Orange coolant sounds bad

[john.thompson068]

Has anyone had any problem with the orange coolant eating away at their motors and gaskets? Recently I have seen a slick oily residue on the valley pan of my 440. I don't really know what to think of this yet as I cannot tell what it is. It may have something to do with the motor having been running around at 220 degrees. So I have installed two 10" pusher fans and am waiting for a 7 blade flex a lite fan to replace my 5 blade fan. Also, the car has a shroud.


After having the motor rebuilt 5 or 6 years ago I used orange anti freeze with an aluminum radiator. About 6 months ago and less than 50 miles ago, I topped off my system using some green anti freeze out of ignorance (coolant is coolant, motor oil is motor oil). It probably only took a 1/4 of a bottle. I recently removed the radiator and drained the dark orange coolant (thanks to the green). I can see some grit in the bottom of my radiator. I have no access to a garden house as I am currently an apartment dweller. I will flush out my system with the heater running using buckets of water until it comes out of the lower radiator hose clear when I drain the radiator back into the bucket. Then switch back to green. The bottle of green coolant actually said to do this. Its directions said to drain the radiator, fill with water, run the motor with the heater running for ten minutes, then drain the radiator and fill with coolant. It sounds like a good idea.

 

[john.thompson068]

Tomorrow I am thinking about putting the radiator back in the car even with no fan on the water pump and running the car for short periods of time to flush out the cooling system. That sounds like fun.

 

[Ron 73]

Orange anti freeze is supposed to be the better of the two (green) Its good for up to 4 years as green about two. It has more of a lubricant in it then the green, I never heard of the orange causing problems. Ive never used it myself but talking with others and reading about the differences id say orange is good. You shouldn't use full strength anti freeze i think its at least a 30% mixture.. Hope this helped, Good luck.

 

[john.thompson068]

Orange anti freeze is supposed to be the better of the two (green) Its good for up to 4 years as green about two. It has more of a lubricant in it then the green, I never heard of the orange causing problems. Ive never used it myself but talking with others and reading about the differences id say orange is good. You shouldn't use full strength anti freeze i think its at least a 30% mixture.. Hope this helped, Good luck.

I Googled "orange green coolant" and read the hits on the first page. There were some statements about orange coolant eating away at engine components, lawsuits, and that it was developed by GM for longer life. If this is not true about orange causing problems then that is certainly good for me.

The articles also said that one cannot mix the two different types of coolant, or else they will form a type of sludge. I have no idea what is true at this point. All I know is that tomorrow I will begin flushing my motor with buckets of water.

Unless you guys convince me otherwise, it is back to the green from here on out. I have until next weekend to decide. Except in my 05 Monte Carlo.

 

[Ron 73]

If you read that then i would go with the green, Most i know have Chevy vehicles or Fords, I did read its good stuff (before) and people say it is, so Not sure here, I use the green and always did, im of the sort if i have something that works great for years, why change? and ive always used it in all my vehicles, which are all three manufacturers over the years. I have no intention of trying the orange, but if i were, i would have to read what it says about it, I didn't Google it and didn't see any of that, i guess if it causes problems then i wouldn't think about using it.. Yep, go green.. I know its never caused me issues.

I found this, not sure if its a big help but tells the difference in the two..

http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu/ExtProg/machinery/Articles/engcool.htm

 

[tpodwdog]

i have heard rumors of this but i cant verify it. not too long ago there was a thread on here concerning that. i would venture to guess that if the engine is old with old stuff in it...stay green....if theres new stuff in it like head gaskets and such....orange would be ok...but once again i CAN NOT verify this . i run green in my 70 runner because thats whats SUPPOSED to be in there!

 

[moparpoor]

I can tell you for sure GM has changed the formula with in the last year.They changed the container and formula.The coolant is very light compaired to past coolants.

 

[MoparMitch]

Please don't use Dexcool in your Mopars Buddies. It does eat stuff. Ate the Hi Po Fel Pro head gaskets on my Stroker motor in my 60 Corvette. Either use the old Green stuff or use the newer Universal stuff. Believe me , I know this , I was in the Auto Parts business for 30 yrs.

 

[greenmonsta79]

Exactly what 68chicken said!

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

"Orange" antifreeze is a long life or extended life type of antifreeze used to increase the useful life of engine coolant. It is ethylene glycol base as is the green antifreeze.

The difference between the two colors is that orange antifreeze contains a different type of corrosion inhibitor that has a much longer service life than silicates, phosphates and borates.

Orange antifreeze contains organic acids that protect engine parts from corrosion. Silicate (green) type antifreeze does not mix with orange type antifreeze. Never mix the two colors in a cooling system. The organic acids in orange types will cause precipitation of silicates in the green type and corrosion protection is greatly reduced. Orange type antifreezes are good for five years or 100,000/150,000 miles in newer vehicles (1996 and later).

They can be used in many older vehicles (ask your vehicle dealer if it is safe to use orange antifreeze) if all of the green mixture is flushed from the system and is replaced with the orange mixture. Useful life is about four years or 60,000 miles in older cars.

I see no advantage to using orange antifreeze, especially in an aluminum radiator and our older blocks they are going to rust internally one way or another keeping you service up and fluid changes is the best preventive.

I wish I could just fire and forget lol

 

[john.thompson068]

First, I hooked up the radiator and fan, and took out the thermostat. I have a brand new 160 to put back in later. I have since been filling the radiator with clean water, letting the motor run for a couple minutes with the heater on, and then draining the water. First the water was real frothy in the radiator, and it came out a dark orange color with green highlights. What happened was I forgot which coolant type was in there, couldn't see it in the radiator, had the green coolant handy, and poured some in. I am on my seventh circulation of fresh water and now the water is just a murky orange color. I am letting the motor cool for a while since it feels really hot despite the guage reading only 150. I don't think I can trust the guage right now because of the way I am flushing out the motor. I don't care how many cycles, this takes, I will keep this up all week until it comes out clean.

Second, if the orange stuff is so bad, why have I not had any problems with my 05 Monte Carlo which has 75,000 miles?

It was back in 07 when I last filled my Mopar radiator with the orange coolant. I haven't had any problems yet I don't think. Regardless, I am not putting orange back in my motor ever again. I don't need extra life, especially if I have to worry about the rumors that the orange stuff may be eating Fel Pro gaskets, etc. I have no problem flushing out my radiator every couple of years and replacing the fluid.

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

Look at my quote it say its ok for 96 and newer.

 

[john.thompson068]

All done. After two more cycles the water was coming out crystal clear and the radiator is spotless inside. I will put back in pre-diluted green coolant. The only thing to watch for when doing this is that the motor was getting really hot. The thermostat was only reading 150 degrees but the motor felt like it was at 230. By the last cycle, the starter was getting heat soaked. This must be because I removed the thermostat so that the water would cycle through continuously. I was only running the motor for two minutes at a time, and then changing out the water. So the water never was getting to hot but the motor was.

I guess one final question. Is there any kind of additive that I can add to the coolant that actually works? Or is all that stuff a scam?

 

[john.thompson068]

Look at my quote it say its ok for 96 and newer.

I guess I should be alright then since my 440 is an 07. Plus everything was dry when it went back together so there was no coolant anywhere. I only messed up and mixed a half bottle of green in with the orange about 6 months or 100 miles ago.