Testing Blue Antifreeze

[subsince77]

I just added some concentrate to lower the freeze point of the antifreeze in the 09 Outback. This is the blue stuff. Will my old antifreeze tester work with this stuff? It is just a regular old suck up a bulb full and read the numbers type tester.

 

Thanks

[ShawnW]

I don't think it will. Those are for polypropylene glycol and the blue I believe is Ethylene glycol. You also probably know these don't mix well (gel).

 

I don't believe that Subaru would ship a car that isn't ready for your temps. Did you check the owners manual or with a dealer to see what the blue is rated to? I am not near a jug of it right now but I will be tomorrow.

[bheinen74]

its preferred not to cross-mix different styles of coolant, and we all know how critical it is to the ej25 to not take chances on cooling system/HG.

[rverdoold]

I replaced all the coolant. You can not mix them well. Standard these cars are shipped for -38 C (about -36 F). So that should be fine. I changed it to -55 C (-67 F) because it can get cold in Scandinavia in winter. I mixed pure blue stuff with distilled water, I aimed for -45 but got mixing somewhat higher. I tested it at work in -80 C freezer and it got slushy at -70 but never got crystals.

[subsince77]

Uh, I'm not mixing different kinds of anti-freeze. The car comes with a 50/50 mix of the blue super coolant. Subaru says that goes to -34, the same as a 50/50 mix of regular anti-freeze. We frequently get colder than that, so everyone here runs about 60% to 65%.

 

To do that, you buy the blue super coolant concentrate in quart bottles, and up your mix. I was told by the dealer to use 1 qt., but the dealer lives where it never gets cold, and doesn't know much about it. There is a chart on the back of the concentrate that tells you how to lower the freeze point to -62 - quite a bit more than I need. It says to add .8 qts to a 4 gallon system, 1.4 qts to a 7 gallon system.

 

According to my book, my system takes 6.7 gallons. The dealer said to add one quart, so I did. I'm sure I'm covered for cold, I hope it still cools in the summer running up passes at 90 degrees. I would just like to be able to test it. So my question is, will the tester I have work. I guess I will see if a parts store has a tester for this kind of AF. No one seems to know much about it here where I live.

[rverdoold]

I had no troubles climbing 8500 feet mountain pass at 12% increase in 90 F with the mixture i described earlier.

[bheinen74]

Wow, i dont think you have the correct amounts it is for sure unlikley it is 6.7 gallons. The most i have ever drained and refilled in a subaru is like 1.4 gallons or therabouts..........

 

if your book says 6.7 gallons, i am pretty certain it means 6.7 qts.... and you just added way to much if you added a qt of the stuff.

 

does you book also say oil capacity is 4 gallons? i think they did conversion incorrectly.

Edited September 30, 2011 by bheinen74

[subsince77]

That's what I get for writing while still on my first cup of coffee. Yes, it holds 6.7 qts. The bottle of concentrate says to add .8 qts of concentrate to a 4 qt. System, and 1.4 qts to a 7 qt. system. Anyway. I added 1 qt. I'm not really concerned about having screwed anything up, just wondering about testers. Maybe Shawn will find something out. Otherwise, I'll ask around at a couple of parts stores.

[subsince77]

So after all that, I read the fine print on my antifreeze tester. It has a prestone logo on it, but it says ethylene glycol right on it. Hmmm. Been using it for years with the green stuff. Maybe they all test the same.