After a few weeks and 4 cooling system flushes, I resolved the problem. I've done some research and found that that orange
DEX-COOL coolant is SHIT! If you get a leak and don't notice it for a while, the coolant WILL degrade and turn into what looks like puree'd coffee grounds or basically mud!
Here's a link to what I found out about
DEX-COOL and it's many PROBLEMS.
(link --->)
Dex-cool Contamination
Apparently, this stuff will break down after 5 years OR 100,000 miles.
In order to NOT void any current vehicle warranties, they recommend you replace your coolant every 2 years!
Direct Quote from link above:
General Motors introduced Dex-Cool to certain lines of vehicles in 1996. Since it was formulated without the addition of silicates (the corrosion inhibitors in green antifreeze) a different corrosion inhibitor strategy was needed. Organic Acid Technology or OAT is the inhibitor part of DEX-COOL. Unfortunately, the DEX-COOL is capable a rather nasty breakdown. The residue it leaves behind is very sticky, and likes to find areas in the engine and other areas to "drop out" or "fall out " of solution and stick to the wall surface of engine and radiator. If the residue is in the radiator, hoses, or recovery bottle, it's relatively easy to clean and remove the debris. When the residue is in the heads and block, only a chemical flush will remove this orange mud. In some cases, the orange mud hardens, and seems to expand or push the gasketed surfaces out of position, causing leaks.
As a side note, I also read that
DEX-COOL doesn't play well with tap water. Instead, you need to dilute it with
DISTILLED WATER ONLY.
To clean out the "MUD", I looked online to see what other people did. What you need to do is use a very weak acid, to break up the solid contaminants in your cooling system. I read that OXALIC ACID works really well. OXALIC ACID is commonly found as WOOD BLEACH. I called around and found some WOOD BLEACH at my local Ace Hardware. Neither the local Sherman-Williams or Home Depot had WOOD BLEACH in stock. Another thing you could use is VINEGAR. The WOOD BLEACH was $9.99 at Ace Hardware in McHenry, IL.. 2 gallons of VINEGAR was under 7.00 at the local IGA, Jewel and Meijer.
To dissolve the WOOD BLEACH, you need to add it to hot or very warm water. If you buy VINEGAR, you just add it into your radiator when it is cooled off.
However, my heater core was completely blocked and I had NO HEAT in my 2000 V6 Firebird. When I looked into the heater hoses, both the outgoing and return hoses were caked with mud. Figured it would work, I used a garden hose to try to push all the gunk out. It sort of worked, but not really well. I managed to bet a semi-solid, worm-like plug to ooze out of the heater core return hose. However, I was squirting water all over creation and when the hose slipped, water shot back out of the hose I was trying to pump it into. When I went against the normal flow, a brownish, chunky liquid started to come out of the other end.
I thought that was kind of odd, but at least some crud was coming out. As a result of the first flush, it looked like someone from Starbuck's had a full garbage can of coffee grounds and spilled them under my car. After the car was cooled down for several hours, I removed every hose and flushed out the entire system with water...reservoir and all.
I did the WOOD BLEACH flush and drove the car for a few driving hours. When I went to remove the hoses again and do another thorough flush, I was amazed that the rubber hoses looked really clean inside and the radiator was cleaner looking. I repeated the flush and draining of the system 2 more times...each time the system was looking cleaner and cleaner. The heat was still marginal at best, but every time I hooked the garden hose up to it, more gunk would flow out.
Yesterday, I did another flush. The radiator was immaculate inside.
I wound up running out of Oxalic Acid (a.k.a. WOOD BLEACH), but was told VINEGAR works just as well. It did work, but I think the WOOD BLEACH dissolved the gunk up better. The VINEGAR only emulsified it a little bit and caused it to come off the inside of the engine bits and want to float on top of the fluid. If you only have VINEGAR, then that will work, but the WOOD BLEACH worked better and quicker.
Moral of the story:
1). CHECK YOUR ANTIFREEZE!
2). If you have
DEX-COOL in your vehicle...CHANGE IT!
3). If you have what looks like brown mud inside of your radiator, OXALIC ACID will work well to clean it out.
*
* = I read you should drive the car for about 3 hours and then flush it out. I did this seven times over the course of a few weeks. My heater blows warm, so I know there is still more "mud" floating around inside of the engine. Still, a little heat is better than NO heat!
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