red coolant?

[Childsy]

I have just brought a 92 Tarago. I was told that I need to run "red" coolant in it, is there a specific coolant that I should be using or is any red coolant ok?

Cheers for the help.

[trentmeyer23]

Obviously genuine Toyota Long Life is the best option, however the Nulon Red Coolant is a good substitute. There is one crucial rule with coolant's never mix different types as some have different properties, always do a complete system flush before adding new coolant.

[Childsy]

cheers for that

[fudzi]

Obviously genuine Toyota Long Life is the best option, however the Nulon Red Coolant is a good substitute. There is one crucial rule with coolant's never mix different types as some have different properties, always do a complete system flush before adding new coolant.

Thanks for that I wasn't sure what my current coolant is but I will certainly make an effort to find out in light of that.

[JDM-GTFour]

When I got the head for my corolla shaved, the dude told me that green coolant causes aluminium heads to disintegrate..

[Hiro]

When I got the head for my corolla shaved, the dude told me that green coolant causes aluminium heads to disintegrate..

Well that's bull****, I've seen plenty of alloy heads (which is just about every engine for the last 30 years when you talk about Japanese cars) running green coolant. As long as you change the coolant regularly (like every 2 years or so) you won't have a problem with corrosion with green coolant. Red coolants are generally longer-life, but it's not like you can only use one of them in alloy engines.

[Hotbreeze]

In actual fact the Ford alloy crossflow head did get eaten out by some coolants, you had to use a specific coolant for it, ask cylinder head repairers.

Seems it use to happen to quite a few motocross bikes as well, seems they had a high magnesium content in there alloys so you had to use coolant recommended for their particular use.

Some coolants have descaling ingredients in them silica (abrasives), typically green coolant has 25% solids (silica) and red coolant has 15%.

Japanese makes tend to use phosphates not silica in their coolant.