hi sages- been driving my 92 245 for 5 years and put on about 23k miles. bought in feb 2011 with 239k miles. generally runs fine.just before i bought it the owner replaced the cylinder head with a rebuilt due to a a blown head gasket.he flushed the cooling system and put it prestone green anti freeze. system is still clean , green and shows 0 degrees freeze protection, which is not critical in warm se fla. 2 Q for you. figure when the water pump blows or a hose bursts, i will flush the system. many here say dont use green but use orange GO 5. when it was new according to my research the system called for the green stuff . uncle moe reminded me of his 1st of three rules on car repair and maintenance- to wit - if it aint broke dont fix it. only criticism i have heard of the orange stuff is , some here say it can leak due to the higher lubricity and thinner consistency of the GO 5. what say you fine folks. 2d- do you recommend a can of water pump lubricant into the cooling system once a year? thanks tons oldduke

Prestone Green is older anti-corrosion technology with silicates that will precipitate out, hence the two year maximum renewal cycle. Zerex G-05 uses HOAT technology similar to Volvo Blue and lasts much longer with no precipitation. Given the cost and difficulty of heater core repair in your car (a big deal!) I would use the best coolant I could find along with distilled water for makeup. "If it ain't broke..." is good advice as long as what you're currently using won't accelerate failure. Unfortunately, Prestone Green will do so.

Steve, I think your Prestone info is out of date. Have a look at the below FAQ page, and note the section where Prestone states "SCAs and Extenders are as different as conventional silicated HD coolant is to Extended Life HD coolants".

http://prestone.com/learn_more/frequently_asked_questions

The back panel on my jug of Prestone LongLife says it is good for "up to 5 years or 250,000kms..." The list of ingredients has some strange sounding chemicals, but no mention of silicates.

Again, with 33 years of ownership of my 240, and using Prestone coolant, it is still running its original all metal rad and heater core. (Hope I haven't jinxed myself by saying that.)
--
Bob: Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), 98 S90 (recently sold) and 2010 XC60. Also '77 MGB and four old motorcycles

While you could be correct, I'd like to see a list of ingredients in the longer life Prestone coolants. The HOAT (hybrid organic acid technology) coolants including Volvo Blue/Xerex G-05 work exceptionally well, cost marginally more than the coolants sold in Big Box stores, and don't suffer from the silicate precipitation that old coolants had. I remember removing radiators with tons of Green Coolant whitish silicate crud on the tubes causing failure points and pinhole leaks. I hope they have improved them since.

Thanks for the link to Prestone.
It confirms my belief that they are snake oil salesmen.

Different water in Europe than here in the USA? East coast to west coast. Hey, Michigan has got lead in their rivers. Maybe that sneaked out of Canada or some of our radiators?
Guess Europe does not make their beer with that is what they meant! (:-)

I noticed the ASTM standards say heavy duty engines and clarify their meaning like mining equipment or diesels or stationary equipment. Big stuff or HD heavy duty.
The use of deionized glycols and such but no mention of deionized water mixing in their predilutes! You want water, do we have to go to Europe or they have to come here to use their product where? I'm confused?

Whoops that's their intent maybe?
Octane point or octane number? Whole number or part of a number? Point is the thing in the middle I thought. Is this the stock market or a parts store?
This was new to me but shouldn't that explanation be on the package for us dummies or are we suppose to stay this way... Confused! I'll go with that and keep my antennas up!

SCA's ... supplemental coolant additives. By itself, it sounds nice and so does extenders but why are they made. Sounds like detergent manufactures at large again to me.
To add or not to add IF it has silicates? It degrades...what and how often do you use it and with what chemicals they it theirs does what when?
I'm so confused I just stay way from those clowns!

Prestone is going to come out with fragrances for coolant next, if it would sell! Water pump lubricant is IT NOT a SCA.


I think they sell some products like that for in the cabin use too!
Prestone will repackage anything, even brake fluid, to compete against Zerex. Zerex beat them to the punch with synthetic many years ago as well!

All of this is "my consumer mind set" and IMHO of course. (:)
Phil

I guess I have to say you are more up on the now hybrid antifreeze than I.
I'm like a old horse and was just happy with my Zerex OAT's! (:-)

I now recognize that I was using the whole phosphate chemical going in the wrong direction for PH balance and for things like "precipitation" over time.

I know when I used the green Prestone of yesteryear, I got the white stuff clogging up the tubes in the radiator of my '74 Ford Truck. I always had trouble with the radiator in that its top tank keeper popping it's seams loose. The radiator man said the tank was to wide for the expansion and contraction.
That made for first hand looks at those tubes on a regular bases.

He also said, that the Prestone coolant system cleaner was the best thing going for selling radiators!
It loosens stuff from the block, that normally never moves and floats it right out into the radiator tubes, bingo, clogged flow!

