As the title states, curious on how the Prestone universal antifreeze works with the old green and even the newer say red Asian coolant? Everything on the label says it will work with on any car old or new, color doesn't matter, but I always like to hear from real users. I want to use it on old chevy truck and maybe a Toyota, to bring down the rating a little. If anyone has tried it, any feedback would be great.
Thanks

 

Been using universal probably close to 10 years now in my shop and don’t see a problem with it, before universal we used to stock 4 different blends and I got worried about putting the wrong fluid in the wrong vehicle, like Toyota red is different than Dex cool even thought they’re both red antifreeze so for us it eliminated possible confusion in the younger employees . It’s very clear fluid so it normally doesn’t make the antifreeze change colors when you top off

 

Thank you, Eric. Everything I read on the Prestone Universal is that it mixes with everything, but I have never used it. I had that same concern about color since that alone is not a true indicator. I think I will try a gallon with some of the Asian red. Remember the days when the AF was the same od green you changed out every 2 years, it was just the companies were different.

 

 

I use the big yellow Prestone jug universal premix....No issues. After I flushed the old small block it stayed cool and worked like a charm. I used it in my 396 and I will be using it in the 427. I believe you should be fine in an older vehicle

 

I too switched to a universal coolant for my 2 corvettes and a Ford. It doesn't make sense that 6 or 8 different kinds would be needed, except for cars under warranty, when all the cars are made of the same materials.
But, I'm not totally sold on mixing types, or adding universal to some other type. I flushed all the cars, then used the new stuff.

 

Oooo... Magnetic film... I gotta get me some of that!

 

Done deal for the Toyota I had some of the new Asian Red and used the Universal today that has a huge label on the bottle that it mixes with every color and type- guarantee. If I can't trust that I quit.

I at stopped at the local chain and NAPA's and they don't even know what they are selling. I asked for concentrate and got a blank look. I don't understand how some people hold a job today?

 

Walmart carries, (sometimes) the old Glycol based Prestone Green coolant. Good stuff. Likely what was in the car 50 yrs ago.
However, not a big fan of mixing two different types of coolant. As cheap as those yellow jugs are, why not just buy two and add distilled water later.

Buying premixed is a waste of money. You are paying for water and at a higher cost. Don't pay for convenience, mix it yourself.

 

water is superior to anything at cooling. Use as much water as possible. Only use distilled water. Never put tap water into anything you care about. A little bit of anti-freeze is important to prevent corrosion, electrolysis but only use as much as you need for the temperature climate of vehicle.

For example here in FLorida it never freezes. Therefore I would use the minimum anti-freeze around 10 or 12% total volume. On race track they do not allow anti-freeze anyways so I would leave it out until track is done then use for the rest of daily driving duty.

 

Yeah not a big fan of mixing coolants ether. I'm with Heads up on this. It's easy enough and cheap enough to flush and refill. I even flush with distilled water to be sure.

 

Oh yeah, what's this? Lol.

 

All of the liquid cooled WWII aircraft engines used pure ethylene glycol; known as Prestone. According to an Army Reserve tank mechanic, who was a fellow Corvette club member, when the aircraft engines were used in tanks, they used only pure ethylene glycol. Just saying.

 

That molecule has no place on a race track. It is inferior to water for cooling, everything practical is.
High school chemistry explains, a fact, that water has a high heat capacity. It is a term used to describe the amount of energy that it takes to raise the temperature of water. Water is superior in other ways as well, it is safe to drink and contact with, safe to spill, safe for the environment, rapidly can evaporate from a track surface.

I would guess that, the conditions of high altitude and war are far from racing. There is risk associated with water, even though it is superior for cooling, might crystallize due to unforeseen events. Unpredictable what sudden change in pressure or leaking at high altitude or enemy territory conditions in unknown lands I suppose.

That doesn't make water inferior. Just more risky in those situations I guess. Would I go into enemy territory using water to make sure I don't poison their environment or kill their pets? Or would I just use the more dangerous, consistent molecule, and not give a **** about my enemy's land and animals.

 

Mixing anti-freezes is not be a good idea.

