It cost me $100. He had me come in to recheck the amps .02 amps, and no new problems. I was averaging 3 or 4 problem per year, a leak here, a suspicious gasket there. Now nothing. So, it seems to me that there are really two problems. One affecting the other. A cooling system grounding problem and electrolysis resulting in corrosion and disintegration of parts and gaskets. And then Dexcool which is unstable in an electrically charged environment and turns to goop and sludge. Maybe I'm wrong but my '99 Blazer has not had any other problems. GM knows this is a problem and it goes back to at least 1992 in all gm car's and truck's that use Dexcool, you guy's using dexcool in your ride take heed and save your self the big problems Down The Road and do these mods, i have already done it to my other 2 s10s and no more brown sludge in or on the radiator, cap , hoses, no more heater cores, thermostats or water pumps to replace. now i can get back to enjoying my trucks and not haveing to worrying about these problems.
i hope this helps the people who have the same problems and the people who are going to have them, it helped this tramp. peace from jersey

[87wildside]

They have rad caps with a sacrificial anode if you are to lazy to do all that grounding.

[Mikz86TA]

I did the Dex-Cool flush a few years back. Ive known since my truck was new by way of a mechanic friend and another friend who had an issue in his '99 Tahoe. His actually started leaking at the heater hose to manifold fitting. And when he went to replace it, the coolant had seized them together and it broke. Took hours to minutely cut away the left over peices in the manifold without damaging the threads. I did mine within the 1st year of owning it (2003). But I need to re-flush it again. I noticed that the Dex-Cool mustve been already sludging up. Because even today I can open up the cap and there is still some brown particcles floating among the green stuff. Good way to clog the radiator passages.

[T Man]

Actually, your rad guy was wrong. Sorry.

Both the green and dexcool build up an electrical charge when they are passed through the different metals incountered in the cooling system. Both will build up a charge. Ive tested dexcool that came out to almost a volt (.82 or something) that looked as new as the day it went in there but kept eroding things. Dexcool becomes goopy when it is exposed to oxygen. Yup, everytime you crack your rad cap you are doing the damage everyone blames on the coolant. Granted its not supposed to do this, but that is the nature of the beast. Thats why on the new chevys, the resev is clear and has the cap on it. Some people on the site tell you to flush out dexcool with green stuff and never look back. Bad Idea. Dexcool has several anti corrsion properties that ethelene glycol doesnt have. If you want to totally get away from dexcool, i suggest using Peak Global Lifetime antifreeze

[blacks10]

ya know i don't want to sound stupid but i (did) let the dealer take care of all warranty stuff, but after my 1998 4x4 blazer witch is dead in the backyard with less then 90,000 miles on it, and only lasted 4 years?, never had the rad cap taken off to check (the old lady drove it) plus the dealer told me it would last five years, and that's what the book says. i did change the oil and take care of it pretty good but she blew and in a big way (broken head bolts and a cracked intake). this truck never gave any indications that it had any problems at all. the dealer yea the dealer, i almost went to jail it got real heated, the dealer would not work on it, told me that my truck (had) to have more miles on it then it did, he did not want to put an engine in it under warranty. it took five years but now that dealer has six people under indictment for fraud and a myriad of stuff the list goes on and on, Chevrolet 73 in Berlin new jersey, you can look it up. i still like s10s and ill probibly never stop driving one,( i have a bunch) in one form or another but i just wish GM would take care of this problem in all there newer car's and truck's because it is a problem.

[1993blazerlt]

Dexcool is a better coolant, it was created to prevent cavation problems GM was having with the Green stuff, Cavition problems were eating the cylinder walls from the outside in. Now the problem come when you replace dexcool with regualr green if you do not flush it correctly there is a reaction that creates slduge, I have seen this a few times first hand. you see a lot more leaks and such now not just becasue of the coolant but also becasue of the materials. Aluminum intakes are harder on gaskets than iron becasue it expands and contracts at different rates than the rest of the engine. And any dislimar metals that come in contact with a electolite will bond together over time, ford had a problem with this on aluminum heads that got road salt in them and welded the spark plugs in the head

[blue388]