IMO the only way I got that stuff it there, it had to be from the antifreeze. I got the point that "what my Dad used" was about to change for the better with Zerex's upgrade! Heck, it could have been thirty+ years ago now?

I poo poo Prestone products anymore! They have lots of gimmicks and didn't always give back rebates when that was the rage after the President Carter inflationary years!
I developed a habit of buying extra on sale, like most people, and wanted to keep it sealed.
There was little foil seal from under the cap that said Prestone. They had the original receipt and a proof of purchase symbol off the case in their hot little hands! I wrote them an appeal letter and heard nothing!
I want to believe they are really paying for loss of sales on that three ways from Sunday, rip off scams! I don't think it was more than a dollar a bottle back then but those were my dollars!
I bet they are more regulated nowadays, especially, within customer emails and web reviews!

Manufacturers of lots of laundry detergents reduced phosphates. It's more fragrance than anything else!
In case you haven't noticed they don't clean as well and they now sell more products for you to add to the loads to get them clean. Small amounts of spot cleaners with a reasonable price, we think. Ha!
Now we use Organically grown stuff! Is that why all antifreeze doubled in price? You tell me since it's a light yellow. Does it come from cows urine like the stuff for diesel exhaust emissions on trucks?

Now that I saw your post, I remember that the whole world has been cutting back on using phosphates. That is mainly because the island, out in the pacific, I think, somewhere, is almost completely gone, according to 60 Minutes, of the cheap to mine and sell phosphates. It was their sole export for those who lived there.

Guess we all have to move on to something else or someplace away from where we are.
It's like trash but one has to ask, where is away?
I saw the film "The Martian."
Whoa, it don't look to good from here either!
Organic Antifreeze or not!

Phil

I used only Zerex brand GO5 and it a slight yellow in color because it's a phosphate base OAT antifreeze.

Zerex or Valvoline was the first out with it about twenty years ago. Not until their patents ran down could anyone else compete.

I got away from Prestone years ago as I saw what it did to radiators. They still you silicates and to me it's a salt or a sand or rocks, so take your pick. I have always used distilled water. Why add minerals that make water taste good?
To me phosphates are on the alkaline side of things so if the other inhibitors go acidic over time there is already a balance system built in. Extended life, they called it.

Zerex was the first five year coolant on the market to the best of my knowledge. I suspect the base company Zerex, Valvoline or the Ashland company started marketing to others under other bottled names after the patents were done. So you will see many 5yr's out there but you got to watch out for those "zero silicates" for the good stuff.

I also stay away from predilutes formulas. They never tell what kind of water they use to make it 50/50. Why do I want to pay for their undisclosed water source plus have it freighted to me?
They keep raising the price of the straight stuff to make the dilute look cheaper but in the long run its not!

As soon as it was possible to tweak the basics Dexcool came out. It has been a disaster for them.
Lawsuits were abound in 2009.
I can say that any Dex product has been changing as well because it does not do as advertise.
As a GM product they have been beaten up bad. There for a while ,'80-'90's on...they put stop leak in the cars coming off the assembly line just to get them on sales floors. They let their dealers deal with it!
It may have been some assembling line issue with employees and vendors in there as well.

GM has been doing better lately but I will never own one. I still have a memory, thank myself very much!

Just look at the number of transmission fluids they have came out with over the years! I think they are up to seven with many not backward compatible with in the Dex line!

As far as a water pump lubricant I can't see it doing anything. It's just an old method for 60's and older cars. Today's pump bearings do not need it and should get it anyways. The seals protect the bearings better and today's coolants do not attack metals like the others did.

If your seals weep or fail the "soluble oil" of the old machine shops days is nothing. It was an non-rusting protection additive for use in plain water used as cutting tool coolant, Is really over the hill today!
Someone needs a market so there you go!
In the Navy we used it to swab the decks with to keep down rust.

Phil

I use G-05 with no issues in both my 1993 240 and my wife's 1997 960/V90.

The freeze protection doesn't "wear out", but the anti-corrosion additives get consumed over time. The long-life coolants like DexCool talk about replacing every five years. I've used the Prestone green stuff for the 33 years I've owned my 1983 240 and I flush and change it every three years. I mix it 50/50 with distilled water for proper freeze and boiling protection, as well as keeping up the anti-corrosion properties.

Still on the original radiator and heater core with (touch wood) no problems to date.
--
Bob: Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), 98 S90 (recently sold) and 2010 XC60. Also '77 MGB and four old motorcycles

I agree w/Uncle Moe. Keep it simple and put the green stuff back in it. Problems start when older and newer anti-freezes that aren't compatible with each other are used. Look up 'class action Dexcool lawsuits'.....
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82 242 6.2L coming...; '15 Honda Fit

green is looking still good here after 2 yrs...
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'91 244 192k auto