A little while ago, OnAllCylinders contributor Jeff Smith penned…err…typed a very informative article on the various types of engine coolant available today.
The article also discussed which engine cooling systems are compatible with the different engine coolants on the market and, perhaps more importantly, the perils of mixing them.
When the Summit Racing folks shared the story on their Facebook page, it sparked a lot of good discussion on the topic of engine coolant, and one of the brands that stirred up some talk was GM’s Dex-Cool.
Dex-Cool Antifreeze Coolant was introduced by GM in the 1990s and promised super-long coolant maintenance cycles—but suffice it to say, the antifreeze wasn’t an immediate hit. So we went in to do some more research on Dex-Cool and came across this video from the engine experts over at Mahle.
The video goes into plenty of detail on DexCool, and talks about some of the issues the coolant was connected to, specifically in the area of gasket failures. So, if you’ve ever wanted the inside scoop on GM’s oft-misunderstood coolant, you’ll find it below:
I may be mistaken but, if I recall correctly, the issues with Dex-Cool weren’t limited to leaking intake gaskets. While the intake gaskets were a major issue, I seem to remember that it also caused corrosion of aluminum cooling system components including water pumps, radiators and possibly even cylinder heads.
Would have been nice to have held the gasket up and shown the improvement’s or to have edited in a close up with illustration. Otherwise good information.