I can’t comment on Dexcool itself, because I don’t know anything about the chemistry of it. Bear in mind this is purportedly “Aluminum Safe”. For years many of the folks on Rennlist, etc. have recommended Volkswagen antifreeze because it’s supposedly phosphate-free, hence safe for aluminum. But I digress. Electrical charge in a cooling system comes from at least two places: That which is indigenous to the motion of a fluid, and that which comes from galvanic potential. You definitely want the lowest static charge present in any cooling system to prevent any galvanic reactions no matter what the coolant, and furthermore it’s been a long time since high school chemistry, but I seem to remember a relationship between static charge in water and pH. Let’s look at where this lack of grounding comes from. I don’t think the copper-versus-aluminum content of the radiator has anything to do with it; both metals are quite conductive, hence copper and aluminum wire both being manufactured. Now, the two metals don’t like to exist together (unfriendly galvanic reaction), but either one in a radiator core would be quite conductive. I think the grounding problem better lies in the plastic tanks, rubber hoses, and plastic core supports and brackets attaching these radiators. With all that plastic surrounding the radiator core, the only way for an electric charge to travel is through the water itself. On old cars with metal tanks, and metal brackets and core supports, as well as steel transmission cooler lines, the radiator core should be pretty effectively grounded. Even on late models that do have steel trans lines, they’re going into a plastic tank, and are often isolated with a plastic quick-disconnect fitting. The idea about the grounded pipe in the heater hose seems like a good one. That’s one more place to divert the charge buildup to somewhere safe, and it can’t do anything but help. Some older cars have heater valves in the hose somewhere that are mounted to the body somewhere, thus providing a similar grounding path. This hypothesis could explain why we didn’t see the problem on old cars, and if Dexcool is more unfriendly in the presence of a substantial charge than the green stuff, why late models have that much more of a problem. It does seem that plastic tanks and Dexcool issued from the same circle of hell at roughly the same time, doesn’t it? Two problems for the price of one.

[87wildside]

Sacrificial Anode will solve the corrosion problem. Easy fix. Be-Cool or one of the other rad companies make a cap with one that hangs in the rad. Boats use anodes to keep the dissimilar metals from corroding while in water, salt water.

[blacks10]

http://www.google.com/product_image?q=http://shop.com.edgesuite.net/ccimg.shop.com/210000/210900/210963/Products/37101334.jpg&size=3&dhm=bdd7c449&hl=en (http://www.google.com/product_url?q=http://www.shop.com/op/~Sacrificial_Anode_Radiator_Caps-prod-37101334-49560883%3Fsourceid%3D298&fr=AAeYCQ6h52Fu8gn7kyIIlCAPBwLhKPDCce843-5aGtClAAAAAAAAAAA&gl=us&hl=en)
Sacrificial Anode Radiator Cap-18lb (http://www.google.com/product_url?q=http://www.shop.com/op/~Sacrificial_Anode_Radiator_Caps-prod-37101334-49560883%3Fsourceid%3D298&fr=AAeYCQ6h52Fu8gn7kyIIlCAPBwLhKPDCce843-5aGtClAAAAAAAAAAA&gl=us&hl=en)
found it, but now i'm looking for a 16lb.

[87wildside]

That would be it, good job.

[87wildside]

BTW the description in that link is wrong. It will protect all the metal in the cooling system.

[blacks10]

http://www.modexcool.com/img/splash_image.jpgWhat you need to know... If you purchased or leased a 1995-2006 GM vehicle in Missouri on or before January 9, 2006 that was factory-equipped with DEX-COOL coolant, you are a member of a class action lawsuit entitled Michael Gutzler, et al. v. General Motors Corporation, Case No. 03CV208786 now pending before the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri. The class is represented by lead counsel Rick Paul at Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, P.C. and Eric Gibbs at Girard Gibbs LLP.

The lawsuit seeks to establish that GM's representation that DEX-COOL is designed to protect your vehicle for 5 years or 100,000/150,000 miles conveys warranty rights to consumers under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and/or that the representation constitutes an unlawful practice under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. Further, the lawsuit seeks to prove that GM's 4.3 liter engine is designed in a manner that causes the DEX-COOL coolant to form a sludge in the cooling system, causing component parts to fail, and that the DEX-COOL coolant is incompatible with the 3.1, 3.4, and 3.8 liter intake manifold gasket, causing it to fail prematurely.
A series of three informative articles on DEX-COOL are available from the industry insider website Cool Profit$ Magazine (http://www.imcool.com/).

To learn more about this case, you may click on the links to the right to review the Petition, the Court's Order certifying the case as a class action, and the class notice. For further information, please send an e-mail to dexcoolcase@girardgibbs.com (dexcoolcase@girardgibbs.com).

for you guys out in Missouri, if you bought a newer s10 jump on this!!.

[mxm]

where would i be able to find one for my 97 bravada? i just replaced my 2nd radiator cap in less than a month, and i noticed some sludge on the inside of the cap/radiator.....i plan on doing a flush when i get the money, probably this weekend....

[blacks10]

JCwhitney, look under 93 camaro. i just orderd 2 for 23.00.