Just finished up timing belt/water pump and spent some time searching on what coolant to use and I couldn't really find a consensous! The 4R now has 122K. I bought it with 101K back in July and got no service records.
So...I got a simple question......I drained the radiator and it appears that I got about 2 1/2 gallons out of it and the stuff that came out was yellowish/green. Does this constitute a good enough flush to change to long life coolant? Or should I stay with regular yellow bottle Prestone?
Thanks!

 

I was always told to use the red dex-cool or the toyota red. But yes, do a flush. 2 gallons of distilled or so should do the trick.

 

Take out the thermostat just temporarily and flush the entire system with a garden hose until it come out clear. Then switch over to a long life coolant like Dexcool, Zerex (yellow) or Toyota red. Don't forget to flush the heater hoses too.

 

I would avoid Dexcool at all cost... that stuff is soo soo hard on cooling systems... Use the OE toyota long life red, if that is not a good option go with normal green antifreeze...

 

Im a huuge fan of the Red stuff myself. Thats all i use. I even keep it in a 1liter bottle already mixed incase i need it

 

So what is it about the Dexcool, that is supposedly so bad?.

I've used it for the last 80,000 miles. No problems at all.

If I take off the radiator cap, when the engine is cool, the radiator is spotless. Same with the overflow reservoir.

I've heard of problems in GM motors, but I believe that's just due to poor materials and seal designs on the GM motors.

 

That is a ton of info.... I've only put a 1000 miles on my engine since I went to dex-cool. Guess I will look into toyota red for this summer.

 

long but