[sign_in_name51]

ok, i have a 1996 s-10 blazer 4x4 4.3L with 203,000 miles on it. around 150,000 miles, the radiator gummed up. water pump had to be replaced, and i had to have the radiator rodded. and at 190,000 miles, it did it again, but i just flushed the radiator real good, and put new orange coolant in. and now at 203,000 miles, it has done it again. a buddy of mine told me that the orange coolant is famous for doing this. anyone else had the problem? and, today, i flushed my radiator, block, etc, and made sure i got all the orange crappy fluid out, and i replaced it with green. hopefully the green won't gum up. this is a great truck. this is the only major problem i have had, besides replacing the rear axle, and rebuilding the transmission. she works hard for me in the woods, and always seems to get me out. i just hope her end isn't coming soon. lol. anyone else had the radiator gum up, and what did you do to fix it? has it happened again? i'll 'preciate ya'lls help.

 

[97LOWNOMA]

the orange stuff your referring to is dexcool. if you do a search there are alot of people that hate this stuff because it causes problems like you mentioned. most people usually flush this stuff out and put the green stuff in. i have yet to have any problems, but my truck is brand new. and my 97 i didnt care enough to even check it so i dont know if it had gone bad.

 

[tom3]

Lots of problems with this Dexcool, but millions run the stuff forever with no problems. Needs to be mixed exactly 50-50 with pure clean water. Must have tight seal at radiator cap and no head gasket leakage at all. Don't know of any drawbacks to converting to the old style green stuff either though. I suspect the Dexcool is just one other way the factory keeps us out from under the hood until the warrany has run out, then all hell breaks loose.

 

[97S10SS]

My moms 99 grand am, there is some ugly stuff going on in here overflow resivoir. She has a leak, Im not sure if its coming from the t-stat housing but its coming from that area. Mine looks to be doing good with 65k miles, I've flushed it once if I remember right.

 

[VIRev]

i work at a rad shop, and damn near every car that comes in with dex cool in it, no matter how old, has horrible build up everywhere. we by no means reccomend the stuff.
if you rad gums up again this time, i woul reccomend looking at a new rad and a chemical block flush. that should solve it once and for all. also, make sure the shop doing it does the heater core at the same time!

 

[supercobraz]

I just flushed that stuff out of my system at 51,000 miles and it was thick nasty and full of rust. Needless to say I put then green stuff in instead.

 

[BlazerLT]

make sure they reverse flush it more than once.

Took 3 full reverse flushes to get it all out of mine.

 

[sign_in_name51]

yea...i flushed it out 4 times with some chemical...can't remember what the name of it was, but the dealer gave it to me to use. they should put a recall out for this problem since so many people have this happen, and because a gummed up radiator is a pain in the neck, and cost an arm and leg to have a pro fix it. o well, i've put 3,000 miles on it since i flushed it, and the green stuff is still doing good. no problems