Antifreeze color

[Whosondephone]

During one of the coldest days last year my radiator hose popped off. I was right next to a gass station thankfully however they only had orange antifreeze. I left that in for the winter. During the summer I began flushing/running the system with just water with because the head gasket leaks. I do not notice any additional problems using the orange antifreeze. Should I fill my system with orange antifreeze? Or should I go out and get some green. Should I not run on water in the summer?

My understanding is that Orange is used for GM. My limited research shows that there certainly are differences in chemicals used in green vs Orange. I'm not sure if that matters.

[Pretty much broke]

Green is best, if you used the dexcool junk it really isn't good for cars in general. And if your car has a headgasket leak as is I wouldn't recommend anything but green. And running straight water isn't good either, antifreeze has chemicals that prevent rusting / corrosion that straight water obviously doesn't. So my advice, flush the system fully, and get some green.

[gadget73]

use the green. Its cheaper, and it works better. Feel free to look into the problems related to Dexcool in GM vehicles. trust me, you don't want that garbage in your motor. Also, straight water is a terrible thing for a cooling system. No anti-corrosives and no water pump lube. You'll crap it up very quickly doing that. If you've got problems with the head gasket leaking and getting exhaust into the cooling system, you need to fix that.