Any coolant you find nowadays will be fine for the length of time this car has left but as the bax says; don't ef up the pushrod order when you take them out. Also, you can buy a tool from Lisle that compresses the lifters so you can slip the pushrods out without removing the rockers which speeds up the job.
One thing you should know, most Chevy dealers will not touch this job without insisting on replacing the lifters on the reassembly. Why, because the crappy Mexican lifters they put in this nightmare of an engine tend to get stuck in the extended position once the pushrods are removed and they are able to expand. Then you put the top end back together and the thing misses like a bastard - no compression if the valves don't close, and you're taking it all apart again to do the lifters.
Just replace them and save the bite marks in your azz.
ONce you remove all the dexcool that ruins gaskets on GM engines, use either MERCEDES BENZ COOLANT or AUDI COOLANT insead! There are at least TWENTY different kinds of auto coolant out there and NO UNIVERSAL at all! Some are phosphate free, Some are SILICATE FREE< and more! This is why there are so many different colors of them out there! The reason is simple! GREEN COOLANT is for very old cars with NO ALUMINUM COOLING SYSTEM PARTS IN THEM! The gaskets chosen by engine makers also dictates what the coolant should consist of! YOU are VERY SAFE with AUDI< BMW or BENZ COOLANTS in there! These also have different colors as well! YELLOW, BLUE, and VIOLET! Gm should refund to EVERYONE for this fiasco but of course will NOT do this! GM tends to under engineer everything they make and that is why they went into bankruptcy! GOOD LUCK!
You will need to do some more research, but I think the Dexcool has been changed to avoid that problem. Also some of that was from mixing antifreeze, which is worse than using the wrong kind.
And the gaskets sold today may be different, So I think if you check on all that you should be OK to use Dexcool.
Hey Shawn...just drain the DexCool and put a flushing T into one of the heater core hoses so you can flush the cooling system with a garden hose. If you have a 3.1 liter motor make sure you lay out the push rods in order. There are different lengths for the intake and exhaust push rods and you'll bend valves if you mix then up.
Zerex G0-5 There is a reason people in Europe have to use different antifreeze. No matter where you travel in Europe the water is harder than heck.
I have been told by somebody I trust when it comes to auto questions like this that if you flush the Dex Cool out you can put whatever you want in there. Including cheapo green anti-freeze.
it don,t matter ! once you get the system flushed out you can use any kind of antifreeze, like Prestone for example !
I think for ANY question on American engines, a call to the guys at Summit Racing (google them) will give you the answer.
Dammn G thats crazy
If you don't want to use Dexcool you don't have too. Just flush all of it out and use the 'All' anti-freeze.
I have a 1997 oldsmobile cutlass supreme. The owners manual says to use Dexcool. However, I recently learned about the lawsuit against GM for the use of Dexcool antifreeze causing intake manifold gasket failure. I have also heard many horror stories about it. Even so, many people still recommend the stuff.
My intake manifold gaskets are already bad. This weekend I am going to tear the thing apart and replace them. Would it be safer after I replace the gaskets to do a complete chemical flush of the coolant system and then use the glycol antifreeze (the conventional green stuff)? Or should I refill with Dexcool and hope it doesn't eat my new gaskets...? Please provide me with your experience on cars in your answer so I know I can trust your answer. Thanks!
use whatever green coolant is on sale and DISTILLED water in 50/50 mix.
Flush & fill every 50K with any coolant and you should be ok.
Use prestone green stuff
any premium coolant will be fine
