Napa Green Antifreeze ok? 1997 Viper…

[Suregrip391]

Hi guys. Is the Napa green antifreeze concentrate ok to use in our cars? The bottle says 1990 and earlier Chrysler. Id like to stay with green instead of worrying about flushing all the old stuff out and switching to a different color type. Thoughts? Thank you.

 

[Bonkers]

Its been a long time since i dealt with coolant,
and im currently on the road right now so
take this reply with a grain of salt...

It will be okay, but you really should flush the
system and switch to the Mopar Orange/Pink. The
Green will attack the aluminum in the block over
time. If you want to stick with green though, id
recommend Peak Global instead. Tom F/L has a
great write up somewhere on here where his lab
did a comparison and the Peak was the least
reactive to the system.

(Im using 68051212AC on both Viper motors now)

 

[Richard S]

My 2 cents.. I've been using the original green in all my vehicles for years and years (except in my Asian cars - I'll use Asian green). It can be a hard to find. NAPA is one place.

I think the key here is that the green is fine in nearly all applications IF you drain and replace it at least every other year, or sooner.. well before it begins to "break down".

These new fangled coolants are supposedly designed to last up to 100k miles before needing replacement. Manufacturers also stupidly recommend oil changes at 9k+ miles, too. If you drive a Chevy 5.3L you already know what I mean .. you better change it every 3-4k miles or clacking lifters are in your future.

I used to trust the manufacturer's marketing hype about a lot of this stuff.. not anymore.. best to "overly" maintain your vehicle, if you really care. And change out EVERY fluid used throughout your car periodically and spray everything electrical with WD40. It makes a HUGE difference.

Never mix two different colors/types of coolants or you'll be very sorry when it turns into a destructive mess.

I dig the original green stuff. Have the future flush dates on my to do list.

 

[lane_viper]

I think its recommended to use Mopar Orange.

After a lot of research, my 96 has run Dex Cool for the last 5 years. It get changed out every other year, and is cheap and readily available.
Dex Cool seems to be GM's version of Mopar Orange.

The corrosion possibility has scared me away from Green in anything.

my .02

 

[Chris Charleston]

Definitely GREEN in a 97, replaced my original green with new green in 2020. 2001 R/T 10 Good luck, Chris

 

[PovertyPony]

You guys already hit on some of the important points on this one. The plain jane "green" coolant is ok, but usually for about 2 years. It also lacks a lot of the additives that are much more important with an aluminum engine. I would opt for your ELC of your choice. Personally I run Zerex G-05 in a lot of my stuff, including my aluminum race engines, as it meets the standard for some of the older Motorcraft "gold" and Mopar "red" types.

 

[InTheZoneAC]

not a viper owner, but I've been using evans coolant in my cars since I became aware of this. Basically its a pressureless system so in theory it minimizes any engine/coolant related problems (blown hoses/radiators, warping, boiling over, etc). Ran this on my turbo civic, and still use this on my s2000 and rsx. As far as I can tell it's non-corrosive and they advertise you never have to change it. If I ever get a viper I'll surely do the same swap, but you have to flush out all the old water/coolant for evans to function like it should.

Hopefully I dont jinx myself but I've yet to have a headgasket, water pump, or radiator hose fail while using this in any of my 3 vehicles. I'd run silicone hoses and aluminum radiators anyway just to get those benefits of long term reliability regardless of coolant.

 

[lane_viper]

Ran this on my turbo civic, and still use this on my s2000 and rsx.

Nice to see a fellow S2k owner and Viper lover!