Is Orange "Low Silicate" anti-freeze acceptable coolant in the 5.7?

As preventative maintenance, I had a local mechanic (trustworthy) do a cooling system flush. My 2016 with over 100k, I figured it was time.

My invoice says "Flush cooling system with low silicate anti-freeze, check for leaks, bleed cooling system." I notice by looking in the overflow reservoir that it's orange, and the OE stuff was pink. Am I okay or should I be concerned about corrosion and leaky seals etc?

 

Pink is the way

 

Yes, I'm aware, but the work is done. Is it at all possible that they used an acceptable substitute?

 

Orange coolant is Dexcool, which is Ethylene Glycol and so is the Toyota pink. My guess is it will be fine.

 

Since it was a flush instead of a drain and fill, I would imagine all of the Toyota pink is gone so there's no mixed fluids in there. Shouldn't have any issues. Especially since it was done by trustworthy local mechanic rather than some kid working a shop that guesses on what they're doing.

 

Probably fine but id be more concerned that he didn't use the proper fluid and why.

 

Probably just all he had instead of running out and getting the pink.

 

Since nothing is simple anymore anti-freeze has differing "standards" just like oil. If ya can get a hold of the container he filled it with just make sure the standard's for Toyota are compatible.

 

I don't know how true this is but I thought silica was put in coolant to help reduce rust and scale in cast iron heads and blocks. Water pumps used a ceramic seal on the input shaft since the silica would wear away the rubber seal.

 

The 5.7L is aluminum.

 

I’d be concerned based on this - I didn’t add the highlighting - what comes right after the highlighted portion is the concerning part.

 

My point exactly. I know fellow Honda motorcycle owners that used a coolant which contained silicates and suffered water pump seal failures.

 

Okay guys, take a look at this. Maybe I was wrong? In the radiator and reservoir, the coolant does appear orange. But when I draw it out into an antifreeze tester, it clearly is pink. The only thing is that it's a light pink vs. the bright, hot pink of the Toyota Long Life that was in there before.

What do you think?

 

The fluid in your radiator is definitely orange, maybe its an optical illusion with the fluid being sandwiched between the plastic and having the red arrow in there.

 

I thought you knew the product he used. That coolant looks nasty already… maybe just the color but definitely not the coolant that is supposed to be in there.

 

I only know what it says on the invoice: "Low silicate anti-freeze"

 

It’s cloudy / rusty looking to me. It’s possible when they did it, they simply drained the old and filled with new without flushing and the two mixed together look that way. Looks like it tested out.

 

It appears rusty to me as well in the radiator pic giving it the orange coloration.

 

For comparison sake - here is what the pink stuff looks like - I changed mine out 30k miles ago.