I agree with using the minimum amount of anti-freeze in your coolant if you don't have a freeze problem. I live in Virginia and we have few days where it is really cold but it does freeze. Therefor I use 30% anti-freeze and 70% distilled water and have had zero issues. Pure Water is the best coolant of all but you need some lubricant to help the seals in the water pump exist. The best coolant is to use the bare minimum of anti-freeze and the most distilled water.

One problem with distilled water and anti-freeze is that when the engine gets to operating temperatures a thin layer of bubbles form inside the engine block's cooling surfaces and this keeps the coolant from actually contacting the metal surface as well. There are products like Redline's Water Wetter which can change the surface tension allowing the coolant better contact to the engine blocks surfaces. This problem also occurs when you use pure distilled water. There are a lot of people who think that Water Wetter is a "snake oil" and that is far from the truth. By simply adding water wetter to en existing cooling system will yield better surface contact and lower operating temperatures. I love the stuff and use it in all of my liquid cooled vehicles.

One of the most important parts of a working cooling system is a pressurized Cooling loop and this requires a functional Radiator cap that will maintain pressure the cooling system. Today 16 lb radiator caps are very common and that alone changes the boiling point of the cooling system up to ~260* (F). If any car has a higher than normal operating temperature it is wise to check or replace the radiator cap. Anti-freeze does little to raise the boiling point as it's primary purpose is to help in cold weather conditions.

 

You beat me to it! Great post.


If you're going to increase your water to coolant ratio beyond 50/50 you really need to add more Anti-corrosion additive to make up for the higher % of water. Many of the radiator additive products are luckily Water Wetters + Anti-corrosion + Lubricant packages, so will fit the bill.

It's also worth noting that the anti-corrosion additives don't work forever and all have a recommended retreatment or flush interval that should be added.
If you're going with a higher % of water in your coolant mix and you have lots of aluminum (heads, intake, radiator), it's cheap insurance to add a zinc anode to your cooling system somewhere. (I replaced my radiator drain **** with a zinc anode because every 2 1/2 years or so, I'm going to want to drain it and refill, anyway; and because I just couldn't find another spot that worked well; I would've preferred in the intake somewhere.)


-I'm in Seattle and my car is kept in my attached garage where it never gets under 48F (we set our record cold a few weeks back and the garage got down to 48F). I've settled on a 25%/75% blend.
I calculate a freezing point of 12.5F and a boiling point of 268F with my 16 PSI radiator cap, so plenty of freeze protection AND boil over protection.

Personally for water wetter+anti-corrosion additive product, I use a blend of VP Racing "Cool Down" and Amsoil Dominator radiator additive. I like both of these because they use a blend of 3 different surficants/ "water wetters", each targeting a different temperature range, which means that they help the engine warm-up faster, in addition to improving cooling through reduced surface tension and with my high expansion alloy pistons, getting up to temp faster reduces wear.


This is a really good freeze protection calculator for different mixes of water and propylene glycol or ethylene glycol. It tells you the temperature at which your coolant turns to slush, which will prevent the water pump from pumping it, AND the temperature at which the coolant mixture is expected to "burst" /knock the freeze plugs out of your block.
Calculate Freezing Point and Burst Point of Glycol Antifreeze – Go Glycol Pros

Once you lookup your boiling point of your mix, you can then increase the boiling point roughly +3 degrees for each 1 PSI increase in pressure per your (TESTED) radiator cap pressure, so you'll know roughly how much boil protection your new blend will give you, with your particular radiator cap (or how much more protection you could gain with a higher pressure cap).

I didn't see it mentioned, but faster coolant flow helps to reduce cylinder head temperatures and helps to prevent localized boiling, too. High flow water pumps (See Stewart's lineup of pumps for C3 Corvettes), high flow thermostats (robert shaw / emp / Stewart), and single-pass radiators with big inlets and bigger outlet diameters (See: Dewitt) are a good "recipe" for maximizing coolant speed and lowering head temps. -And no, "too fast coolant flow" hurting cooling is NOT a thing; it's just the worst urban legend of all time based upon old radiator designs that blow their tops and people looking at the temp drop between radiator inlet / outlet, vs. what actually matters: engine / head metal surface temps.


See Stewart for reputable cooling information. They're a big name in Circle Track and NASCAR cooling for a reason. https://www.stewartcomponents.com/in...formation_id=6

Adam