What green coolant should I use for Opel Corsa from 1990?

XCHCUI

MEMBER
1990 OPEL CORSA
1.4L
4 CYL
FWD
MANUAL
240,000 MILES

I, recently, found out that all the green coolants in the market(included the one that I used while I thought it is regular traditional green coolant)are not the old stuff that I once know, with high silicate inhibitors but base on OAT.
I mean, I saw that all the green coolants base on OAT while some have 2-eha inhibitor some have sebecate, benzoate and etc.
The issue is that this new oat formulation suppose to be compatible with the new engine component but I don't know if it is ok with my old car.
Opel corsa 1.4L year 1990 has cast-iron engine-block and light-alloy head-cylinder.
Is it safe to use those new OAT green coolant(not dex-cool)in my car?(AC-DELCO green coolant, PRESTONE green coolant?)Without be worry that it will damage(like I read on the net, but related to gm dex-cool)the gaskets and etc?

3 Replies

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,700 POSTS

Dex cool is a beast all by itself. You can't mix regular prestone with it. However, your car didn't come with dex cool. What I would recommend is this. Since we are not sure what was in your vehicle, I would drain, flush and refill the cooling system with the proper coolant that the vehicle calls for.

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Tuesday, November 26th, 2013 AT 6:39 AM

XCHCUI

MEMBER
91 POSTS

My car was built to work and was filled with green old coolant since 1990 (there wasn't OAT in the market)but now all the green coolants contain OAT inhibitors(or combined with inorganic inhibitors)so the old stuff is gone. You Said that the dex-cool is a beast all by itself and while my question is related only to the green coolants, I see that all the green coolants contain, more or less, the same OAT as the dex-cool(2-EHA, sebecate, benzoate and etc.)
So my question was:Is it safe to use those new oat based GREEN coolant(NOT THE DEX-COOL ONES)in my car? Without be worry that it will be damaged by the organic inhibitors(like damage to the head gaskets, manifold gasket seals and etc.)

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Tuesday, November 26th, 2013 AT 10:32 PM

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,700 POSTS

I'm not sure what you are buying. However, they make a universal coolant now that is safe to use with ALL coolants. That is what I would recommend you use.

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Wednesday, November 27th, 2013 AT 6:18 AM