Dexcool eats gaskets?
 

i was in class today and my teacher told me that dexcool eats away gaskets. not to be stupid, but is this the reason y the upper manifold leaks? would flushing the dexcool and going to the normal green stuff solve this problem?

No, the upper intake manifold failiure pertains to the manifold itself, its plastic.
Secondly many people have been running dex from the factory with no problems at all, its a very good coolant, just dont mix it with the green stuff, or you've wasted your money. If it came with green from the factory, keep it geen...vice versa. Dex-Cool has different properties, it doesn't break down as fast as standard Gylcol based coolant.
As far as it eating gaskets..i could see that if you let it go for a long time and the PH was way off balance.

Dexcool has been known to be harsh on OEM gaskets, at least more so than standard glycol (green) based coolants.

A dexcool equipped car is more likely to see lower intake manifold gaskets fail than a 'green' coolant car. Newer gasket materials and factory updates may level the playing field somewhat.

This is why converting from one to the other is so dangerous. Deposits left by one may be broken down by another.

There was a class action lawsuit against dex-cool because of its gasket eating nature. Dad and I replaced the LIM gaskets on his 98 Chevy in 2003.

I feel that Dex is somewhat responseable for early gasket failures...

But, GM seems to be going to a newer generation of redesigned gaskets to help this problem...

If memory serves you can actually get a Fel-Pro set that would be the second generation, If you are going to use Fel-Pro I reccomend the 2nd generation...

If you are not going to use Dex Cool, I highly reccomend Prestone Longlife( Orange, and compatible with Dex Cool)... I have used the stuff in other cars with great results...

As for the Upper intake, green, red or orange will not matter, the upper gaskets, and upper intake will still fail in the same manner... Heat being the #1 issues for the plastic...

Bill and I have chatted about this before, and it does seem that the Dex Eats the lower gaskets a bit quicker than the green.. ;)

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The 2nd Gen FelPro gaskets Don mentioned do appear to be a different material, and even a slightly different design. Much improved for either the green or orange coolant.

We've long suspected but never verified that FelPro makes the OEM AC Delco gaskets.

Still wondering myself... Boosty went to the parts store and later asked me if he should get the 1st design or 2nd design.... I told him it would most likely be better to get the second design.... And what do you, they looked like the GM gaskets with the exception of the color... If memore serves both L36 and L67 use the same lower gaskets... Even the gaskets for my L36 had the cut areas for the injectors on the L67 engine... I guess they made a generic gasket for both... Smart move ;)

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The 2nd design lowers looked great. They apparently put alot of time and research into them.