I suspect that you would have thrown out the remarks regardless of whether the stuff worked....... I used the pour and go product. They also make a mechanic use product that requires you to flush or drain the system after you "seal" the cooling system. I suspect that had I drained the coolant after the treatment I may not have had the clogging issue (the drain is not required or recommended with the pour and go) It did allow me to drive and I only have a slight residue build up along the head/block seam on the driver's side rear corner. In hindsight, I would have just had the head gasket fixed, at the time I wasn't sure on the extent of the problem, ie head gasket, slipped sleeve, etc.

The BG stuff was ugly going in and was ugly when I opened the radiator tank, whew. Good luck, hope this helps. Phil

 

It does not help that you mixed that stuff with Dex-Cool which is not compatible with anything, not even air.

http://www.sancarlosradiator.com/dex-cool.htm

Check out the pictures page.

 

Yeah probably

 

Thanks for saving me 60$

Im starting to believe all this stuff about dexcool.

When I had my old truck, I bought it with 200,000. Before I knew ANYTHING about trucks, I drained the radiator fluid and put in dexcool. I also noticed a bunch of sparkly stuff in the old fluid. Well after driving around with dexcool for a couple thousand miles I found out. It was head gasket fix. And it held up for about 16,000 miles or right untill I put in dexcool. I guess the dexcool ate the stuff.

 

Blue Devil works, doesn't work, works, doesn't work, works, doesn't work...

What I'd like to see is a little science applied. It seems that in ALL the cases that it failed, Blue Devil was added to Dexcool and there was some chemical reaction with the fluid that caused it to turn into goop inside the radiator and plug everything up.

In cases where it worked, the owner drained the coolant and did the procedure with plain water. Can anyone prove me wrong?

I've got a Disco 2 and have two choices: Park it or add the bottle. I should have considered my free time when I bought the vehicle with 120k. I don't mind working on it, I just don't have the time and experience to make it worthwhile, and I can't afford the mechanic. It is what it is.

D2 runs fine, no white exhaust or foam in oil, but I have to refill coolant every week. I cleaned up the block and found the main leak: head gasket on lefthand side towards rear of engine. My current plan is to use Blue Devil after completely flushing the Dexcool and replacing with water.

When I am done with the treatment I'll put in something other than Dexcool due to all the negative reports I'm getting about it.

 

I think these types of products should always be seen as bandaids. If I started noticing a small headgasket leak right now, I'd do the BlueDevil method, because I'm replacing my engine soon and will be replacing the radiator with it. However I know that it would be a two to three month fix only.

 

Now that I'm holding the Blue Devil Head Gasket Sealer (with yellow label), it clearly says to flush all coolant and to use with pure water. Maybe the can didn't always say this, but it does now.

But it also says the engine must be cold. That made me wonder...
If I pour it into the overflow tank, by the time it mixes with the engine coolant it will be piping hot. So I looked on the Blue Devil website and found this :BlueDevil Pro says:
May 12, 2014 at 3:51 pmIf your vehicle has a reservoir/overflow rather than a radiator cap, instead of pouring it through the reservoir/overflow, with the car off and engine cold, you may add the product through the top radiator hose. Once it has been added reconnect the hose and start the idle from that point.

So that is my plan. I'll post back.

 

So, this was a comedy of errors, but even so, it worked and fixed my leak and the engine temps are on target. Here's how it went down :

• Drained Dexcool and flushed with the garden hose.
• Added a can of Blue Devil Radiator Flush
• Drove around for a couple days
• Drained and flushed with the garden hose.
• Removed the thermostat and tried to drill holes through the metal part. (Instructions say to remove the thermostat for the treatment) Wasn't working and at most I got a quarter inch hole in it. So I checked the forums and found someone recommended using a PVC Tee fitting. So I did, with hose clamps. (Error #1. PVC starts to melt at 140°C) There wasn't much to grab onto with the hose and clamp, but I had them pretty tight.

In the morning when the engine was cold:

• Poured the Blue Devil Head Gasket Sealer into the empty engine through the overflow tank, then filled the rest of the way with water till it started coming out of the bleeder valve.
• Started Rover idling for 45 minutes

FORGOT to turn heater on full blast as instructions say. Waited a few minutes, then went up to my office where I could work and still keep an eye on it. At about 25-30 minutes in I noticed something was wrong. Maybe I heard it, but I went running down to see the hose popped off and the Blue Devil mix sprayed all over the engine. I shut it off and as the clock was ticking I was frantically trying to reconnect the hose. Filled with water, started it and it popped off the PVC Tee almost immediately. That is when I noticed the Tee was partially melted. Said, the heck with this, and put the drilled out thermostat in place of the PVC fitting, filled with water, started it and let it idle for another 30 minutes. So I really only had a good 25 minutes of the quart of Blue Devil circulating at full strength and another 30 minutes when quite diluted.

• Drained and flushed radiator with water even though the instructions say you can leave it in. I didn't want Blue Devil mixing with any Dexcool in case there was any residual coolant in the system.
• Installed new thermostat
• Filled with Prestone coolant (green stuff) 50/50

I drove while monitoring temp using the Bluetooth ODBC module and my Android phone. The temp stayed in the 208°F 98°C range. Unfortunately I didn't keep track before so I didn't know if it was good or bad. Read on a forum that this is in range.

• Checked the coolant after about 30 minutes of driving, it was low. I was hoping this was just filling up the system since I didn't bleed it thoroughly.
• 3 days later, checked again and the reservoir was completely full. Head gasket leak is fixed!!

I'm surprised it worked, given that I didn't get the full treatment, but I guess it was enough. First time in 1 1/2 years I pop the hood and see coolant completely full.

Lessons learned :
Use Blue Devil Head Gasket Sealer only with all Dexcool drained from system and flushed well
Don't use PVC Tee to bypass the thermostat, figure something else out.
​​​​​​​Don't use any product, Blue Devil or other, that mixes with the coolant. You are asking for trouble.

 

Way to bring an old thread up from the dead.. lol and definitely added some good info Thanks even tho I will never use it but if in a bind stuck somewhere its good to know you can get home

 

When I bought my truck, it had a minor leak from the driver's side head gasket. I added the Barr's Leaks Tablets, and it has not leaked since. It's been 5 years and ~40k miles since then, including two pretty good overheats when a pulley and water pump failed on the interstate.