I plan on doing a coolant change in a couple of months, I have green now, I would like to go to gold, I have also heard of red ELC. What is red ELC, this is the first I've heard it? Can some one give me pros and cons, of green, gold and red ELC, or suggestions on any other types of coolant? Thanks.

 

I went with Final Charge, same as ELC. Wal-mart sells this product at a 50-50 blend. This is good for 300k miles then put in an additive and good for another 300k miles. I flushed my system 3 times with bottled water. Also changed my hoses and belt. I went with the 203* stat and billet housing as recomended on here by lots of people.

 

Final Charge from Wally World is $9 a gallon and you will need 7 gallons. Our systems hold 8.5 gals but I dont think you can got it all out I just changed mine about a month ago, driained the block flushed the heater core etc. and I only got 6.5 gallons back in so I would start with 7 gals and you should be ok. Advantage to going with the final charge is no additives and it says it's good for 600,000 miles.

 

Damn Rick you beat me to it. lol

 

You did add good information to it. lol

 

Best bet to keep it at 50/50 is to get the concentrate -- check Napa. They carry FC in concentrate. Keep flushing with distilled water until clear. Drain, add four gallons of concentrated ELC, then top off with distilled. Easy-cheesy.

 

BTW, I found a really informative site on coolants:
http://www.sancarlosradiator.com/antifreeze_coolant.htm

One of the things that bothered me is that Rotella ELC & Final Charge are OAT (Organic Acid Technology) coolants. Dex-Cool is also an OAT coolant, but the above page tells the difference. Dex-Cool uses 2-ethylhexanoic acid (2-EHA), while Rotella and FC do not. Also, since there are no silicates used, a coolant filter is not needed. The "sand" typically found in a cooling system is from "silicate drop-out". Look HERE. No silicates, no drop-out. Therefore, I believe I'll order the billet housing, 203* 'stat, and put in the ELC. No filter needed...

So the reason for my concern about OAT previously is all the problems folks are having with it (the Dex-Cool variety):
http://www.sancarlosradiator.com/dex-cool_pics.htm
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/gm_dexcool.html

I witnessed it myself in my wife's 2000 Chevy Astro. At 5 years (with only 60k on it), I decided to go ahead and flush the coolant. Coincidentally, around that same time, I started seeing red goo on the garage floor under the van. I thought it was tranny or power steering fluid and put off messing with it. I flushed the coolant and noticed a slight amount of rust colored sludge around the radiator cap. Then I realized after crawling under there that it was coming from the gaskets! It also started losing coolant (a lot more than the few drops I would see on the floor), and that's when I found out about all the trouble with Dex-Cool. I believe the intake gaskets were nearly gone and it was burning the coolant in the engine. The wife & I went out right then & there and traded the van in for a Mitsbishi Raider DuraCross (a Dodge Dakota Quad-Cab that looks better ). It uses gold H-OAT (Hybrid-OAT) which is what's in our later PSDs. Which if you read the link, is a combination of OAT & SCA coolant. Going full OAT (as long as it's not Dex-Cool) is the way to go, I believe. If you use H-OAT or old-school green, then a filter will keep the drop-out from eating your seals.

Just thought I'd pass along my learnings on the subject. Coolants are confusing, and I have spent a lot of time trying to figure it all out. Hopefully you all can benefit from some of my research...