I always ran dexcool
But always wondered why my Lexus red and Honda’s blue coolant system never have issues and look perfect inside and would be a better alternative
Any thoughts
Different design philosophies? More modern engineering? The original designs of our engines date back to the 50's and 60's. I wouldn't assume that a Toyota or Honda coolant would work any better in our vehicles considering that we don't have the closed systems and aluminum content that the Toyota and Honda probably have.
I have read about one coolant (could be Toyota Red) that's not too far away from Dex, but does have one ingredient change that Toyota didn't like, or something like that.
Personally, I'm not going to think too hard about coolants. If I hadn't had issues while running Dexcool in the truck, I'd still use it. Given that it's not a closed system, and still has a leaky intake manifold gasket (it leaks to the outside, so my oil is fine), I'll run an easy to find 5 year coolant that I can buy on sale. In the Saturn, I bought Prestone's Dexcool, as I can see no problems with that cooling system. It's a super small system.... only 7 quarts, so the cost is nil. I changed it when I changed, what was probably the original thermostat (19 years old).
I don't specifically blame Dexcool for the cooling system problems in my truck, but I think it could have been a contributing factor.