What coolant do you use?

lalojamesliz1

New member
Right now I have toyota 50/50 but my coolant resovir keeps filling with rust powder and dirty coolant. The guy that had my car told me he did several coolant flushes but it kept rusting up. It has a mishimoto rad and the coolant inside looks clean.
I'm gathering everything I can think of since I'm taking out the engine and everything needs to be drained.
 
I don't understand your post. You said your coolant keeps filling up with rust powder and dirty coolant, yet you said your Mishimoto radiator has clean coolant inside. That doesn't make any sense.

Describe the "rust powder" that is in the coolant. Powder, by definition, is a collection of fine dry particles - doesn't fit will with being in a liquid (coolant).

Is your coolant looking like a chocolatey brown color collecting at the radiator filler neck, but below it, the coolant looks generally clear and clean?
 

lalojamesliz1

New member
93celicaconv":3evu17l6 said:
I don't understand your post. You said your coolant keeps filling up with rust powder and dirty coolant, yet you said your Mishimoto radiator has clean coolant inside. That doesn't make any sense.

Describe the "rust powder" that is in the coolant. Powder, by definition, is a collection of fine dry particles - doesn't fit will with being in a liquid (coolant).

Is your coolant looking like a chocolatey brown color collecting at the radiator filler neck, but below it, the coolant looks generally clear and clean?

Yeah I see what you mean. In the radiator, the fluid looks a little dirty..... in the resovoir the fluid looks much worse but I think that's because the rust/powder settles on the bottom but with the car moving it must mix up. It's not the oem resovoir and it just sits next to my air filter box. when I got the car back it didn't even have one because the previous owner took it out. I'm guessing the lack of space because of the mishimoto rad.
I clean it out once every few weeks and it has a small pile of rust powder on the inside bottom . I'm just looking for a coolant that would keep my engine from rusting if possible. Or is this a constant issue because of the badass 3s-gte iron block!!? :D
 
What color is the rust powder? When you touch it, does it feel like it is made up of a lot of metal particles, or does it feel slippery? If you put it into a bowl of water, what does it do? Does it mix and thin out, or does it stay together as in a glob of stuff?
 

lalojamesliz1

New member
93celicaconv":3e401juv said:
What color is the rust powder? When you touch it, does it feel like it is made up of a lot of metal particles, or does it feel slippery? If you put it into a bowl of water, what does it do? Does it mix and thin out, or does it stay together as in a glob of stuff?

Sorry for the late reply, I was making space in my garage for the engine removal for my all-trac and lost trac of time.
I haven't touched the stuff, I usually spray in the resovoir I have with a water hose until it washes away. It dissolves away with the water hitting it.
 

FC Zach

Active member
lalojamesliz1":16u9wz24 said:
What coolant do you use?

It seems that many (from what I've gathered in the past) will argue that only Toyota fluid should be used but I use readily available fluid from almost any store like Prestone which says on the bottle: "guaranteed for all vehicles".
 
I'm just wondering if the issue with the "rusty powder in the coolant" is being mistaken for rust when it is really oil getting into the cooling system. Because the overflow bottle gets a lot of it (a typical collection area for the oily mix), it leads me in that direction. Actual iron-oxide (rust) is heavier than water/coolant, so it won't typically go to the top of the radiator and get pushed into the overflow bottle when the engine is warming up. Oil mixing with coolant does exactly that. Hence, I'm wondering if there isn't a head gasket issue with this ST185.
 

crackerjack

New member
^^^
My thoughts exactly. IF you go to Toyota, you can buy long life coolant or extra long life coolant.
The long life coolant is equal to your prestone long life coolant which is 5 years.
Honda is pinkish color and the exact same thing.

The garden variety stuff is green and you don't want to mix them up. If you do, then its 2 years instead of 5.
My thoughts are stick with one color/brand and use it for 5 years and change it. you are better than the
average drivers out there that don't change their coolant for like 10 years.
 
lalojamesliz1":31zhpwbx said:
It has toyota coolant right now. Less than 1000 miles on it

If you aren't sure, take as much of a sample of what you call "rust powder" to a good mechanic shop and explain where you got the sample from. While you feedback so far is not perfectly aligned, I'm 95% sure what you have is a situation where motor oil is getting into you cooling system. If this is the case, your next step is to have the mechanic isolate the source. Knowing the source will bring to light what the fix is, and what the cost of that fix will be. I'm thinking your source is a blown head gasket. This can be confirmed by testing for the presence of dissolved combustion gases in the coolant (in addition to the oily solution that comes to the top of the radiator and into the overflow bottle).
 
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