I was planning on flushing my cooling system soon. Is it safe to use regular coolant(non H.O.A.T) if I add the Fleetgaurd DCA-4?

 

I don't recommend this at all. Prior to being specified by Chrysler and Ford in 2001 and 2002 respectively, each manufacturer peformed extensive coolant studies. The results of these performance studies concluded that G-05 as the best coolant available.

The consequences related to the use of non-approved "universal" coolants may not arise immediately, but may occur over longer periods of time due to additive compatibility issues. I recommend you use a HOAT formulation such as Zerex G-05 and distilled water to perform the flush and fill. Here is a link provided by AH64ID that you may find helpful.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...=COOLANT+FLUSH

 

If you can get 100% of the HOAT out, then run what ever you like except for DexCool "Death". Personally I would like to go back to the old school Toyota red anti-freeze. The old Toyota's with the 20R or 22R engines had an aluminum head, steel block and copper radiator. I have seen many many pics of properly maintained Toyota cooling systems with hundreds of thousands of miles and the radiator still looked brand new inside.

 

Like NavyDood said, if you are certain you can get 100% of the HOAT out then go for it... otherwise stick with HOAT, its good coolant.

It's not easy to get 100% of the HOAT out, as you can see in the link Dr Dizzle posted.

 

Isn't the factory fill in all Chrysler vehicles dex-cool?

Nevermind... Dex-cool is OAT...

 

DexCool is a GM standard. I have heard that their new formulation is light years ahead of their old Dexdeath.

 

Dex-cool in my experiance was always very good on a properly operating cooling system. Introduce a little air, contamination, or don't service it properly and it turns into a killer. I have seen it attack the cylinder heads on the duramax to the point there won't be any meterial left for the injector cups to seat. But I have seen other coolants with the same type of corrosion. I think that dex-cool just kills a little faster once there is a problem.


Fords gold coolant is HOAT based and I really like it. For some reason it is much easier to come buy around these parts than the Zerex. I can get it cheaper too!