I always wondered what was the differance between the two where and which one was better. I have done a bit of research online and all of it never really brought out a clear picture. So, i started this thread to have a CLEAN discussion on it.

which do you use?

Why?

 

i know everyone is going to have their own opinions about this guys, however you MUST keep it clean and friendly, any flaming or inappropriateness will cause posts to be deleted on strike 1, strike 2 is the thread going away PERMANENTLY

carry on!

 

I personally believe that they are both equal in my own eyes, as a mechanic and I will use whatever the manufacturer of the vehicle recommends. In my Durango's case, it called for green coolant only, I used green coolant. In my Ram's case, it calls for green coolant so I use green coolant. In my Charger's case, it calls for red coolant, so I will be using red coolant when I flush the system or add some.

I have done extensive research to this topic and am very informed as to which is better, and at a chemical composition stand point, the red is technically better for the vehicle.

Both red and green coolant are ethylene glycol based, and both can withstand temperatures to as low as -34* F and boil over protection to above 265* F. The Green coolant is guaranteed for 2-3 years or up to 30,000 miles, where the Red coolant is guaranteed for 5 years or 100,000 miles!

The green coolant has many additives to the coolant that are corrosion inhibitors that keep the solution alkaline, and as long as it is alkaline, we are protected to corrosion, but with the guaranteed like the green coolant (2-3 years or 30,000 miles), this is when it usually breaks down and becomes depleted, and with radiators and water pumps these days aluminum based, aluminum is especially prone to corrosion.

The red coolant has such a longer guarantee because it is composed of organic acids that keep the engine internals from corroding and keeping it clean. Believe it or not some engines DO NOT take well to the red coolant because of this different composition of anti-freeze formula.

For instance, Cummins turbo diesel engines have silicone seals in the engine, and Cummins does not recommend using the red formula because the organic acids are known to wear and break down the seals after only 80,000 miles. Coolant is known to leak past the damaged seals and damage the internal lubrication system, thus causing catastrophic engine problems.


As for which is better? I think this will be an on going debate, but like I said I will continue to put in my vehicles whatever the OEM calls for. I wouldn't ever dare flush out my system that takes green coolant and put a "foreign" coolant in it such as a red coolant, and vice versa.

 

To sound stupid...I didnt even know there was a red one.
I have always used green with every rig I have owned. Except GM which I used the dexcool or whatever it was called.
But I also flush the system every 5-6 months no matter the miles. Its cheap and is good way to make sure everything is nice and clean.

 

Doesn't matter.
When I lived with my parents our next door neighbor worked on the railroad. He stated that when the tanks rolled in filled with antifreeze, they would add colorant to them to make them, green, yellow, red, whatever.

I've never used anything outside of Supertech coolant. Many cars, trucks, bikes, all of many different years. I've never had any coolant systems problems whatsoever.

 

And here I go just itching at myself to answer the question!


The difference is the molecular make up of the coolant composition. See the green is for the older motors with different and more metal composition. The green was used mainly for metal/metal motors, basically when aluminum is not used/used slightly. See the old motors are mainly composed of metal, with some aluminum parts, however the bearings of the water pump and fins are again metal. The pressure line off the pump to the heater core was again metal. The green don't last as long, however it does not react to the composition of the metals in the older engines.

Now we have the Red. It was made to supersede the Green, both by mileage and cooling composition with out break down, basically a 100k mile fill (lifetime), however it is not the same. It is used for a longer life with aluminum/metal background. Because they started using aluminum heads in the 2000's with the 4.7L they switched over to a new cooling system. However if they are going to change over they need to make the rest compatible. So further they changed the cooling system and composition of the motors the same.

Think about it for a second, they completely changed the cooling system in 2000, why one must ask? Because they used different parts and different main metallic composition in the 4.7L, so for the make up of the motors and the fact they wanted to switch to a longer life coolant, they changed the motors and metallic makeup, it's a engineer's world's dream!

now Google Chev's Orange coolant and you will see that they screwed up acutally trying to find a better longer lasting coolant about the same year. They created a Dex Cool, problem is it attacked the aluminum in it's motor. Law suites filled and won, need I say more.

So with that said, the difference is the metal composition of the motor. Don't worry about which should be longer lasting and better, think about which one is molecularity compatible with the motor in which you have.

The engines/vehicles where built around the lubricants/coolants available at the time, and with their engineers, they simply didn;'t have the information at the time to build them to the next level.

So the question being, which one is better? Well it falls back into the lap in which it was designed to work. With that said the older design of the motors used, and chemically configured, was the use of green coolant, not red.

Hope my drunk *** made some sense here?

 

More than Jack usually does

Anyways here's my use what the manufacturer calls for except Dex cool. I had an autotech teacher that was a GM tech and they only put dex cool in vehicles with a factory warranty, no warranty vehicles they put in the good ol' green stuff cause of the problems dex causes. He advised my friend to flush out his 01 blazer and put in green when he was on the cooling system section. Amazing isn't it....that's my spiel....

 

First off i think everyone is with me when i say i really didn't wanna picture that.... Second, i was awaiting yours and a few others opinions on this.

Well, you did make really good sense of it this time... i think i have a bit more understanding of it now.. thanks to everyone else that took the time to explain it..

BTW, Hydra i made you a really nice Avatar to use, I hope you will like it!

 

Again your pushin for the avatar, might have to use it....LMFAO!

 

I didn't think you seen it last time, and i would be honored if you did...lmfao!