Now that volvo antifreeze if very pricy I'm looking for a substitute. Has anyone had experience with Dexcool anitfreeze. Since it is phosphate free is it the same as the Volvo stuff which also claims to be phosphate free.

I have Dexcool in four Volvos up to ten years old and it has performed flawlessly. The only advice I have is identical to Paul's: make sure you flush ALL the old coolant out. Remove your thermostat and open your heater to "hot". Clean out your expansion tank to the best of your ability (it is usually full of sediment.) Your block, BTW, has two drains (front and rear) but if you want to use only the radiator hose, then flush a number of times with, first, tap water and then distilled water. Texaco recommends that if you are replacing coolant, you not leave the Dexcool in for five years but flush again at the two year point.

Use distilled water as the water fill.

Without going deep I think Dexcool is better than Volvo coolant, and indeed is a much better bargain. It certainly lasts longer than Volvo coolant and has less tendency to go acid than reg. coolants.

Indeed make sure you get every last bit of the old coolant out. In fact when I change my cars over, I find it a good time to replace hoses, thermostat, I even like to put a new water pump, goose neck, and other new bits on the older beasts that are all deposited up. Be sure to purposely reverse flush the heater core, block, radiator, turbo cooling lines etc. It's not that the Dexcool is incompatible, it's just that some of the longer life benifits are negated by mixing with regular coolant.

Richard,

I'm not sure just what the make up of Volvo coolant might be ... but I have used Dexcool, sometimes refered to as the "orange stuff", in all my bricks for years. I've run it in my 86 245DL for four years ... with no problems. In fact I've not had the kind of water pump failures I used to get when using a dissovled solids coolant like stand Prestone. Used to have the seals on the pump go out every 50k like clock work. I've had nothing but good luck using Dex ... in fact just replace the coolant in my 87 745T project car as one of the first steps toward bringing back to life. I don't think you'd go wrong with Dexcool ... just flush your system well before installing it. I mix my coolant 50/50 using Dex and distilled water. The tap water here is loaded with mineral. My$.02

Thanks for the feedback I'm headed out to buy some.