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Coolant Recovery Tank Help

K

Konner27

New member
Hi, I noticed a while back that the Dexcool coolant in my 1999 Grand Prix's recovery tank turned to sludgey oily stuff. Today, I finally got to clean out the recovery tank. I didn't get all the oil stuff caked on the sides off but it is better than it was before. What I need help on is the coolant that I drained out of the tank was full of the sludgey oily stuff so I am no going to put it back into the tank. Do I need to go buy some dexcool to refill the tank up? I plan on flushing the whole system in the spring and changing from dexcool to normal coolant.

Thanks in advance.
 


OK that's what I was thinking. I just didn't know if it would dilute the mixture since it will be winter soon. Thanks
 
Sounds like someone might have mixed some green stuff with the dexcool. Personally I'd drain the radiator and flush with water a couple times and fill with fresh universal coolant before winter.
 


It's normal from my experience for an open to air container with 14 year old dex in it to be goopy.

I'd pick up a little coolant, either dex compatible or anycolor. Mix or mix your own to 50/50 and you are all set. If you want a cracked coolant res, use water. Water expands and without you telling us where you live..I assume the north pole.
 
I live in Iowa. So I can mix any color without it gooping up? I already have some green supertech antifreeze. Thanks
 
Bill is the man around here but I'm pretty sure you don't want to mix green with DexCool unless something has changed that I don't know about. I use the universal stuff just to be safe because I've bought a couple used GM cars in the past that have had all kinds of red clay looking crud in the radiator and the overflow container. I was told that this problem occurs from mixing green antifreeze with the original DexCool. If I'm wrong which is possible mixing green with Dexcool will be new to me...
 


Yeah universal is compatible with dex. I'm pretty sure if you take even the latest conventional green and latest dex cool, and mix them, they will sludge. That happened to someone on the forums, they took it to get it flushed with green, months later a different tech said it would be okay to top it off with dexcool since it's whats recommended for GM, and it sludged.

Someone in my family did that to their dex cool system, it was a mess...

To the OP, Bill is right that the recovery tank will sludge without coolant contamination due to air. What's important is to make sure it wasn't mixed. Pop the radiator cap and make sure it's fine in there. If not, I'd just add universal and wait til spring to do a thorough flush with a cooling system cleaner. You'd flush/backflush it well with water, then top off with the cleaner and more water if needed, and drive it like that for a while. After a few weeks it will dissolve a lot of junk.
 
OK, that sounds like a plan to me. Navyblue, I noticed that in your signature you put cabin air filter. I'd like to hear about this.
 
Well basically there's a spot where one fits, but Pontiac decided not to put one in there. Just go to an auto parts store and ask for a filter for a regal. I asked for one for a 2003 impala since we have one and I knew it fit since I tested it first.
 


Under the cowl at the bottom of the windshield. It's a good idea to install the water deflector cowl while you're there. http://www.grandprixforums.net/showthread.php?t=6961&highlight=water+floorboard

DSC01272.jpg
 
dsmuts said:
any color is a brand bill was talking about.
Click to expand...

Actually ...it is what is written on the container. It's not necessarily the brand. I've seen it written on many different manufacturers.

Guys, when I've seen Dex/green mixed it's usually a brown mess. Haven't seen it gunk/oat up, but then..maybe I didn't wait long enough. Another thing to keep in mind is most any color coolants have a green tint to them. It's easy to mistake it for green if the system was clean and flushed when it was added.
 
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